Building A Law Firm

This episode focuses on the corner stone of every law firm: Email Marketing. There are two parts in the marketing machine - Automation and Trust Building/Marketing/Sales. You can achieve this via Active Campaign or Aquity. The automation starts with a series of follow up emails followed by scheduling a meeting. Through an automation system, you save time, increase the response rate and earn money at the same time. I have all this scripted including the automation sequences in BLF Society. Registration only opens once a month. To learn more go to buildingalawfirm.com/society. The second section is Trust Building/Marketing/Sales. This is a weekly email that goes out to the entire email list. It is a set of pre-written emails which would allow you to take people where you exactly want to go. The goal is to educate, inspire, entertain, and sell. Remember that all the emails are available in BLF Society. Links Mentioned in the Show Building a Law Firm Website buildingalawfirm.com/society buildingalawfir

Stop being afraid. There is so much potential that is just waiting to be nurtured. We should prepare and take advantage in having the ability to orchestrate everything that people experience in our firms. Be real and straightforward in what your firm can offer and people will resonate with it. Links Mentioned in the Show Building a Law Firm Website Christopher Small knows how to start and build successful law firms. He is the owner of CMS Law Firm, a Bellevue estate planning firm, and Building a Law Firm, a site dedicated to teaching lawyers how to start a law firm.

How do you get more clients? In this episode, we talk about the 5 Elements of A 7 Figure Law Firm Marketing Plan. The important thing to remember is each of these 5 elements intertwine with each other. What makes them so great is that they build and compliment each other. Element 1: Content The only way that people can determine if you’re good is by the content you create and the relationship you build with people. Content creation is the key to help establish trust with your audience. Element 2: Networking The human touch. You must create relationships. Lawyers are not so great in keeping up with people so it is important that you create a venue where people who are referred to you can find you and learn about you. This is what content creation can do for you. Your credibility is reflected by the content you create. Tip: Do a quarterly review. Element 3: Automated Email Follow Up Sequence Start with two things: a. One for potential Clients - This would be directed to those who have asked about your servi

In this episode of the podcast we get real. Starting a law firm is hard. Just like any other business. If you think it's going to be all rainbows and roses you are kidding yourself. Even if you are leaving a firm and taking clients with you it's not going to be easy. So get used to it. And get ready for it. It's okay to admit that starting a law firm is hard. It's the truth. And that's why there are a bunch of struggling law firm owners out there. It is not an easy thing to do. If you are thinking about starting a law firm, or you're already in it and you're feeling frustrated. Don't worry. That's normal. Get used to it. Links Mentioned in the Show Building a Law Firm Website Free Starting a Law Firm Training Christopher's Instagram Account Free Building a Law Firm Facebook Group Christopher Small knows how to start and build successful law firms. He is the owner of CMS Law Firm, a Bellevue estate planning firm, and Building a Law Firm, a site dedicated to teaching lawyers how to start a law firm.

I've been talking about this in my email newsletter and in my BLF Society podcasts lately because it's been on my mind, but I wanted to dive in a little deeper to this topic here with a full blown podcast. I've been wondering for a long time whether or not lawyers should join country clubs for business. I've come to the conclusion that yes, they should, though maybe not for the reason that you think. Let me be clear, getting a tax deduction is NOT a reason to join a country club if you are a lawyer. There is only one reason you should do this or any other law firm business development activity - TO MAKE MONEY. If I were to join (and I do plan on joining) I would focus on a few specific areas: Getting business from members; Getting referrals from members; and Using the club to provide an exclusive experience for potential referral partners. The tax write off is nice, but it comes in a distant second to actually returning a profit on the investment. To get all of the details make sure you listen to the e

Too often we dwell on the past and fail to look forward at what the possibilities are and where we want to go. In this episode I break down the common pitfalls of looking backward, the one thing you may want to consider looking back for, and the true price you pay for focusing backward instead of forward. If you are starting a law firm or building your law firm this is a skill you must learn in order to succeed. Dwelling on the past is only a recipe for disaster. Links Mentioned in the Show Building a Law Firm Website Free Starting a Law Firm Training Christopher's Instagram Account Free Building a Law Firm Facebook Group Christopher Small knows how to start and build successful law firms. He is the owner of CMS Law Firm, a Bellevue estate planning firm, and Building a Law Firm, a site dedicated to teaching lawyers how to start a law firm.

Building a Law Firm exists for one reason - to help you create you first $100K or your next $100K in your law firm. Today I thought I'd share with you the two-step process to get you there. Step 1: Make the Right Plan It's not just about create A plan, it's about creating THE RIGHT plan. Here are a couple of ways to do that: Hope and Pray... Trial and Error... Copy Someone's Plan That's Already Done It... Hire Someone To Help You Make The Plan... Me? I combine a little bit of two, three, and four to make it work. The question you have to ask yourself is if speed is important. How Do You Execute The Plan? This is probably the hardest of the two steps. Okay, now you have a plan - how do you put that plan into action and actually get stuff done? Especially considering everything that jumps up in your way. Fear. Procrastination. Doubt. Life. Here's what I came up with: Pure Grit/Will/Toughness... Create A Plan of ACTION... Put Some Skin In The Game... Find Your Tribe... If you want to know a

Building a successful law firm is all about speed and attention, and managing the two against each other. What do I mean by that? Speed The ability to do things fast. The ability to be there first. Implementing even when you are scared. Pushing forward even when you're not sure of the outcome. Attention Performing as promised. Creating great work. Being right with your legal analysis. Showing up on time. Completing promises. The Push/Pull of Speed and Attention As a lawyer my guess is that most of your life is focused too much on attention and not enough on speed. How often have you gone down the rabbit hole researching a legal question? How many times have you redone your logo? How long did it take you to pick a law firm name (that wasn't your own name). As lawyers, we are taught to be risk averse, to make sure we are right. But the bottom line is, whether starting a law firm or becoming a great lawyer, speed is as important as attention. Don't forget that as you move on, and let's go out ther

Here's a short summary of what we're talking about (these are my actual notes from the episode)... 1. Just got back from Paris. 2. Launching a new training soon on Facebook - if you’re interested go to buildingalawfirm.com/facebook FREE TRAINING: "three secrets to using Facebook to actually get clients without having to be tech savvy or spend a ton of money" 3. Today’s episode is about mindset - and I thought I’d talk about this based on the experience I had while on the plane coming home. 4. Advice - stop wasting time on stuff you can’t control - look within for why you are frustrated - instead of whining and crying look for solutions - use it as a learning experience to avoid the problem in the future Christopher Small knows how to start and build successful law firms. He is the owner of CMS Law Firm, a Bellevue estate planning firm, and Building a Law Firm, a site dedicated to teaching lawyers how to start a successful law firm.

About a week ago (sorry for the delay, I've been in Paris!) I got this question from of the law firm owner listers out there: Chris, your podcast is great. Thanks so much for the information! I was wondering if you have ever thought about an episode on the actual resources you use on a day to day basis to help run your business. I'm opening the doors to my own firm June 1, and I'm trying to sort through all of the different business products I may need (Clio, ConvertKit, etc). If you've done an episode on this topic already, could you point me to which episode it was? Thanks I promised the answer, and here it is. This is everything I use in my business (at least everything I could think of). The list may seem out of order, but this is the order I discussed these things in on the show. Links Camtasia iPhone 6s Lavalier Mic Tripod iPhone Headphones Google Drive Slack Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox iTunes Libsyn Active Campaign ClickFunnels PandaDoc Insightly Google Apps Calendly SmarterQu

We've all been doing a huge disservice to our law firms, and our potential clients all at the same time. When someone comes into your world, how long do you try to talk to them before you give up? A week? A month? Ever considered following up for a year? You will (I hope) after you listen to this podcast. Enjoy! Christopher Small knows how to start and build successful law firms. He is the owner of CMS Law Firm, a Seattle estate planning firm, and Building a Law Firm, a site dedicated to teaching lawyers how to start a successful law firm.

In the Building A Law Firm Facebook group today someone asked a question about a law firm marketing seminar they'd received a direct mail piece from. They wanted to know if it was worth going too. Several people from the group chimed in. All I could think about was that it really didn't matter if they weren't willing to implement the ideas they'd learned while they were there. And that's what's behind today's podcast. A new law firm marketing course is not the answer. Christopher Small knows how to start and build successful law firms. He is the owner of CMS Law Firm, a Bellevue estate planning firm, and Building a Law Firm, a site dedicated to teaching lawyers how to start a successful law firm.

I was recently asked in the Building a Law Firm Facebook Group about when I decided it was the right time to hire my first law firm associate, and if I would use those same criteria again to decide when to hire a law firm associate now. After thinking about it for about 5 seconds I thought to myself "this would be a great topic for a podcast!" And here we are. A couple of notes here to try to get you to listen in, if you were on the fence. I talk about not just what the criteria are for hiring, but lessons learned from my first hires and how that has affected the way I'd hire a law firm associate today (here's a hint - it's going to take A LOT for me to hire a law firm associate). Enjoy the show! Christopher Small knows how to start and build successful law firms. He is the owner of CMS Law Firm, a Kirkland estate planning firm, and Building a Law Firm, a site dedicated to teaching lawyers how to start a successful law firm.

The first quarter of 2017 just ended and I wanted to share with you five lessons I learned this quarter. If you want a brief synopsis, here you go: Trust the process; Outsourcing is powerful; Things always take longer than you think; Persistence wins; Consistency wins; If you want to know what all of those actually mean, you'll have to listen in! Links Conversational Reception RedButler Upwork Christopher Small knows how to start and build successful law firms. He is the owner of CMS Law Firm, a Bellevue estate planning firm, and Building a Law Firm, a site dedicated to teaching lawyers how to start a successful law firm.

The other day my man John Skiba posted an article on Facebook that discussed the idea that the legal profession is dying. I read the article (you can read it here), thought it was a little lacking on analysis, so I thought I'd chime in. I'm not going to give you everything here, because it's all in the podcast episode, but I'll let you dine on a couple of nuggets. 1. The legal profession is and will dying in some ways. 2. Personal injury, DUI defense, and traffic ticket lawyers should be wary for one specific reason. 3. Everyone else (family law, estate planning, bankruptcy, business, etc.) should be wary for a different specific reason. 4. No matter your practice area, level of experience, or anything else, if you keep one thing in mind you will survive this. 5. If you have several very specific traits you don't have to worry about anything. If you want the whole ball of wax, you have to listen to the show! Christopher Small knows how to start and build successful law firms. He is the owner of CMS L

If you are spending a large amount (or any amount, for that matter) of your law firm marketing budget on law firm SEO, you might just be flushing your money down the toilet. It's not that SEO is dead, it's just that it's different. The way law firm SEO works now is based less on your ability to create a ton of links aimed at your site and based more on your ability to consistently create good content over a long period of time. Google algorithm updates all but killed the spammy SEO one used to be able to do, and the threat of being put in the sandbox (penalized) for using these tactics far outweighs any upside. The solution for law firm SEO is to simply create good content over a long period of time - and try to put that content in as many places as possible. For example, I create three pieces of content per week. One is purely written and two are video pieces. For the video pieces, I shoot the video, upload it to YouTube, pull out the audio and create a podcast, and then create a transcription to turn

Today we're going to talk about how to start a bankruptcy law firm step-by-step to create a six-figure law firm. It's actually a lot easier than you think. I'm not going to go through all of the details here because it will take too long, but I will summarize. Starting a Bankruptcy Law Firm Assumptions First things first, I'm assuming when talking about starting a bankruptcy law firm that you have no experience, no clients, no network, no nothing. Starting from scratch makes what I'm going to talk about easier. Second, I'm going to assume you've got at least $5,000 of capital. You need SOMETHING to get started. Third, I'm going to assume you've got 6 months of living expenses saved. If you want to know why, listen to the podcast. Fourth, and finally, I'm going to assume you're able to work 60 hours a week. I never said this would be easy! Phase 1 of Starting an Bankruptcy Law Firm - Foundation If you are starting from nothing you've got to build your foundation first. This includes things like choosing

About 6 weeks ago I hired a law firm virtual assistant. I thought it was about time to revisit how it's been going and tips and strategies I have for making your law firm virtual assistant perform the way you want. Links Red Butler Virtual Law Firm Assistants Christopher Small knows how to start and build successful law firms. He is the owner of CMS Law Firm, a Seattle estate planning firm, and Building a Law Firm, a site dedicated to teaching lawyers how to start a successful law firm.

If you are a regular listener of the podcast then last week you heard me dissect how to start an estate planning law firm. Today we're here to take it to the next step - to add $100K to your estate planning law firm. How do we do this? It's quite easy really: Raise your prices 10% Follow up more AND better Double your content creation Start a new advertising campaign Double up on what's already working That's it. It is really that easy. To get the full scoop, listen to the episode. Christopher Small knows how to start and build successful law firms. He is the owner of CMS Law Firm, a Bellevue estate planning firm, and Building a Law Firm, a site dedicated to teaching lawyers how to start a successful law firm.

Last night I was sitting at home, knowing I had something I wanted to get done to continue to build my law firm. Not only that, I wasn't actually totally put off by what I had to do. But I didn't do it. I didn't do anything. Instead, I watched the iHeart Radio Music Awards. And then I went to bed. Why did I do that? I'm in a little bit of a rut. If that's ever happened to you you know how depressing it can be. It's hard to get out sometimes. But it's way less hard for me since I implemented the strategies I outline in today's podcast episode. Links Slight Edge Deep Work Christopher Small knows how to start and build successful law firms. He is the owner of CMS Law Firm, a Seattle estate planning firm, and Building a Law Firm, a site dedicated to teaching lawyers how to start a successful law firm.