Rural Lawyer v. Big City Lawyer

I’m struggling a bit with my practice area focus. No, not my legal practice area, my firm location area.

I live in a small town just off the fringes of the Twin Cities. I’m closer to St. Paul than to Minneapolis but it is all relative. I have gotten several clients out of most of the Twin Cities counties and I am meeting with someone next week in Minneapolis. I (try) to practice mainly in Dakota County but I get calls from all over the place. I don’t have a network built up so I am kind of flailing a bit to try to establish something.

Blah, blah, blah.

The point I am trying to make is that starting a law firm is hard. There are so many decisions to make and I constantly wonder which are the right ones. I had/have a business plan, but so what? Plans are great until you realize that logistics of practicing law make things a wee-bit difficult at times.

One thing I can say for sure – I have to develop a network. Doing that takes time and a lot of energy. Sometimes I don’t think I am up to the task.

My big problem right now is where do I establish that network? I know several attorneys, financial planners, and bankers in the cities. They have been helpful (somewhat) in mentoring and referring a little business. Yet, I often find that the people I meet and like are in the small town where I live. I find myself – somewhat accidentally – building a network where I live. Big surprise huh?

I go to church in a small town, I joined a service club in the small town, everybody I meet seems to be in the small town. You know what? I like these people. I want them to like me and put their faith into me. It feels genuine. People need estate planning and probate lawyers in small towns. People need family law attorneys in small towns. Banks need attorneys to draft contracts, real estate documents, etc.

A lot of my marketing efforts have been targeted towards getting clients in the Twin Cities and that has worked – sort of. Business is not fast, but I have clients and they do pay me. Yet, I definitely haven’t “made it” yet – if that ever happens. I’m struggling right now with how, when, where, and why to market myself. Should it be big city or rural? The target population in my small town is, you guessed it: small. Yet, there are only a few attorneys and they are getting older. I keep hearing that maybe they will retire. It sounds to me that there is a need for an attorney in my small town. So, I should grab that opportunity right?

Bruce Cameron over at Rural Lawyer provided some great tips to me on that front. I really appreciated his candid thoughts on the issue. After reading his post, I think I agree that lawyers can market themselves and try to get clients everywhere. As he says, that is what practicing law on the urban fringe is all about.

Therefore, I think I have decided to market myself and network as much as I can in my small town. We will see what happens. It takes time out of my suburban/Twin Cities marketing efforts, but it feels better. It feels right. I want to practice law for several reasons: one is to make money, but another big reason is because I like people. I want to feel like I am a part of a community. Being a small town lawyer provides that kind of feeling.

Staring a firm is all about choosing the proper place to expend your energy. After all, unless you have a huge budget, it is just you.

May 23, 2012

Solo in Minneapolis has a New Look!

For any of my readers who care – I am redisgning this blog. Why? Because business is a little slow and I didn’t like how it looked.

Warning: designing and redesigning the way a blog looks has very little bearing on starting a law firm.

Don’t fall into the trap of making things look pretty all the time. I certainly have. I am a bit of a perfectionist and when my website(s) doesn’t look good, I don’t feel good. Thus, the change.

Yes, business has been slow the last couple weeks. I started off gang-busters but I’ve hit a bit of a lull. One of the most interesting (annoying?) things about starting a law practice (or any business) is keeping priorities straight. When do I blog? How do I advertise? When do I get work done? How do I answer the phone and market myself?

When you start a firm, there is nobody else there but you. (Unless, of course, you can afford a paralegal or some help). Since I am by myself, I do ALL of the work. It is tough, but it is fun. I’ll try to keep readers informed about what I have been doing. I need to have an outlet to keep my thoughts straight. The one thing I have realized is that you have to be diligent about creating a plan and sticking to it. More on that later.

Creating law firm websites and blogging

I’ve also posted about creating law firm websites in the past. I’ve gotten a lot of hits on those posts. I’ve also offered to help people with building a website if they are interested. However, nobody ever takes me up on it. Sad. Maybe nobody thinks my website as an Apple Valley MN lawyer is very good. I like it, but who knows.

Anyway, feel free to comment about the new look or ask questions. I love comments. Alas, nobody ever gives them.

May 14, 2012May 14, 2012

Starting a Law Firm | Business Plans | Solo in Minneapolis featured in Minnesota Lawyer

In an effort to post more on starting a law firm, I wanted to let my readers know that I was recently featured in a nice article on Minnesota Lawyer’s solo and small firm website: Solo Contendre.

Reporter Dan Heilman contacted me several weeks a go to do an interview. He was looking for my thoughts on solo and small firm business plans. I gave him my thoughts. I won’t rehash too much of the conversation here, you should go read the article.

ARE BUSINESS PLANS REALLY NECESSARY FOR STARTING A LAW FIRM?

My two cents is that you probably should create a business plan for your law firm, but it doesn’t have to be all that intricate. (Then again, I’m just starting out and I could be wrong – I certainly don’t feel like I’ve “made it” yet).

My general thought is that rather than call something a “business plan” it should be referred to as a marketing plan.

Below are my answers to Mr. Heilman questions:

– Is it always necessary for a solo or small-firm lawyer to have a
business plan?

I don’t think so. I think you need to know who your client-base is and how to reach them. More important, to me, is having a business marketing plan. The financial projections, overhead, billing-practices, mission statement, funding, etc. are all things that can planned-out fairly easily. My question: what happens when there is no money coming in the door? I’ve read that to be a solo or small firm lawyer, you need to love marketing. If you don’t, I think it is tough to make it. If you are very careful and you plan-out all your expenses over a year-long period, how does that help you generate revenue and bring in clients?

Again, my thought is that a solo or small-firm business plan should be minimal and should focus on marketing. I think lenders are more interested in seeing a nice looking business plan so that they can feel comfortable lending money. Otherwise, I think they are generally over-rated.

– What’s a good first step in developing one?

There are a lot of resources. The small business administration has a wealth of information (www.SBA.gov). In Minnesota, SCORE ( http://www.score-mn.org/ ) has some great mentoring and business plan resources. Local chambers of commerce usually have some kind of class on these subjects. A good online source for business plans is www.Bplans.com.

For my business plan, I went to the bookstore and looked at sole proprietorship and small business books. Each of the books has more information than anybody could possible read on creating a business plan.

– What ingredients should a good business plan have?

Business plans should have a mission statement, an overhead estimate, some annual projections for the first five years, and a strong marketing focus. Again, a good business plan should focus on marketing. To be sure, estimating overhead and costs associated with running a practice is very important. However, thinking hard about how you plan to get clients in the door is the key.

Therefore, the plan should have detailed information about the what, where, when, why and how you plan to generate revenue. What is your budget for generating that revenue once you have figured out your overhead? How will you ensure that you stick to a marketing plan? Are there going to be some ways to check your progress so that you know you are sticking to your goals? If your plan isn’t working, what else can you do?

Some lawyers get very detailed with this information and others (like me) use it as a platform to keep focus. I don’t want to get too detailed on things that I can’t really control.

– Should it stay static or evolve over time?

I think a business plan should absolutely evolve over time. For instance, I am focusing mainly on family law in the beginning because it is easier to generate revenue in a field like family law or criminal law. As time goes on, I plan to diversify into trusts, estates, and probate. Along the way, I know there are going to be ups and downs. I may find myself doing a lot of work in an area of law I had not planned on. That hasn’t happened yet, but you never know. A business plan is simply a goal-setting platform. We all know that goals change somewhat over time. So, be flexible with the winds of change.

– Any other tips for solos on creating a sound business plan?

Get as much information as you can. Read a lot. Don’t necessarily put anything on paper until you feel like you have a firm grasp on what you want to do. For me, I researched as much as I could about starting and running a successful law practice. Then, I created a relatively simple plan with some financial benchmarks. I think setting a marketing and a revenue goal has been key for me. It gives me something to shoot for and measure myself by. Other than that, you don’t need to take making a great business plan too seriously unless you are looking for some start-up funding. Of course, I am also cognizant of the fact that I could be completely wrong.

This blog post was written by Joseph M. Flanders, an Apple Valley MN lawyer.

November 15, 2011May 16, 2012

Starting a Law Firm: Checklists and Doing the Due Diligence

As I posted in the past, I have a lot of work to do before I (hopefully) get my Minnesota license to practice law. I have a long, four month wait before my character and fitness investigation is completed. I’ve finished most of what I can do and I am now in the waiting phase. Thankfully, I have a lot to do before I get licensed and, to that end, I am doing my best to come up with a list of things to do before I hang-out-a-shingle and start a law firm.

Much of my work is focused on two things: (1) gaining knowledge to ensure competency and (2) coming up with a marketing plan.

Starting a Law Firm Checklist

Purchase and read practice related books and code on family law and estate planning in Minnesota.
Purchase and read Minnesota Rules of Civil Procedure.
Conduct market research on family law and estate planning law firms in my community.
Finish one website: flanderslawfirm.com.
Start and work on additional practice related website (more on this later).
Research costs of office space. This includes lease agreements for full-time office space arrangement as well as locating a potential virtual office site to meet with clients.
Decide whether working out of home for first couple years is feasible and, if so, how to do it.
Research approved bank accounts for business and IOLTA accounts
Research and understand completely IOLTA trust account laws. Ensure compliance with them.
Come up with blogging/marketing schedule
Talk to local attorney in practice area about possible mentoring relationship
Go to courthouses, meet staff, introduce myself and ask lots of questions about filing, judges, the right and wrong way to do things, etc.
Contact father-in-law (an computers specialist person) about antivirus, and firm computing protection devices
Research online billing software and costs. Or, do I want to simply use QuickBooks or other software?
Research online receptionist and answering service.
Contact phone company about separate fax and phone lines for (probable) home office.
Make list of all potential referral resources and how to network with them.
Research and find solo attorney resources in Minnesota and beyond.
Re-read ethics rules.

The list could go on, but I hope that provides some help to any of you in the process. It might not be the best list, but it is something I can work on and grown from. My goal is to fill in some of the information with options I have been looking at. I’ll try and share them in a future post.

When working as an associate at my prior law firm, I realized early that planning, organization, and goals are everything. Without a plan and execution, you are just fumbling in space (ok, maybe it is just me). Making lists and setting goals helps me have plan of action that I can follow.

Now that you’ve seen mine, I’d love to see yours. Does anybody have any resources or plans they have made that they wouldn’t mind sharing? I showed you mine, you show me yours.

November 7, 2011May 16, 2012

Creating a Law Firm Website: Part II

I’ve promised this post for a couple weeks and I’m finally getting to it. Better late than never.

My Minnesota lawyer website is up and running. It is not finished and I am still adding content, but the homepage is almost done. In the main, I’m satisfied with it but I keep tinkering. Most importantly, it loads fast.

From what I have read, a law firm’s landing page is the most important aspect of the website. My current homepage setup is directed towards getting hits from potential clients. It should make a strong sell with my phone number and free case evaluation “call-to-action” in the upper right-hand corner. If potential clients come to the website, they should know right away what I ultimately want them to do: call me.

I thank lawyer website developer Karin Conroy for commenting on this blog in my previous lawyer website post and clueing me in to the important of the call-to-action. My website is meant to be informative to all potential clients, but it is also meant to sell my legal services and how the client can ask for those services. Thus, the phone number.

How did I get the lawyer website set-up?

I posted about my efforts to create a lawyer website previously. However, since that post, I’ve learned a lot and I hope to share some of that with my readers. Below are the three main tools that I used to create my website:

WordPress.org. Wordpress is a wonderful, user-friendly, and FREE resource. It is a web design platform that focuses on aesthetics and ease-of-use. I love it. The learning curve isn’t overly burdensome and, once you learn how to use it, the rewards are great.
Thesis Theme by DIY Themes. I’m still a little undecided on this one. I like it, but I don’t think the look of the theme is quite as good as other themes I have sampled. I should, however, give kudos to Lawyerist.com for cluing me in on the Thesis Theme. It cost $164.00 for the developer’s license. I plan to use it for multiple websites so I went with the more costly developers license. A single-use license costs half as much, at $87.00.
Winhost.com. Winhost is a website hosting provider. I signed up for the “max” plan at $4.95 a month with two months free. I don’t think I needed the max plan and could have gone cheaper, but I’m just starting out and wanted room to grown. Winhost is a shared hosting service and this means a lot of different things – namely there are a lot of other people using the server and your website load times can be slow as a result. This also means you better know something about website optimization if you want to build your own site and use a cheap, shared-hosting providers like Winhost, Godaddy, or Hostgator. Winhost allows you to purchase a domain name (usually about $8.00 to $10.00 a year for a domain name). Winhost also has a nice, user-friendly control panel that was easy to learn and navigate. My favorite part about Winhost is that it was very easy to install WordPress through their “application installer”. Just follow some simple steps and your website is up and running in under an hour (if you know what your are doing).

That’s the list. Essentially, you only need these three basic things to get a lawyer website up and running. I didn’t say it would look good or load fast, I just said you would have a website.

After choosing a domain name, hosting provider, and setting up WordPress, you then need to figure out how your new website is going to look. Once you get it up, WordPress installs a “default” theme which is basically a blog format. You are not going to want to use a blogging format for your website.

Choosing a Law Firm Website Theme

I talked about using “themes” in my prior posts on blogging and creating a law firm website. There are many themes to choose from and I haven’t sampled half of them. Do a quick Google search on “lawyer wordpress themes” and just try and make a decision. The three I have tried and like are:

I ultimately ended up sticking with the DIY, Thesis theme because I perceive it to be the most user-friendly, reasonably nice-looking, and it has top-notch support. Without a doubt, DIY has the best support forum that I have used. Most of my design questions were answered very quickly with good, solid advice.

In my opinion, Elegant Themes are the most aesthetically pleasing. Elegant Themes is also very reasonably priced. I paid $39.00 for a year-long subscription with no other contracts or other long-term deals. Plus, if you use Elegant Themes, you can choose from an array of high quality Themes – not just one. The ability to use multiple themes is a great feature – especially if you are going to develope multiple websites for your law firm. I may still use an Elegant Theme for another website, but, for now, I am using Thesis.

The last option I have tried is StudioPress. StudioPress has nice looking themes. Their support was good for the short time I used the theme. However, I like Thesis and Elegant Themes better and I didn’t need the extra expense. My mistake. Check out StudioPress, you may really like them.

So, after you get a WordPress website started, you simply need to follow the WordPress instructions and upload your theme. I know if sounds hard, and there is a learning curve, but it really isn’t that difficult. Best of all, you should be able to get a very nice looking website up for under $200.00 using this method.

There are many other discussion points like website optimization. There many good tools to use, but I particularly like YSlow, GTMetrix, and Pingdom.com. These websites give you scores on how your website is designed. The scores directly influence page-load times. Many of these tools relate directly to a things with names like “Cascading-Style-Sheets (CSS)”, “HTML”, and other programing tools. I know enough about some of them to be dangerous, but if you are going to get serious, you should probably talk to a website developer. I learned a lot of this on my own and bought a CSS book but I don’t necessarily recommend doing this unless you have a lot of free time on your hands. One additional website optimization tool I use is JPEG Mini. It is free and it allows you to greatly reduce your website images before you place them on your website. Optimizing images is very important for speeding up your website. I could write an entire post on choosing website images and optimizing them.

Finally, if anybody wants help navigating the process of creating a law firm website, I would be happy to lend a hand. Seriously, just shoot me an email at jflanders@flanderslawfirm.com and I’ll do what I can to explain what I have learned and what has worked (and not worked) for me. Cheers.

November 5, 2011May 16, 2012

One Attorney Asks: “But Where Do I Fit In?”

I’ve been thinking a lot about blogging and the arch question: “is it a giant waste of time and thought?” What is more, “should I feel compelled to share my nonsense and should you, dear reader, be compelled to read it?” I’ll deal with the former, you consider the latter.

I started a small law firm, practiced for about 5 months and abruptly wrapped up the practice, took and passed the bar exam, and I am now waiting for admission by motion into the Minnesota bar. Which brings up yet another question: “where do I fit in in terms of legal blogging?” I’ve actually practiced by myself for a short period of time and had some success. (To be fair, most of the money I made was from clients at my old firm – but, they were my clients and they wanted me). Now, I’m licensed in Indiana and admitted (but not yet licensed in North Dakota). I just submitted my Minnesota application for admission by motion. The Minnesota Board of Law Examiners sent me a very official letter telling me I had to wait four months for a investigation to take place before they would make a decision. This amounts to my third “investigation” in four years for bar admission purposes. Yep, my record is still clean. No disciplinary violations, and yet, another investigation. I’ll say this, I haven’t had a speeding ticket in seven years. I’ve been a good boy.

So this is where I think I fit in: I’m a legal blogger, blogging about the things it takes to do before you start a law firm. That’s right, this blog should more properly be titled: “before you start a law firm.” I apologize for the narrowness of my scope. Read at your own risk.

As I promised before and will get to later, I have updated my Minnesota attorney website. I am also in the process of creating a second website but I can’t unleash its awesome power because it is practice and location specific (think: Minnesota). On the website front, I did it myself and it hurt me. I like my website. My wife likes it. My son looked at it briefly (I think). But, in the end, I’ll sign off with this: why didn’t I just buck up and pay somebody to design my website for me? I have spent long hours on it. Too many hours. To think, my time used to be worth $150.00 an hour.

I think I have an answer to the last question. I spent too much time building my website because that is what I do. I do things myself. I can’t let anybody do things for me if I think I can figure it out. It’s a curse and a blessing, really.

So, it’s a metaphor or a symbol then: I developed my own website, figured out how to optimize it for speed, and added (and revised over and over again) because I’m a DYI’er (do-it-yourselfer). I’m blogging about “before” starting a law firm because I can’t be any other way. That is where I fit in.

October 31, 2011

If You Want to Do It, Just Do It

I’ve been wanting to post for several days now and I just can’t seem to get one out. I’m too busy working on my website, which I plan to talk about in detail because I made a bunch of mistakes that somebody can learn from. Anyway, I’m posting now.

When I think about starting a law firm – and I think about it all day, every day – a comment by Steve Pennaz keeps coming back to me. Who is Steve Pennaz? Clearly you don’t fish. Pennaz is the head of the North American Fishing Club. That is not important. What is important is a comment he made in a recent fishing show about his early salad days when he was a little guy and the world was a big, big place.

I wanted to share his comment. I’m paraphrasing, but here goes: during the show, Pennaz was asked about getting started in the fishing business. He talked about how he wanted to be a fishing guru and head-honcho of the fishing industry soon after college or something.

To that end, he shared that, while he was still college, he went to a fishing seminar at which Babe Winkelman was the keynote speaker. (Oh, you don’t know who Babe Winkelman is either?). Pennaz shared that he went up to Babe Winkelman and asked: “How did you start your own fishing show?” To which, Winkelman replied: “What do you mean ‘how’, I just did it.”

Whether or not you like fishing or embroidery, the message in that statement is clear. If you want to do something, just do it and don’t look back. That’s my new moto: “I just did it.”

October 24, 2011

Starting a Law Firm Update, Various Odds & Ends

I apologize for not posting for a while. Still here, just a little busy. Blogging for legal business can be a real task master. Think twice before getting into this whole blogging game. You had better like to write.

So, my wife and I took an overdue trip to Paris and Luxembourg a couple weeks ago. We skipped a real honeymoon because I didn’t want to make the partners at my old law firm upset that I was taking vacation during my first year as an associate. Now that I’m no longer at the firm, I guess I can take vacation. I’ll say this: I’ve gained a little perspective about what I want out of life since my first year of marriage and my first year as an associate attorney. Marriage is much more important. Is it any wonder that I am starting a law firm?

Anyway, I’m back and still trying to blog. As I’ve posted, I’m still working on getting licensed in Minnesota. This obviously creates a dilemma as far as writing many practice-related blog posts. To be honest, I feel a little out of the game. I am not hustling like I used to and I miss it. But, there are many, many things to get done before officially hanging out my own shingle. I’ll talk about that stuff instead.

In the main, I am concerned with two main things: (1) office space and (2) my website. Both of these things relate to my effort to focus a bit more and get my law firm start-up business plan in better shape. I am going through my old business plan and re-thinking things now that I have relocated to Minneapolis from Indiana. I have had an opportunity to scope out the market and competition a little better. Naturally, that changes the plan a little.

I’ll post more on this stuff tomorrow, but I wanted to get a post out to say sorry and I’ll try and to better. In the meantime, I’d appreciate any comments on my new website: flanderslawfirm.com.

I’m still working on the website and I know that the picture of me is terrible. I’ll get one up just as soon as somebody takes a professional looking picture of me that I like. Also, if anybody goes to my website, would you mind leaving a comment here on exactly how long it took you to get there? As in: how long did it take to load?

Thanks.

September 23, 2011September 25, 2011

“Above The Law” Seeks Solo Attorney Input

I wanted to let my readers out there know that one of the major blogs, Above The Law, is soliciting solo lawyers for worthy topics to be posted on its “Small Law Firms” section.

I don’t read their coverage of small firm matters often – mainly because their primary focus is on big law as far as I can tell. However, I get some good chuckles from them now and again. Also, providing worthy info on small firm practice or on starting a law firm to a major blog will do nothing but help publicize your blog or law firm website.

If you are so inclined, you probably couldn’t go wrong by providing something.

September 21, 2011March 20, 2012

Can Bad SEO Advice Support a Negligence Lawsuit?

Check out this post by Eric Goldman on his Technology & Marketing Law Blog about how bad SEO advice could support a negligence claim as seen in D’Agostino v. Appliances Buy Phone, Inc.. (As an aside, I found this article at Associates Mind – another blog that appears to be way better than this one and which makes me jealous).

According to the complaint, a small home appliances business and Google were sued by the business’s web developer. As Mr. Goldman points out, the more interesting aspect of the complaint is the counter claim. In the counter claim, the small business seeks damages for the web developer building a second business website that appears to have had duplicate content with the original website. If you didn’t know, Google doesn’t like duplicate content.

Mr. Goldman does a great job explaining the nature of the counter claim:

On the negligence claim, Sigman argued that D’Agostino claimed to be an SEO expert but negligently triggered a duplicate content penalty. Finally, Sigman claimed that D’Agostino breached their contract by “jeopardizing defendant’s website, violating Google policies, and causing the interruption of defendant’s enterprise.”

I’ve been putting a lot of time and effort into my law firm website and to blogging. There is a lot of information out there about “white hat” versues “black hat” search-engine-optimization. As I concluded in a prior post, SEO is mostly bull shit in the respect that you don’t need a guru. What you should do is focus on a niche and write authoritatively with good content. Simple.

Anyway, as Mr. Goldman points out, there may actually be negative ramifications for asserting that you are some sort of SEO guru and trying to sell your wares to the next gullible buyer. I can’t tell you how many SEO gurus have either tried to comment on this blog or sent me random, un-asked-for emails: trying to sell me their SEO secrets to big, big money.

As I posted earlier, there is no trick to garnering tons of hits on a blog and free money. It takes work, good writing, interesting topics, and time. Furthermore, it would help to be like Lawyerist, Above the Law, or many other legal related blogs out there that have what appears to be an army of writers. I’m not saying this is a bad thing – a lot of good content gets posted that way. However, it is certainly hard for a small-fish like me to make headway when they are writing so much and so well.

In any case, this case shows why SEO gurus should be denied access to your wallet as you try to get your law firm marketing together and think about how to start a law firm. There is simply no substitute for good work and good content.