PERSONAL BUSINESS PLAN DEVELOPMENT: CREATING SOMETHING WORTH SELLING ... AND A STORY WORTH TELLING
by Gordon Holley Click here
If in doubt, submit any questionable marketing activity to the state bar association for review and a written ethics opinion.
Introduction
As the market for clients becomes increasingly competitive, many law firms are turning to their administrators for help in training their lawyers to bring in additional work and build their practices. In fact, some administrators are now becoming actively involved in attracting new clients to the firm. If recent trends are any indication of the future, more and more administrators will be shifting their focus from reducing expenses and managing operations to helping lawyers build their practices.
This article outlines the requirements for developing a successful personal business plan for individual lawyers. [1]It is particularly relevant to associates thinking about planning their careers, but also to lawyers who have considerable practice and business development experience. This article is written in a personal style speaking directly to individual attorneys to instruct — and encourage — them to focus on this important part of practicing law. The article includes an extensive list of recommended reading, which is included in the ALA Management EncyclopediaSM.
Article Plan
The first part of this article — Creating Something Worth Selling — deals with creating services that are valuable to prospective clients. How do I target, specialize and differentiate my practice to increase the value of services I can provide to my clients and at the same time increase my personal and professional rewards? [2]
The second part — And a Story Worth Telling — focuses on getting the message out — creating “a story worth telling.” Now that I have created something valuable to offer prospective clients, how can I make them aware of what I have to offer? This article will show how creating a personal business story and focusing on face-to-face contact with people in a target market are generally the best ways to build and promote a practice.
Article Scope
Business planning can take place at three levels: the firm, individual practice groups or individual lawyers. While many of the principles are similar, this article specifically addresses business plan development for individual lawyers. It does not deal with implementation of strategy or marketing. It deals with the creation of a personal business strategy and its marketing message.
Many firms have outlines of personal business plans or personal performance plans for lawyers. They usually contain generic questions about target billable hours, usage of non-billable time, client development activities and personal development activities. This article goes beyond these specific implementation issues to deal with questions at the heart of business strategy. What kind of strategy should I use to increase the likelihood of success of building a profitable, and personally and professionally rewarding, business?
There are many excellent resources available on business strategy, marketing and selling professional services. (An extensive recommended reading list is included in the ALA Management EncyclopediaSM) This article attempts to simplify and summarize common themes that run through many of them. Most of these works emphasize two keys to building a professional practice. First, build something that clients want to buy; second, let them know what you have to offer. Unfortunately, many professionals try to market their services without identifying the unique service they have to offer in the marketplace — why clients should “buy” from them rather than their competition. Unless professionals (lawyers) arm themselves with this key knowledge, any marketing efforts they undertake are likely to be both ineffective and uncomfortable. [3]
So... Build a Better Mousetrap... Then Tell the World About It!
Many lawyers would rather do anything but marketing and selling, while other lawyers thrive on these activities. The difference between the two seems to be this: Those who have a good story love telling their story. Those who don’t have a good story to tell would prefer to do just about anything else.
In some ways, building a law practice is not unlike selling mousetraps. The famous saying is “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” The same is true for building a law practice. Many lawyers offer similar services to the public. The more law firms are alike, the more difficult it is to attract new clients. On the other hand, lawyers who specialize and offer unique value will stand out and seldom have to spend much time actively marketing — clients will go out of their way to find them.
Admittedly, in other ways, marketing professional services is very different from marketing and selling products. Marketing professional services requires a much higher degree of personal interaction and relationship building than does marketing a product.
Once you have designed something worth selling, you need to tell your story as often as you can to specific individuals in your target market. Marketers of products do this using high-volume / low touch methods like television and other advertising. For professional services, focus on low volume / high-touch marketing — actually telling your story — in person — to as many people as you can.
Part I: Create Something Worth Selling
Successful sales people are generally those who believe in their product and are thus confident about the value they have to offer prospective clients. The most successful sales people are passionate about meeting the needs of their clients and helping them to be successful.
The first marketing challenge for all professionals is developing confidence about the value they have to offer to prospective clients, and then becoming passionate about helping them. This is a big challenge for junior associates who know they have to start marketing and building a practice, but are fresh out of law school with little direct experience either in law or business development. They know they are competing with senior practitioners, many of whom have developed significant legal expertise and client experience. With more experienced professionals available, why would a client choose me?
The problem is the same — whether starting a career and having to market internally within the firm to get work from other lawyers, or marketing to external clients. In either case, the more specialized you become, the more you are perceived to be valuable. Whether you are trying to appeal to other lawyers or to clients, their question is the same: Does this person have the skills and ability to help my client or me in a cost effective way?
The solution has three components:
Ø Targeting a specific service or client niche in the market
Ø Specializing in solving high-value problems for that target market by gaining experience and building expertise, and
Ø Differentiating yourself from your competition through leadership and value-added services. [4]
Target, Specialize and Differentiate
Who is my target market?
Targeting a specific service or client increases your ability to compete and the effectiveness of your marketing. If you try to be all things to all people, you will likely be perceived as providing little value to anyone. On the other hand, if you offer a specific service to a specific client in a specific industry, you have the potential to be extremely valuable to that client. Most professionals opt for somewhere in between these extremes. You want to target narrowly enough to offer specific value, and broadly enough to avoid becoming economically dependent on one client, one area of law or one industry. Having said that, most professionals would benefit from having a more targeted approach. [5]
Choosing the right target market comes from reconciling two important perspectives: First, What do I want? and second, For which clients can I create the most value? The first question often involves some introspection and personal planning. [6] Identifying your personal and career goals and objectives is the starting point for this task. The second question involves clearly identifying your current skills, abilities and experience. In many cases, answering the first question early in your career will lead you to develop the specific skills, abilities and experience throughout your first years that will help you become more valuable to your chosen target market.
Clients can be targeted by any of the following:
Ø Area of law
Ø Type of services offered
Ø Client industry
Ø Geography: local / national / international
Ø Mix of services: broad or narrow
Ø Type of client:
When choosing a target market, consider future expectations about trends in the economy, demographics, the legal business and in the target market’s industry. Pick a target market that has significant growth potential. The more successful the target market, the more successful your practice will be.
Arguably, the more focused your practice, the more value you can provide to your target clients. In addition, the closer your practice is aligned with your personal passions, the more you will be doing pleasurable work for clients with whom you enjoy working, and the more satisfaction you are likely to gain from your career. In his book True Professionalism: The Courage to Care About Your People, Your Clients and Your Career, [7] David Maister asked the following rhetorical question: “Why spend the majority of your professional life working on tolerable stuff for acceptable clients when, with some effort in (for example) client relations, marketing and selling, you can spend your days working on exciting things for interesting people?”
The following are the types of questions that need to be answered in determining your target market. The clearer you are about the answers to each of these questions, the easier it will be to define the value you have in the marketplace and the greater your confidence will be in selling that value.
Ø What am I passionate about in life?
Ø When I am not at work, what do I enjoy doing?
Ø In what area of law do I want to specialize?
Ø What kind of work do I want to do?
Ø With what kind of clients do I want to work?
Ø In what industry are my prospective clients?
Ø To whom can I offer the most value?
Ø For what do I want to be famous?
Ø What kind of work would I do for free? [8]
How can I specialize to add the most value to my target market?
The questions relating to target market and specialization are closely intertwined. Your target market identifies to whom you will be offering your services; your specialization identifies the combination of education, skills, experience and services you have to offer.
Generalists offer a broad variety of services to a mix of clients. Specialists, by definition, offer fewer services to a more specific group of clients and, in doing so, usually offer greater value — and charge higher rates. As a result, the degree of specialization is usually a strong determinant of profitability.
Professionals who offer higher degrees of specialization are usually more sought after and more valuable in the marketplace. Most clients want someone who specializes in solving their specific problem and quite often will go to great lengths to find that person. They want to find someone who understands their specific needs and circumstances and can solve their problems quickly and effectively. Clients are often willing to pay more for that specific expertise.
Usually, professionals specialize in solving a particular kind of problem for a particular kind of client. When you are developing your area of expertise, you will want to choose areas with big, meaty problems to which clients will really value solutions. To the extent that you have a choice, why not work on solutions that clients value, rather than solutions that clients consider commodities? You can develop specialization through a combination of education and experience. The goal is to become the “go to” person within your practice area, your firm, your city or your country for specific knowledge or a specific service.
You can increase your competence as a lawyer in a specific area of law through continuing legal education. You can also learn about target clients’ business by participating in their industry associations and by subscribing to their trade press. Conducting proprietary research is one of the best ways to develop expertise and get in front of prospective clients. Involve prospective clients in your research and share the results with them. In this way, you provide value and demonstrate the expertise that you gained in the process.
Experience through mentoring is another way you can hone your talent. Work with senior lawyers in your practice area to gain valuable experience. To the extent that you can choose or have influence over what type of client assignments you work on, select the type of work you want to do, and if possible, with whom you want to work.
The following questions can be used to identify and prioritize the specific needs of your target market, thus helping you determine what specialized services you can provide:
Ø What keeps my target clients awake at night?
Ø How can I help my target clients solve their biggest problems?
Ø What skills do I need to develop to be better able to help my target clients solve these problems?
Ø How else can I become more valuable to my target clients over time?
Ø In addition to the legal services that I provide my target clients, are there additional complementary non-legal services that I could offer that would increase the value I can provide?
How can I differentiate myself from my competition so that prospective clients will choose me rather than my competition?
In a crowded marketplace, it is difficult to be successful selling the same thing as everyone else. Successful differentiation strategy attempts to answer the question “Why should my prospective clients buy from me rather than from my competition?” Consider the services offered, the service delivery or the packaging and pricing of the services.
Nature of Services
As discussed above, many lawyers differentiate themselves through targeting a specific target market and through specialization. In most cases, this results in a type of boutique firm offering a limited number of services to a select target market. In some cases, these firms are expanding the services they offer to include non-legal consulting or are bringing in additional (non-legal) specialists to offer one-stop shopping to their clients in particular industries.
Service Delivery
Lawyers can also create competitive advantage relative to their competition through better service delivery. When asked, most lawyers will say that they offer great client service. As a result, client service is seldom a differentiating factor among firms. However, some firms have successfully differentiated themselves in this manner by offering client satisfaction guarantees. [9] Ungaretti and Harris in Chicago is an eighty-lawyer firm that was one of the first to offer its clients satisfaction guarantees. The Summit Law Group in Seattle offers a client satisfaction guarantee with a unique twist — all of its invoices have a “Value Adjustment” line that allows each of its clients to adjust the invoice to reflect the value they feel they have received.
Packaging and Pricing
More and more firms are also differentiating themselves by packaging and pricing their services in new and innovative ways. The American Bar Association recently produced the ABA Commission on Billable Hours Report that examined hourly billing practices and reviewed some alternatives that might help provide clients with better value and may increase client satisfaction. [10] One of the appendices to the report contains an excellent bibliography of resources on the topic.
Some of the best examples of innovation in packaging and pricing are in three books edited by Richard Reed and published by the ABA Law Practice Management Section:
Ø Beyond the Billable Hour [11]
Ø Billing Innovations: New Win-Win Ways to End Hourly Billing, [12] and
Ø Win-Win Billing Strategies that Satisfy Your Client and You [13] This book is no longer available but has been updated in a second edition by authors Mark Robertson and James Calloway: Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour: Strategies that Work. [14]
An additional useful source on value billing is The Professional’s Guide to Value Pricing.[15]
To be really useful, differentiation must be demonstrable. Many suppliers will tell you that they are the best without telling you why. Since there is no easy way to verify statements like this, there is usually little value in making them. Independent third-party reviews, peer referrals and client testimonials carry a higher degree of persuasive value. Achieving high ratings by external organizations like Martindale-Hubbel Click here and Lexpert Click here is also convincing. [16]
Real differentiation is conscious and intentional — you want to distance yourself from the pack to make it easy for your target market to find you and choose you over the competition. Useful questions to consider in building competitive advantage through differentiation include:
Ø How many lawyers or firms are already offering the types of services that I am contemplating to my target market?
Ø How can I stand out from that crowd through leadership in my area of specialization?
Ø How can I stand out from that crowd through innovation in service delivery?
Ø Can I package my services in innovative ways that make it easier for clients to buy from me?
Ø Can I deliver and price my services in ways that make them more attractive to clients and more profitable for me?
Ø Am I already a leader in the marketplace? By whose standards?
Ø Can I enter into strategic partnerships or relationships that will allow me to offer more value to my clients?
Part II: Create a Story Worth Telling
In Part I: Create Something Worth Selling, we suggested that the keys to creating distinctive value — and competitive advantage — in the marketplace were:
1. Clearly identify your target market.
2. Specialize to increase your value.
3. Differentiate yourself from your competition.
Many professionals skip this process and try to market their services without really identifying what they are selling and why clients should buy from them. This makes marketing and selling uncomfortable, ineffective and frustrating. On the other hand, if you have chosen work about which you are passionate, have narrowly defined your target market, and are confident in the value you have to offer to your target market, you have the building blocks for a successful and rewarding practice. At the same time, you will have developed the makings for a story that prospective clients in your target market will be eager to hear.
Think about it from your prospective client’s point of view: In the case of professional services, most clients will assume that you have the technical competence to help them. What they really want to know is why they should “buy” from you rather than your competition. If you followed the process outlined in Part I, you have done their research for them and are in a position to make their buying decision much easier. Using your personal business story you can illustrate quickly and concisely the unique value you have to offer and why they should buy from you.
The next step is to create your personal business story and look for opportunities to tell it. If you have created “something worth selling,” this part is fairly straightforward. If you skimmed through that part, this step will likely be difficult and challenging.
Building Your Story
Each professional will develop — over the course of his or her career — a personal business story. Your personal business story is your answer to the question: “So, what do you do for a living?” [17] Like any story, your personal business story can be good or bad, and as a result, it can attract or repel clients. If you have followed the process outlined in Part I, you will have all the content you need for a great story that prospective clients will want to hear.
Consider the following answers to the question above: “So, what do you do for a living?”
1. I am a lawyer with Acme, Boxes and Crates. Or
2. I help wealthy clients legally postpone or avoid taxes.
Which answer would be more likely to generate interest? Which answer would more likely result in a follow-up question such as, “That sounds interesting — can you tell me more?” Each personal business story should have at least some of the following elements:
Ø Identify your target audience.
Ø Describe the unique value you have to offer your target market.
Ø Describe the unique skills, expertise and experience that make it possible for you to deliver this unique value to your target market. And,
Ø Provide independent, verifiable evidence of the value that you deliver, such as client stories and testimonials or third-party reviews of your services.
The next step is to create and package your story so that you can use it in a variety of different circumstances.
Different Versions of Your Story
To ensure that you have an appropriate story to fit each marketing situation, you need to develop different versions of your story. You will probably need different versions for your business cards, your letterhead, your Web site, your fax cover page, articles you write and presentations you deliver. Each story will vary in length and content, but each will carry essentially the same message: If you are in my target market, this is why you should buy from me.
Perhaps the two most important versions of your story are your “one-liner” and your “elevator pitch.” Your one-liner will generally be your first answer to the question, “So, what do you do for a living?” This version should be fewer than 10 words and used at every networking event you attend. It is arguably the most important marketing tool you will have. If you have a great answer to this question, you will notice something strange start to happen — you begin to enjoy and look forward to networking events. When you have an interesting story to tell, you look forward to sharing it.
When someone asks you for more detail (as they will if you have a great one-liner), you need a 30-second “elevator pitch.” This version builds on your “one-liner” by providing more detail, but still leaves the listener interested in getting more information about your business. Be prepared to provide your card with your telephone number, e-mail address, Web site address and any other ways in which you can be contacted.
Tell Your Story As Often As You Can
Marketing professional services is a “contact sport.” The most effective marketing opportunities are the ones that allow the greatest face-to-face contact with people in your target market. Every professional will want to have business cards, nice letterhead, a Web site, a brochure and some attractive handouts — these are great marketing supports. But the most effective aspects of marketing professional services are demonstrating expertise and building credibility and trust. This can really be done only by building personal relationships, which, of course, requires personal contact.
What the Experts Say
In his book Managing Professional Services Firms, [18] David Maister provides a listing of his “Marketing Tactics in Descending Order of Effectiveness”:
Ø First String
Ø Second String
Ø Clutching at straws
Like any good strategy, the strategy or combination of strategies that you choose for delivering your marketing message depends primarily on what you are trying to achieve or, more specifically, the nature of your marketing problem. Setting specific goals and objectives allows you to select the marketing methods that will result in the best success.
In her book Get Clients Now! A 28 Day Marketing Program for Professionals and Consultants, C.J. Hayden proposes that marketing strategies will have varying success depending on their degree of human contact. [19] Hayden generally lists the order of effectiveness as follows:
1. Direct contact and follow-up
2. Networking and referral building
3. Public speaking
4. Writing and publicity
5. Promotional events
6. Advertising
However, she also says that most professionals will require a mix of these strategies and that the strategy that you choose to focus on will depend on the nature of the marketing goal you are dealing with at that particular time.
Marketing professional services is really more of an art than a science. Different lawyers will find different combinations of marketing activities that work well for them. Ford Harding’s book Rainmaking: The Professional’s Guide to Attracting New Clients is one of the better overviews of most of the common marketing activities used by professional service providers. [20]
Conclusion
The purpose of this article has been to pull common themes from a variety of books and resources on marketing professional services to provide a concise, workable strategy for individual lawyers interested in developing a personal business plan. As the professional services industry becomes increasingly competitive, it is becoming difficult to succeed in building a practice without a clear personal business strategy and some level of marketing skills and abilities. Certainly, there are many strategies that professionals can use to improve their ability to attract and retain clients. These include developing systems and processes to improve lead generation, project management and client satisfaction.
Successfully mastering the two main keys to practice building as outlined in this article is the first step.
Ø Create Something Worth Selling
The first key to building a successful practice is building a clear business strategy. This requires: (1) targeting a specific market niche or client base, (2) specializing to increase the value you can offer your target market, and (3) differentiating to set yourself apart from your competition through innovation in service delivery and in the way that you package and price your services. If done well, developing these three elements of your business strategy will provide you with the building blocks for a successful, profitable and rewarding practice.
Ø And, a Story Worth Telling
Knowing who you can help and what you can do for them, defines your personal business story, which prospective clients will be eager to hear. Once you have developed your story, you need to practice and look for opportunities to tell it often. Focus on marketing strategies that will give you the most personal contact possible with your target market. The key to building a successful thriving professional practice is starting with a personal business plan that tells a great story. Why not get started now?
Appendix A: Recommended Reading included in ALA Management EncyclopediaSM
Branding and Positioning
Career & Practice Planning
Client Development
Marketing Legal Services
Marketing Professional Services
Practice Building
Networking
Planning, Strategies and Tactics
Selling
Seminars, Speeches and Presentations
Training
Journals
Law Practice Management
Newsletters
Other Marketing Resources
Sales / Selling Skills Training Programs
Law Firm Marketing Consultants
Internet
Marketing Organizations
Bibliography
ABA Commission on Billable Hours Report, The. IL: American Bar Association. 2001 - 2002. Click herewww.abanet.org/careercounsel/billable/toolkit/bhcomplete.pdf
Baker, Ronald J. Professional’s Guide to Value Pricing, 4th Edition. NY: Aspen Publishers. 2002. Click here www.aspenpublishers.com/
Billing Innovations: New Win-Win Ways to End Hourly Billing. Edited by Richard C. Reed. IL: ABA Law Practice Management Section. 1996. Click here www.abanet.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10251&productId=-10150&categoryId=-3711
Harding, Ford. Creating Rainmakers: The Manager’s Guide to Training Professionals to Attract New Clients. MA: Adams Media Corporation. Chapter 7 — “Creating Value with Ideas.” 1998. Available from online booksellers. Click here
Harding, Ford. Rain Making: The Professional’s Guide to Attracting New Clients. MA: Adams Media Corporation. 1994. Available from online booksellers. Click here
Hart, Christopher W. Extraordinary Guarantees: Achieving Breakthrough Gains in Quality & Customer Satisfaction. MA: The Spire Group. 1998. Click here www.spiregroup.biz/pub_full_list.htm
Hayden, C.J. Get Clients Now! A 28-day Marketing Program for Professionals and Consultants. NY: American Management Association. 1999. Click here www.amanet.org/books/catalog/0814479928.htm
Leonard King, Irene. Create The Practice You Want: Law Practice Development Workbook. WA: Irene Leonard Business and Personal Coach. 2001. Click here http://coachingforchange.com/bookflyer.html
Maister, David H. Managing the Professional Service Firm. NY: The Free Press. 1993. Click here www.alanet.org/education/mrc/books.asp
Maister, David H. True Professionalism: The Courage to Care About Your People, Your Clients and Your Career. NY: New York. The Free Press. 1997. Click here www.alanet.org/education/mrc/books.asp
Morrisey, George L. Creating Your Future: Personal Strategic Planning for Professionals. CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. 1992. Click here www.bkconnection.com/Default.asp
Peter, Thomas J. The Project 50 (Reinventing Work): Fifty Ways to Transform Every “Task” into a Project That Matters! NY: Alfred A. Knopf Inc. 1999. Available from online booksellers. Click here
Rezec, Darcy, Judy Thompson and Gayle Hallgren. The Frog and Prince: Secrets of Positive Networking To Change Your Life. NY: Alfred A. Knopf Inc. 1999. Available from online booksellers. Click here
Robertson, Mark A. and James A. Calloway. Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour: Strategies that Work. 2nd Edition. IL: ABA Law Practice Management Section. 2002. Click here www.abanet.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10251&productId=-17832&categoryId=-3711
Treacy, Michael and Fred Wiersema. The Discipline of Market Leaders: Choose Your Customers, Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market. Perseus Publishing. 1997. Available from online booksellers. Click here
Vickers, Michael. Becoming Preferred: How to Outsell Your Competition. Summit Press. 2002. Section 1. Available from online booksellers. Click here
Win-Win Billing Strategies: Alternatives That Satisfy Your Clients and You. Edited by Richard C. Reed. IL: ABA Law Practice Management Section. 1992. This book is no longer available but has been updated in a second edition. Robertson, Mark and James Calloway. Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour: Strategies that Work. IL: ABA Law Practice Management Section. 2002. Click here www.abanet.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10251&productId=-17832&categoryId=-3711
Other Resources
Marsh, Merilee. “Associates and Their Role in Marketing.” IL: Association of Legal Administrators. ALA Management EncyclopediaSM. 2003. This article is available in the ALA Management EncyclopediaSM.
“A Nuts-and-Bolts Guide to Creating and Implementing a Personal Business Plan.” OH: Lexis/Nexis for Associates. Career Development. 2003. Click here www.lexisnexis.com/legal/
Schmidt, Sally J. “Teaching New Lawyers to Market.” IL: ABA Law Practice Management Section. Law Practice Management. May/June 2001.
Wesemann, H. Edward. “The Truth About Associate Marketing.” Canada: Edge International. Articles. Undated. Click here www.edge.ai/article/articleview/66/1/116/
End Notes
[1] See the discussion in Maister, David. True Professionalism: The Courage to Care About Your People, Your Clients and Your Career. NY: New York. The Free Press. 1997. Click here This book should be required reading for anyone in professional services. www.alanet.org/education/mrc/books.asp
[2] See the discussion of “Creating Distinctive Value” in Becoming Preferred: How to Outsell Your Competition by Michael Vickers (Summit Press, 2002), Section 1. Click here www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0971325006/qid=1057864084/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-7861106-2421752?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
[3] Merilee Marsh discusses in detail how law firms can help associates learn to develop business. Marsh, Merilee. “Associates and Their Role in Marketing.” ALA Management EncyclopediaSM. 2003. This article is available in the ALA Management EncyclopediaSM.
[4] Harding, Ford. Creating Rainmakers : The Manager's Guide To Training Professionals To Attract New Clients. MA: Adams Media Corporation. Chapter 7 — “Creating Value with Ideas.” 1998. Click here http://store.yahoo.com/adamsmedia/creatrain.html
[5] See the discussion in Treacy, Michael and Fred Wiersema. The Discipline of Market Leaders: Choose Your Customers, Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market. Click here www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0201407191/qid=1057863127/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-7861106-2421752?v=glance&s=books
[6] See the discussion in Leonard King, Irene. Create The Practice You Want: Law Practice Development Workbook. WA: (Coaching for Change.) 2001 Click here and Morrisey, George L. Creating Your Future: Personal Strategic Planning for Professionals. CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. 1992. Click here http://coachingforchange.com/bookflyer.html and www.bkconnection.com/Default.asp
[7] Maister, David. True Professionalism: The Courage to Care About Your People, Your Clients and Your Career. NY: The Free Press. 1997. p.24. Click here www.alanet.org/education/mrc/books.asp
[8] George Kaufman discusses making choices that honor both our professional responsibilities and our personal needs. It is designed to find ways that the law can fit inside your life — not about how your life fits inside the law. Kaufman, George W. The Lawyer’s Guide to Balancing Work and Life. IL: ABA Law Practice Management Section. 1999. Click here www.abanet.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10251&productId=-12613&categoryId=-3712
[9] Hart, Christopher W. Extraordinary Guarantees: Achieving Breakthrough Gains in Quality & Customer Satisfaction. MA: The Spire Group. 1998. Click here www.spiregroup.biz/pub_full_list.htm
[10] The ABA Commission on Billable Hours Report. IL: American Bar Association. 2001 - 2002. Click here www.abanet.org/careercounsel/billable/toolkit/bhcomplete.pdf
[11] Beyond the Billable Hour. Edited by Richard C. Reed. IL: ABA Law Practice Management Section. 1989. This book is no longer available for purchase. This book is no longer available but has been updated in a second edition. Robertson, Mark and James Calloway. Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour: Strategies that Work. 2nd Edition. IL: ABA Law Practice Management Section. 2002. Click here www.abanet.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10251&productId=-17832&categoryId=-3711
[12] Billing Innovations: New Win-Win Ways to End Hourly Billing. Edited by Richard C. Reed. IL: ABA Law Practice Management Section. 1996. Click here www.abanet.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10251&productId=-10150&categoryId=-3711
[13] Win-Win Billing Strategies: Alternatives That Satisfy Your Clients and You edited by Richard C. Reed. IL: ABA Law Practice Management Section. 1992. This book is no longer available but has been updated in a second edition. Robertson, Mark and James Calloway. Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour: Strategies that Work. 2nd Edition. IL: ABA Law Practice Management Section. 2002. Click here www.abanet.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10251&productId=-17832&categoryId=-3711
[14] Robertson, Mark A. and James A. Calloway. Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour: Strategies that Work. 2nd Edition. IL: ABA Law Practice Management Section. 2002. Click here www.abanet.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10251&productId=-17832&categoryId=-3711
[15] Baker, Ronald J. The Professional's Guide to Value Pricing. 3rd Edition. NY: Aspen Law & Business. 2001. Click here www.aspenpublishers.com/
[16] Martindale Hubble Click here (www.martindale.com/xp/Martindale/home.xml) and Lexpert Click here (www.lexpert.ca/directory/pa.php?area=S1)
[17] See discussions in Rezec, Darcy, Judy Thompson and Gayle Hallgren. The Frog and Prince: Secrets of Positive Networking To Change Your Life. NY: Alfred A. Knopf Inc. 1999 Click here and Peter, Thomas J. The Project 50 (Reinventing Work): Fifty Ways to Transform Every “Task” into a Project That Matters!. NY: Alfred A. Knopf Inc. 1999. Click here www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0973226501/qid=1057863030/sr=1-9/ref=sr_1_9/102-7861106-2421752?v=glance&s=books and www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375407731/qid=1057862815/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-7861106-2421752?v=glance&s=books
[18] Maister, David. Managing the Professional Service Firm. NY: The Free Press. 1993. P.122. Click here www.alanet.org/education/mrc/manage.html
[19] Hayden, C.J. Get Clients Now! A 28-Day Marketing Program for Professionals and Consultants. NY: American Management Association Publications. 1999. P.9. Click here www.amanet.org/books/catalog/0814479928.htm
[20] Harding, Ford. Rain Making: The Professional's Guide to Attracting New Clients. MA: Bob Adams Inc. 1994. Click here http://store.yahoo.com/adamsmedia/rainmaking.html