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Building vs. Growing

by with One Comment Coaching & ImplementationSystems & ProcessesTeam Building

“The tools that got you out of Egypt are not the same tools that will get you to the Promised Land.” ~ Dan Sullivan

Bigstock-wood-textured-backgrounds-in-a-54493616There is an inherent difference between what it takes to build vs. grow a business.  I see people buying into building when they need growing, and people buying into growing when they need building. In the law firm diagnostic calls I do, I see about 1% of entrepreneurs who need growth. I my personal opinion, those percentages should be more balanced, but buyers haven’t identified the status of the business prior to purchasing, so they just buy from everywhere. I can guarantee you when you call LWP, our sole commitment is to determine where attorneys stand, first and foremost, so we can determine what help they need.

When you’re in the infancy stage of your business, you need to build. Here’s what that looks like:

Building:

  1. Time/focus management
  2. Revenue Focuser
  3. Goal-setting with SMRs
  4. Project Focusers
  5. Team development, training and implementation
  6. Systems and processes
  7. Weekly cash flow tracking and reporting
  8. Lead generation and lead conversion systems
  9. Lead generation and lead conversion tracking
  10. Companywide communication skills that are consistent from initial contact to the closing of the file

Choosing just one of the above will not work long-term. Each piece is very much part of the global puzzle. In my experience, purchasing a lead-generation system is not going to be the magic bullet. Great, maybe it got your phone ringing, but if you don’t have a system to convert  those leads into paying customers, you’ll be quickly saying, “I bought that marketing guru’s X that she was guaranteeing would do A, B and C. And it didn’t. I didn’t get one person to hire me. It was garbage. She’s a crook.” Well, that statement may not be accurate; the product probably did get your phone to ring. But it wouldn’t matter without a system to process, track, follow up with and measure the lead. Where did the initial contact come from? What did we guide the client to do next? (Clients are calling for your guidance on what to do next; you must always have something to enroll them in that will give them that guidance.)

If you’re like most solopreneurs, you need to get money in the door before you can even think of purchasing a system for your client services coordinator, or putting in a time management system. “I’ll look into that after I have cash flow,” you think. So you may purchase a killer “Generate $10,000 a day in 3 easy steps” system. You generate your first $10K, but you pulled a few later nights, not realizing that the extra work is actually the “system” that it’s going to take to make the $10K a day.  Sure, this one piece of the puzzle that you purchased did produce what it promised, but at what cost? If you calculate your hourly rate, your team’s hourly rate and the possibility of shutting down other areas of your business to get this done, you would probably be horrified. (For the fun of it, email me if you would like our “what are you worth” exercise. Send me your completed exercise and I’ll lead a 30-minute analysis call to review your results. Consider it a gift.)

By now, you’re getting the picture. I have attorneys calling me daily saying, “I don’t need all that; I am just getting started and need to build my business first. I just need X.” Sadly, they come back a few months later (hopefully) or years later (more accurate) in a worse spot, with frustrated stories of how they bought this, did this program and “none of them produced what was promised.” This most often is not the complete picture.

What was missing for them was that they didn’t invest the time to lay out the big picture of what it takes to build a business. It is never one precise tool; it is very much an all-encompassing “and.” The “and” is a process that hits all areas of determining your monthly revenue goal and what it’s going to take to get there (how many appointments, what appointments are paying), time management (which days are money days, which are production days, which are project days),  lead generation, relationship management, system,  a team-centric approach to reach goal, etc. You get the point. In my experience, when your business is in the personal services industry, it is next to impossible to build a business without a widespread approach.

Building a business means implementing some or all of the items listed above. The pieces are up and running, on a consistent basis. There are not peaks and pits in your leads, referrals or paying clients. You’ve removed the revolving door at the entrance to your office for employees. Your business is systematized, with all areas automated and integrated. It is 80% team-led, freeing up the entrepreneur to spend 80% of their time in front of people (synergy referral meetings, existing and prospective client meetings and leveraged speaking events).

Once you’ve built your business, then you start to address the following growth components.

Growing

  1. Actuary referral and client statistics to create target marketing
  2. Elevation offerings for your existing clients
  3. Professional and client advisory boards
  4. Client and referral appreciation programs
  5. Team empowerment and leadership programs
  6. A  three-pronged marketing approach to double your revenue, year after year (and it’s only dependent on you as the business owner)
  7. Tri-annual practice enhancement retreats facilitated by professionals
  8. An annual maintenance program that allows you to be your own bank
  9. An internal lead system that relieves the business owner from operations, team training and law firm management
  10. Operating all areas of your business from an automated knowledge, workflow and CRM program that allows your business to be dependent on reporting and tracking instead of human familiarity
  11. A system for creating an exit strategy for a saleable practice (when you’re ready)

When you’re striving to generate monthly revenue – and that includes keeping the lights on and paying yourself each month, not taking what may be left over – you shouldn’t be in the market for a robust CRM program that will hand you leads that you can’t even follow up with. You need a building a business plan. You need such a plan when you’re striving to remove yourself from day-to-day operations because you have complete confidence that your business is systematized and generating consistent everything. You need it when you’re ready to move on to your next chapter of making certain the profit margin grows each year, but it’s not solely dependent on you to get the work done.

That is what I am most proud of with LWP: our members. So many of them had the presence to see the difference between the two; they had the patience to get through the building phase and the shrewdness to consciously move into the CONTROLLED growth phase (our motto is, do not blow everything up for the sake of growth). I am honored to be on this journey with them.  

Molly L. Hall, Co-Founder, Lawyers with Purpose, LLC, and author of Don’t Be a Yes Chick: How to Stop Babysitting Your Boss, Transform Your Job and Work with a Dream Team Without Losing Your Sanity or Your Spirit in the Process.

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Dangerous Productivity

by with No Comment Coaching & ImplementationSystems & Processes

“In today’s culture – where self-worth is tied to our net worth, and we base our worthiness on our level of productivity – spending time doing purposeless activities is rare. In fact, for many of us it sounds like an anxiety attack waiting to happen. We’ve got to get ’er done! It doesn’t matter if our job is running a multimillion-dollar company, raising a family, creating art, or finishing school; we’ve got to keep our noses to the grindstone and work!  Many of us still believe that exhaustion is a status symbol of hard work and sleep is a luxury. The result is that we are so very tired. Dangerously tired. But the truth is, we can’t handle it. We are a nation of exhausted and overstressed adults raising overscheduled children. We think accomplishments and acquisitions will bring joy and meaning, but that pursuit could be the very thing that’s keeping us so tired and afraid to slow down.”

Bigstock-Silhouette-Of-An-Exhausted-Spo-56076581The above passage is the wisdom of Brené Brown, one of, if not the, most highly referenced of today’s writers and researchers. Brené has spent the past decade studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame, and her published work is business – and life-altering. I have been studying it for the past three years and working with my business coach on incorporating much of her work into our organization.

Brené calls her syndrome “dangerously tired”; I would like to add “dangerously productive” to that diagnosis. As a follow-through, I am guilty of this. “Just finish up this marketing campaign and then I will close down for the day,” I’ll tell myself. “Muscle through, you can handle it.” “I can catch up on sleep this weekend.” There is a cost for this dangerous productivity. I see it in law firms every day. The challenge is that we trick ourselves that “it’s just this week” when the truth is that this level of muscling through becomes our norm. And if this isn’t our way of being? Then it’s almost worse, because we repeatedly beat ourselves up for not being motivated enough or not working hard enough.

The following exercise Brené rolls out in her book, titled “The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are,” was a game changer for me personally. And yes, I will be sharing it with the team this week.

STEP ONE – Create a list of specific conditions that are in place when everything feels good in your life (here’s an example of mine):

  1. Starting my day @ 5:00 a.m. with exercise
  2. Being present for & connecting with kids in a.m. before they head off for school
  3. Dedicated 1 hr. Sunday evenings for my “Rock Star Week” planning
  4. Weekly partner meeting to connect on strategic opportunities vs. operations
  5. A scheduled vacation on the horizon to keep me moving to know there is time carved out for play, rest and connection with my family & friends
  6. Operating from my written Marketing Plan with deadlines for the week
  7. Weekly accountability meeting in place for the beginning and end of the week to hold my feet to the fire to stay focused on my goals

STEP TWO – Create your To-Do List (here is one of mine):

  1. Type up notes from partner meeting
  2. Schedule calls with DH & VC
  3. Follow up emails to MO and RD
  4. Call with AM on L/T webinars
  5. Call w/RD about covering for me while I am in China

STEP THREE – Create your To-Accomplish List (Here is a sample of mine right now):

  1. Automated Enrollment Process in Infusionsoft with triggers and chains for each step of the enrollment process
  2. Meet “100 Days to Year End” goal by December 19,2014
  3. Generate 16 initial contacts per week consistently
  4. Replace myself in Operations by October 1, 2014
  5. PPT up & running and generating $22,500 in revenue by December 19, 2014

The most revolutionary part of this exercise was looking at the pieces that must be in place in order to create and traverse (not muscle through) my rock star week.  The other “AH HA” was comparing my To-Do List and my To- Accomplish List. I loathe my To-Do List. It sucks the life out of me. It’s busy work that doesn’t challenge or inspire me. I quickly realized it’s time to delegate my To-Do’s for the week and put my To-Accomplish front and center. I am going to be incorporating this exercise every week in my Sunday planning time and I am going to immediately delegate my To-Do List to allow me to focus on my To-Accomplish List.

Dangerous productivity is not a long-term plan for success, whatever success means for your business. Dangerously productive is so “old school” and has been replaced with intentional laser focus, which in turns eliminates the exhaustion as a status symbol and replaces it with joy and meaning.

Molly L. Hall, Co-Founder, Lawyers with Purpose, LLC, and author of Don’t Be a Yes Chick: How to Stop Babysitting Your Boss, Transform Your Job and Work with a Dream Team Without Losing Your Sanity or Your Spirit in the Process.

 

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Your Family, Your Community, and Your Profession

by with No Comment Systems & Processes

Your Family, Your Community, and Your PAs professionals who work with seniors and their families, we're in a unique position to serve our loved ones, our communities, and to help the brave men and women who have served our country as well.

UntitledI'm here today to tell you that we really can have it all! A thriving practice with purpose, the seemingly elusive work/life balance, and the satisfaction that comes with knowing that you're doing good for the people around you.

I've prepared a short video for you about how you can achieve the same success in your practice as well…take ninety seconds and check it out. It may be the best thing you do for your practice today!

To your success,

Victoria L. Collier, CELA, Elder Care Attorney, Co-Founder of Lawyers for Wartime Veterans and Lawyers with Purpose, Veteran, author of 47 Secret Veterans Benefits for Seniors and most recent book, Paying for Long Term Care: Financial Help for Wartime Veterans: The VA Aid & Attendance Benefit

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The Perfect Effort Is Not A Fiction

by with No Comment Coaching & ImplementationSystems & Processes

Fall is on the horizon. This only means one thing: movie theatres are back in the rotation for our potential family outings. Last Monday after school it was an unusually rainy, cold day, so I surprised the kids by picking them up and heading to the movies – one of our favorite, favorite things to do. Our first movie of the new season was “When the Game Stands Tall.” This film is based on the true story of the De La Salle Spartans, a high school football team from northern California. It is a moving plot about a team that didn't lose a game, not one single game, for 12 years from the early '90s to the early 2000s.  They ran their record to 151-0. This is not just another movie about football; it tells about a mission to lead boys into manhood and prep them to carry the burdens of the society into which they soon will enter.

Screen Shot 2014-10-01 at 9.21.11 AMThe foundation of the movie is Coach Bob Ladouceur’s unique coaching process, which he called “The Perfect Effort.”“Coaching is about human performance and how to get each player to realize their potential through the actualization of their individual talent,” Coach Lad once said.  “While winning is important – it is why we play the game and keep score – the emphasis is on ʻthe process,ʼ what each player must do that in aggregate leads to victory. The formula for success in team sports is simple.  The implementation of that formula is complex and is the art of human performance.”

“The game stands tall when we display the conduct and actions that not only make our life more productive but also improve our community,” he added movingly.

The Perfect Effort is more about bringing your “A” heart with your “A” game. It is about unwavering perseverance and not being defined by a loss.

Whether it is a football team, an office team, a marketing team, etc., The Perfect Effort process applies wherever you go. The singular success of a 151-0 record was created not because the De La Salle Spartans spent more hours in the gym than any other team. It was not because they fought harder than any other team. The success came from being very clear on what their individual roles were, how to integrate with each member on the team, and the impact of the whole of the process and the team organization – all with integrity and collaboration in mind, never focused on the individual. It was always about The Perfect Effort within the core values of the team first and foremost.

What I love most about movies is how they can deliver powerful messages in 120 minutes that are so relevant to our day-to-day lives. They can break through even if you’ve heard the same messages before, i.e. LWP with our unending stand for embracing of process with a team-centric approach to reaching the goal. Sometimes, most times, it takes a light, fun environment to drive the message across the goal line. 

Molly L. Hall, Co-Founder, Lawyers with Purpose, LLC, and author of Don’t Be a Yes Chick: How to Stop Babysitting Your Boss, Transform Your Job and Work with a Dream Team Without Losing Your Sanity or Your Spirit in the Process.

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What Your Team Really Sees

by with No Comment Systems & ProcessesTeam Building

Don’t you just wish your team would tell you what they really see day in and day out on the front lines? The opportunities they see that your firm’s not slowing down enough to make a path and plan for. The new additions, 2 mm shifts and prospective pools they easily witness but are hesitant to create more work for you, and the team, so they let the chances pass.

Bigstock-black-glasses-on-a-white-backg-40705117“Business as usual” will not work anymore…Take control and position your company for the future!

Do you need to find a way to get money in the door? Your phone to ring more? Build your team? Actually finish a project from ideation to completion?

A major outcome of Intentional Planning is enhanced strategic thinking and massive mindset shifts. Some of the things you will walk away with from Thursday October 23rd of the Practice Enhancement Retreat:

  • Generating of new ideas—ideas that, otherwise, would not be considered.
  • Going beyond the status quo—beyond one’s competitors.
  • Bringing new perspectives and approaches together—and combining them in realistic ways.
  • Identification of critical, high payoff strategies and the prioritization of team efforts accordingly.

Firm Retreats ensure that your Big Ideas and Plans will no longer rest on the shelf or be dependent on solely you as the business owner—teach, show, do, go…grow.

In our experience, it is very difficult (impossible) to carve out time to really work ON the business when the phones are ringing and its business as usual.

Register TODAY as you don’t want to miss out on this strategic planning “Money Plan” day led by Dave Zumpano on Thursday October 23rd at the LWP Practice Enhancement Tri-Annual Practice Enhancement Retreat. Contact Marci Otts at motts@lawyerswithpurpose.com to register TODAY! 

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Uncovering “Hidden” Pre-Planning Opportunities with the Asset-to-Income Ratio

by with No Comment Estate Planning Drafting SoftwareLegal MarketingSystems & Processes

Uncovering “Hidden” Pre-Planning Opportunities is one of the biggest shocks from attendees at our Medicaid training is when they learn about the asset-to-income rule to qualify clients for Medicaid sooner. The Medicaid law states that, when the income of the community spouse of a Medicaid applicant is less than the minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance, then the community spouse may exempt additional assets needed to attain the minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance.

Bigstock-Five-years-old-little-cute-boy-41670169Said simpler, if the community spouse doesn't have enough income, they can exempt additional assets to ensure the necessary income is produced. This situation happens all the time, but the exemption is rarely used.

That's why Monday October 20-22nd we are hosting a 3 Day Asset Protection, Medicaid and VA CLE Program.

In this event we will be sharing crucial information such as:

 

●       Why clients don't care how much you know, and what they want from you.

●       There's no such thing as crisis Medicaid planning, and the preplanning you are missing out on is right in front of you.

●       The key features and provisions of grantor, non-grantor, and pure grantor trusts and when to use each for asset protection, Medicaid and VA planning.

●       The newest forms and procedures to file VA apps and appeals and receive timely decisions.

●       Why annuities are often the "lazy-attorney" approach to Medicaid planning and what that method fails to consider.

●       How to calculate whether an IRA should be liquidated and when not to use personal service contracts when Medicaid planning.

At a recent two-day summit we hosted with national veterans expert Victoria Collier, these were the biggest issues raised by your colleagues who attended. Are you prepared? Is your level of understanding in these areas sufficient to serve this growing marketplace? Here is what a few attendees said was the most useful to them:

"The most valuable thing about Day 1 was learning about asset to income rule."

— Carl, Baton Rouge, LA

"The worksheets and having a way to explain Medicaid planning to clients on their level was the most valuable part."

— Susan, Cypress, TX

"Was thrilled to learn there is no such thing as crisis planning and now I have so many more pre-planning opportunities I didn't see before."

— Lisa, West Palm Beach, FL

The asset-to-income rule is just one of several overlooked rules that are overlooked or not fully utilizes to help clients qualify for Medicaid. Feel confident using them in your practice! Click here to to join this must attend event to get the essential strategies you need to protect your clients.

See you there!

David J. Zumpano, Esq, CPA, Co-founder Lawyers With Purpose, Founder and Senior Partner of Estate Planning Law Center

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It’s Already Packed!

by with No Comment Systems & Processes

Are you going to be in on the groundswell of what is occurring in the Estate & Elder Law Industry right now? We want to make certain you have been receiving our invites to the October 20-22nd  Asset Protection, Medicaid & VA Practice With Purpose CLE Program. Its already a PACKED ROOM. You don’t want to wait to get your seat.

Click here to get the full details, agenda and what to expect.

Bigstock-Red-Seat-Standing-Out-62319443There are 100 days remaining in the year. Don’t “wait until the next one”, there's just too much opportunity to wait until next year to get in the conversation with clients. Trust me, you need to get going now.

Molly L. Hall, Co-Founder, Lawyers with Purpose, LLC, and author of Don’t Be a Yes Chick: How to Stop Babysitting Your Boss, Transform Your Job and Work with a Dream Team Without Losing Your Sanity or Your Spirit in the Process.

 

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Being A Competent Attorney Is Only Half The Battle

by with No Comment Asset ProtectionEstate Planning Drafting SoftwareLegal MarketingSystems & ProcessesVA

I've always thought of myself as an excellent attorney — well-versed in all of the strategies that we use on a daily basis to protect our clients, their loved ones, and their legacies.

BellomoIt wasn't until several years ago, however, that I really began to understand that a thriving practice is built on more than just being a great attorney — it requires systems to handle your marketing, to generate a steady flow of referrals to your door, and a tried and true method to increase your closing rate.

I invite you to take 90 seconds and check out the video – it's all about the systems I've put into place in my office, and how you can do the same in yours. Take your practice to the next level!  

Click here if you'd like to look at the agenda and all you'll learn at the Lawyers With Purpose Practice With Purpose Program in Phoenix October 20-22nd.

Warmly,

Jeff Bellomo, Esq., Certified Elder Law Attorney, Bellomo & Associates, LLC 

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The Initial Contact Focuser

by with No Comment Coaching & ImplementationSystems & Processes

A few years ago, a federal investigator subpoenaed one of my calendars to prove a local doctor had committed massive insurance fraud.  The doctor ultimately lost his license and served prison time, based in large part on my calendar.

About that same time, I received a parking ticket in the mail, and was able through my calendar keeping, to prove that I had been in another city that day many miles away.

Screen Shot 2014-09-08 at 7.30.51 PMUsing the Initial Contact Focuser may not help you fight a parking ticket or be used in a federal investigation, but the information it captures cannot be recreated after the fact.  The ICF documents the number of prospects who have contacted your firm in any given time period, and perhaps most importantly, documents where those prospects came from.  The ICF should guide and measure the results of every marketing decision you make.

When I hear that a law firm is not either using the ICF or capturing this information in some other way, it’s truly difficult for me to understand.  That valuable information is forever lost.  Putting contact information on a post-it or a phone pad is no way to run a business.

Long-term planning for growth and success can only be successful through systematically capturing, measuring and evaluating information.

A firm that I work closely with recently organized all their ICF information for the prior 12 months and was dismayed to see that a newspaper ad for which they had paid more than $400 per month for more than a year had not generated a single client.   

Another firm created lunch & learn opportunities, cooking and paying for lunches at the local senior center for a number of months before reviewing their ICF data, and calculating that the ROI was negligible.

How can you measure the success of any of your professional relationships if the ICF is not carefully maintained?

This sample shows not only the results of professional relationships, but also documents a referral to another law firm. 

This tool is available on the LWP members website in both Excel and Word formats and can be found by searching “5 Key.”  This information can also be captured through most any database software.

Make reviewing the weekly ICF a part of your weekly team meeting – I promise you won’t regret it.  If you need any support please let me know – ncatale@lawyerswithpurpose.com!

If you want to learn more about the systems and tools that Lawyers With Purpose has to offer, please consider joining us in Phoenix, October 22nd – 24th for our Practice With Purpose Program.  Click the link to review the agenda and see all that you get in just 2.5 days!  Click here to register now.

Nedra Catale – Coaching, Consulting & Implementation, Lawyers With Purpose

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Hidden Dangers of Medicaid Qualifying Annuities

by with No Comment Asset ProtectionEstate Planning Drafting SoftwareMedicaidSystems & ProcessesVA

Today, many elder law attorneys rely on Medicaid qualifying annuities to get their clients qualified to receive Medicaid benefits. They're also used when clients seek VA pension benefits.

While Medicaid qualifying annuities have become the default solution, they are not without risk. One challenge is that MQA's do not work well for single individuals. Second, even when used in married planning, there is no assurance the amount placed in the Medicaid qualifying annuity will actually be preserved. In fact, it could all be lost with the subsequent disability or death of the community spouse.

Bigstock-Problem-And-Difficulty-Concept-51429601These are just some of the issues (not to mention the Veterans Administration's changing position on annuities when applying for veteran pension benefits) that we will be discussing at the Asset Protection, Medicaid and VA Practice With Purpose Program October 20-22nd  in Phoenix, AZ.

National Asset Protection, Medicaid and VA experts and dozens of attorneys like you will be collaborating to identify the hidden risks in the different Medicaid and veterans' benefits strategies. This program promises to be the hands-on strategic solving many lawyers crave in their practice. Click here to get a full outline and to register for the program.

In these three days here is just some of what we will cover:

ASSET PROTECTION:

  • Recent updates to asset protection and Medicaid compliant strategies.
  • The new asset protection strategies dominating the marketplace.
  • The death of DAPT'S, FLP'S, GRATS, GRUTS, and tax planning, and what's replaced them.
  • The five essential trusts and key drafting needs to serve 99.7% of clients.
  • The Power of Powers of Appointment, in the right places.
  • Four "must have" drafting considerations and three "most forgotten" powers in trust.

MEDICAID:

  • Four steps to Medicaid eligibility for any client.
  • How to calculate the "breakeven" to ensure the proper filing date for the shortest penalty period.
  • Medicaid Qualifying Annuities: Hidden risks and how to properly disclose them to clients or protect from them.
  • The seven key factors to calculate any Medicaid case in seven minutes (or less!).
  • IRA's: Exemption versus taxes, how to calculate if IRA's should be liquidated or exempted in Medicaid and VA cases.

VETERANS' BENEFITS:

  • New fully developed claims process for veterans and widows.
  • Qualifying assisted living facilities as UME's.
  • Key language to complete the physician affidavit for more timely approvals.
  • Update on three year look back for VA benefits.
  • The key reports no longer required for VA applications.
  • Dangers of annuities in VA benefits planning.
  • The effects of the Supreme Court decision on DOMA related to veterans' benefits.

HERE'S WHAT YOUR PEERS HAD TO SAY ABOUT THE PROGRAM:

  • "It will change your practice and your life!" –John Koenig
  • "Great way to grow into a real firm and help one's community." –Antoinette Middleton
  • "Go to the training session and consider and evaluate upgrading your delivery of services, for me it's modernizing what I can offer." –Wally Kelleman

Are you going to miss or attend the most important event of the year? Click here now to join some of your most successful colleagues and leave confident in the strategies you provide to your clients every day. 

David J. Zumpano, Esq, CPA, Co-founder Lawyers With Purpose, Founder and Senior Partner of Estate Planning Law Center