Solo and Small Firm Marketing » the Recession http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com Effective (but oftentimes unusual) marketing of your law firm Fri, 28 May 2010 19:07:56 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 Will Your Firm Thrive in this Recession http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/will-your-firm-thrive-in-this-recession/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/will-your-firm-thrive-in-this-recession/#comments Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:10:17 +0000 Ben Glass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=137 Around every Wal-Mart is a successful mom and pop hardware store. That small business does something different from the 80% who would otherwise fail when Wal-Mart comes to town.

The legal industry is no different. There are some small firms (I talk to a different one just about every day) that only knows there is a recession going on by reading the gloom and doom headlines.

What do they do differently? I suggest its not any one thing. Its how they think about the world, their lives and their businesses.

Go here to see Why Some Law Firms Continue to Thrive in this Economy.

]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/will-your-firm-thrive-in-this-recession/feed/ 1 Who’s Coming for Your Clients? http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/whos-coming-for-your-clients/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/whos-coming-for-your-clients/#comments Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:39:26 +0000 brianglass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=131 When the first few BigLaw firms started laying people off last fall, the job market was flooded with resumes.  Attorneys were moving to in-house, switching firms, doing anything to hold onto their jobs.  Well, it seems like there ain’t no more BigLaw jobs left.  Firms that used to wine and dine law school students for the summer (while paying them $3K a week) are now not only limiting the number of summer spots they have, but they’re asking this years graduates to defer their start dates for months (or even up to a year).  Many of my friends, who are still in school down at William & Mary, are having a hard time finding a job.

With “more resumes” being no longer being a viable option, the National Law Journal is recommending that those highly skilled attorneys who are being laid off start their own firms.  Good news for the commercial real estate market… bad news for you. 

There’s a finite number of clients out there and in this economy, most of them are choosing to compete on price.  What are you doing to demonstrate your value?  The above article suggests that the way to lure clients away from BigLaw firms is price – the firm did it at $600/hr., so I’ll do it at $300/hr.  Seems no one over at the National Law Journal has figured out that you can also price your services at flat rates and then ask prospective clients to compare that price against what the last deposition a BigLaw firm sent 2 partners, 5 associates, and a paralegal to cost them.

]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/whos-coming-for-your-clients/feed/ 0 600,000 More People Now Available to Help You Get it All Done http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/600000-more-people-now-available-to-help-you-get-it-all-done/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/600000-more-people-now-available-to-help-you-get-it-all-done/#comments Sat, 07 Feb 2009 12:16:23 +0000 Ben Glass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=108 The biggest “complaint” I heard after our Jump Start Legal Marketing Conference last weekend was “Ben, you’ve given us so much to do….so many ideas….how will I ever get it all done?”

Today’s Washington Post headline blasts the news that 600,000 more people lost jobs in January. The Wall Street Journal has a picture of a roomful of white collar workers in a hotel room in McLean, Virginia, waiting for a job interview.

There has never been a better time in most of our lifetimes to find highly qualified people who are ready, willing and able to help you keep moving. If you are standing still, waiting to be “rescued” from this recession, you are a fool. Keep moving.

I came back from my own conference (the only legal conference, of any sort, that is selling out all of its events) so rev’d up with ideas I could hardly think. I immediately went on the search to find the quality folks I needed to “get things done.” I’m not sitting still, waiting for rescue. (In fact, started new business last month as well.)

Hired three this week. Great, smart people. Tired of the corporate world. Looking to use THEIR GIFTS and TALENTS in a productive way. Not waiting for a bailout.

What are you waiting for?

]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/600000-more-people-now-available-to-help-you-get-it-all-done/feed/ 0 Outbreak of Capitalism Causes Established Business Community to Shudder http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/outbreak-of-capitalism-causes-established-business-community-to-shudder/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/outbreak-of-capitalism-causes-established-business-community-to-shudder/#comments Wed, 04 Feb 2009 02:33:51 +0000 Ben Glass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=100 Great article in the February 16, 2009 print edition of Forbes magazine. CrowdSpring.com is an online tool where, if you need graphic design of any type, you post your project and designers not only bid on the project but they submit their actual work on your design and compete for your business.

What a novel idea. Competition. Pure competition. This way the stay at home mom can compete with fancy pants agencies with high budgets, high overhead and a high penchant for designs that win awards but never actually help sell a product or service.

So, what do the entrenced designers do? According to the Forbes article, the established design community has started a campain called NoSpec–which urges designers not to work in advance of getting paid.

Catherine Brownlee, director of something called “the Association of Professional Design Firms” was quoted as saying “You can’t go to the new restaurant at the top of Trump Tower, ask for a taste, and then decide if you are going to pay.” (Guess she’s never been in a Great Harvest Bread Company store either.)

In other words, “we big and established firms are getting killed by entrepreneurship” so lets stop individual designers from competing. Who is she to try to dictate how any entrepreneur should act?

We see this happening with some frequency in lawyer advertising. Its not generally the consumer nor even a competitor that complains about a particular lawyer’s ads. Its the lawyer in the ivory tower, the one not worried about how to get the light bills paid, that generally complains.

]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/outbreak-of-capitalism-causes-established-business-community-to-shudder/feed/ 2 The competition is coming, the competition is coming http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/the-competition-is-coming-the-competition-is-coming/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/the-competition-is-coming-the-competition-is-coming/#comments Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:23:38 +0000 Ben Glass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=66 I predicted that the recession will hit small firms in a way they might not expect. I predicted that as the big firms, explode/meltdown those lawyers will likely be setting up solo and small firm law offices in your community.

Over at My Shingle, my friend Carolyn Elefant is enouraging “biglaw” lawyers to set up their own practices.

Are you prepared?

If not, check out our extraordinary 2 day legal marketing seminar at the end of January.

]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/the-competition-is-coming-the-competition-is-coming/feed/ 0 Forget this “preserve or create 3 million jobs” plan http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/forget-this-preserve-or-create-3-million-jobs-plan/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/forget-this-preserve-or-create-3-million-jobs-plan/#comments Sun, 21 Dec 2008 12:00:16 +0000 Ben Glass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=62 The Washington Post lead article today is how president-elect Obama will create or preserve three million (up from 2.5 million) jobs over two years.

What does that mean, preserve jobs. How will we measure that???

As my friend Dan Kennedy points out in an article in my newsletter, theres a way to create 5 million jobs almost immediately and at little or no cost. In fact, there will be even less government intervention.

]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/forget-this-preserve-or-create-3-million-jobs-plan/feed/ 0 What have you done, TODAY, to bring in more clients? http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/what-have-you-done-today-to-bring-in-more-clients/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/what-have-you-done-today-to-bring-in-more-clients/#comments Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:12:02 +0000 Ben Glass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=28 I’m sick and tired of hearing lawyers moaning about the “economy.” Many, many lawyers are prospering even “now.”

Here’s a high level secret to marketing the solo and small firm law practice: Every single day you have to do at least one thing that is specifically designed to bring you more clients. You can’t allow marketing to be an afterthought. Great lawyers with thriving practices TAKE ACTION every day.

Some ideas:

1. Call “time-out,” go to a cave and read a great marketing newsletter (or read the last six issues)
2. Go the the library and read every book there is on marketing
3. Spend some time with a blank piece of paper and just THINK about your business.
4. Write one personal note (NOT an EMAIL) to someone on your list every single day
5. Study the yellow pages.. what marketing message is your competition sending out–how can you be different.
6. Same as 5, but with websites.
7. Write a page of copy a day for your web site (this is killer)
8. Join (or form yourself) a mastermind–Hint: Napoleon Hill.. Think and Grow Rich
9. Grab 3 highly successful people who aren’t lawyers and get them to tell you how they think.
10. Stop whining…

]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/what-have-you-done-today-to-bring-in-more-clients/feed/ 2 How the Recession Will Affect Small Firms (its not what you think!) http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/how-the-recession-will-affect-small-firms-its-not-what-you-think/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/how-the-recession-will-affect-small-firms-its-not-what-you-think/#comments Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:32:55 +0000 Ben Glass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=18 Most Great Legal Marketing members have chosen to not participate in the current recession. There is, however, one clear and present danger to all.

As those big firms crumble, implode and evaporate, and as those associates at those big firms count up this year’s end of year bonus, (you don’t have to be able to count that high) I predict that there will be a glut of new solo and small firms, some coming to your market area. I mean, these guys aren’t going to switch professions and join the financial markets, are they?

Nope…they are coming to compete with you. Think its a crowded market now? Wait till the ex-biglaw lawyers start buying up that cheap media (you did notice the look on your Yellow Page rep last time she visited, didn’t you?)

Plain and simple, the recession will affect small firms by increasing competition for clients

Are you ready?

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