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Good morning!

We trust everyone is back to the office now and ready to begin the New Year well prepared for prosperity. To do so, having the right information is powerful. We have been waiting for the Veterans Administration to publish the 2013 Improved Pension rates. As of today, they still have not been formally published. However, below are the rates we expect to see once published (give or take a dollar or two). We will announce the final numbers when formally published.

Pension:

Veteran no dependent – $1,037/month/ 12,448/year
Veteran with 1 dependent – $1,359/ 16,340
Widow of vet no dependent – $696/ 8,357

Pension with HouseBound:

Veteran no dependent – $1,269/ 15,231
Veteran with 1 dependent – $1,590 / 19,091
Widow of vet no dependent – $852 / 10,232

Pension with Aid and Attendance:

Veteran no dependent – $1,731 / 29,793
Veteran with 1 dependent – $2,054 / 24,648
Widow of vet no dependent – $1,113 / 13,360

Two Veterans Married to each other:

BOTH COMBINED – Pension only – $1,350 / $16,322
EITHER HB – $1,590 / $19,091
BOTH HB – $2,049 / $21,858
EITHER A&A – $2,053 / $24,650
1HB & 1 A&A – $2,284 / $27,412
BOTH A&A – $2,675 / $32,113

Thank you for the information Victoria Collier!

We have a book club at Lawyers With Purpose and the team is currently reading Failing Forward by John C. Maxwell. So far my favorite part of the book:

"…[people] allow failure to get the better of them emotionally, and it stops them from achieving their dreams.  …Failure can be very painful–sometimes physically and more often emotionally.  Seeing part of your vision fall flat really hurts. And if people heap ridicule on top of your hurt feelings, you feel even worse.  The first important step in weathering failure is learning not to personalize it — making sure you know that your failure does not make you a failure.   …For many people the pain of failure leads to fear of failure.  …That's when many people get stuck in the fear cycle.  And if fear overcomes you, it's almost impossible to fail forward."  from Failing Forward by John C. Maxwell

When I read that it doesn't make failure seem so bad. For me, it's difficult not to take failure personally. But just reading this paragraph seems to take all that away. In fact I've printed this paragraph out and tacked it onto my cork board for inspiration.

I'm not completely done reading the book but so far, the bottom line for me is … don't let failure deny you of your dreams and the practice you want to have. Yes, we all have have to learn from our mistakes but do not let them prevent you from taking risks. Another great quote is “If you fail to try, you have already failed.” So, I'd have to say that while my definition of failure has definitely changed, so has my definition of success. Because typically people look at success like a path you take that requires training and mentoring along the way. Education or experience. But really, in the big picture, success is being able to handle failure!

Have you ever thought about the amount of time you spend at the office?  Be honest and think about how much time you spend each day, and how many days each week.  Include the weekends!  On the average we see that most attorneys are spending 56 hours OR MORE per week.  With little or no vacation.  If you take that and divide it by your annual income, how much are you making per hour?  Doing the math may be painful but it can also give powerful insight on how important it is for you to be intentional with your time.  We did some calculations and it’s typical for a solo practitioner to be earning roughly $29.28 per hour.

Is this you?  Are you happy?

You have to be proactivein your day with clearly defined goals and a path to get you there.  You need to declare the practice you want to have and you have to create time standards to achieve it.  You've got to think in colors of the rainbow.  Blue, Green and Gold!

BLUE: The Time you spend on Lead Generation and Lead Conversion (commonly referred to as Marketing and Sales). At Lawyers with Purpose™, we call this Relationship Management and Client Enrollment.

GREEN:  The Time you spend on serving your clients to provide the value they hired you for. This requires working with your team utilizing systems and process to create consistent quality and reduce the time required by YOU.

YELLOW:  The time you spend operating your law firm business. While most view this as black time it is actually “Gold” if it’s Proactive!

You can have the practice you’ve always wanted if you are proactive with your time.  We promise, it’s that simple.  You can have staff that will support you in the essential areas to succeed, rather than reacting to everything around you, consistent (and increasing) cash flow and a quality of life for yourself, your family, your clients, and your community will be enhanced!   www.lawyerswithpurpose.com  

Did you ever hear that old saying when you buy a new car you see it everywhere?  That happened to us recently but not because we bought a new car.  Actually 2 weeks ago, we shared the 3 key needs to effectively run a successful law practice  at the LWP Annual Practice Enhancement Retreat.  We discovered  it all comes down to how you spend your time.

Now we see it impacting several practices in their firm marketing meetings. It  is simple … if you just classify your time into 3 categories: (1) Marketing (Lead Generation & Lead Conversion) (2) Money and (3) Operations.  The time you allocate should be 40% marketing, 40% money and 20% operations.  Marketing scares most lawyers but it can be simple if you have a structure to it.  For example, committing to just 2 – one and a half hour meetings a week with allied professionals can lead to a plethora of referrals if the follow-up to the meetings occur timely.  It is much more effective to manage one relationship well and create  a friendship that you enjoy, rather  than to have 5 meetings and poor follow up with any.  With just 2 meetings a week you can manage 10 relationships that meet every 30-45 days and 20 relationships that meet quarterly, semi-annually or annually.  The trick is to be intentional and truly enjoy the person you are working with!

For more information visit our website at www.lawyerswithpurpose.com.  We're happy to help!

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