Word of Mouth

I don’t want to let this blog languish, so I’ll try a short post.

First, the state of my practice is not where I would like it to be. I am finding getting corporate clients to be more challenging that I thought and, frankly, I am a little depressed over the lack of progress I have made (at least as measured by dollars of income earned and paid) so far. On the estate planning practice, I really have yet to kick the doors off that part of my strategy (not really sure if that is the right phrase but I like the way it sounds), in that I have been keeping that part of my practice in the garage but have not yet aggressively gone after it. That I plan to change soon. I’ll admit to being a little apprehensive about saying “I practice this area of law” or “I offer these services” when I haven’t actually done it! This is what I call a chicken-and-egg-issue. The great thing about being a solo, however, is that you can always start the next day with a fresh start. You have got to take the attitude of a marathon runner, keep at it, step by step, make forward progress each day, eye on the prize (and what a prize it is!)

Second, focus on word of mouth referrals. If you have a solo law business plan (perhaps it is all in your head which is fine), and there is a section of that business plan that covers how clients are going to find you I would focus exclusively on word of mouth referrals and do not expect to get much from advertising (Internet or otherwise). The cake is going to come from other lawyers, professionals that work with the same client base, and getting out and giving presentations in the area anything from the Internet will be icing. I met with a former classmate that started his own financial advisory services firm a few years ago and he said if he had it to do over again he would not have “wasted” so much time on the web site and putting together fancy marketing materials. . “its all a word of mouth game”.

Third, should you offer a free initial consultation? I am hearing more people say that this is not the way to go, it can be a waste of time etc. This includes one solo (now 2 years into her practice) and a more established small firm. The guy that had my office before me also warned against putting “free consultation” in your yellow pages ad because you can not turn it off (at least if you want to honor your advertising). I am going to continue to offer free consultation on my web site for now.

Fourth, I still have not purchased engraved stationary but am getting close. So far, I have ordered packages from All State Legal; Cleveland and Stuart F. Cooper. Cleveland is the new entry in this field, I liked the materials they sent and their approach and the fact that they give pricing on their web site and in their materials. We’ll see.

Other news, I cancelled HBO (just wasn’t worth it anymore with the quality of shows, although the Wire is still for my money one of the best shows on TV); I started watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (so far so good); I also started renting the British series MI5 for use on the treadmill.

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