In writing The Five Catalysts, I described how confidence and conviction is any owner’s first catalyst for growth. And this confidence and conviction comes from a defining point that pushes on owner to turn her or his passion into action.  With October being National Women Business Owner’s Month, I got to thinking how so many successful women-business-owning clients of mine got started and how they built their businesses successfully despite surviving divorce, being widowed, or having to support a family where success was not an option but an imperative for survival.

And as their businesses have grown, I see that “women’s intuition” has caused many clients to make better decisions based on reasoned judgement.  Certainly, fewer women owners are “too smart to help” and aren’t making testosterone-driven decisions based on ego and “diminishing capabilities.” Maybe I have just been lucky, but women are more willing to listen to outside advice which has made them great clients I have been able to help more than average.

In this time of changing business environments, customer demands,and irrational financial markets, there are a lot of women business owners whose patience and perseverance have brought great value to their customers, employees and vendors!  And on top of this, many are also raising families at the same time.  Do you agree, why?

Last Friday October 5th, Birol Growth Consulting sponsored Ed Poll of LawBiz who led an excellent workshop to an invited group of lawyers on practice development.  Attendees were Managing and Senior Partners of a cross section of large, medium, and small Cleveland firms. Here are my notes amd observations from the presentation.

Please post your comments, reactions or questions at the bottom or contact Ed Poll atedpoll@lawbiz.com or Andy Birol at abirol@andybirol.com.

• There is a direct correlation between a law firm’s business proficiency (not their legal prowess) and a law firm’s profits.

• Lawyering is a true team sport. If your client participates in the process to achieve their outcomes they won’t criticize themselves or their lawyer. Show your client that you are on the same team in implementing their success.

• Most lawyers don’t bill for learning curves when starting to work with a client and lose 15% of revenues for not doing so. Lawyers also lose revenues through pre-bill write-offs (due in part to the learning curve problem lowering their realization rates. Lawyers finally lose more if they don’t collect at least 90% of what was billed.

• The reason lawyers lose so much in uncollected work is by not knowing enough about their client. Since the client assumes the lawyer is an authority figure there are only three reasons the client won’t pay:- They did not want the work

  - They did not expect the bill

  - Too much time was spent on the work

• Raise rates annually and gradually by selling first to yourself, then to prospects and finally to clients.

• Rainmakers are the most valued people in a firm, despite most lawyers preferring not to sell. You can always find a lawyer to do the work if you have sold the work!

• Remember 60% of prospects come from referrals. You start a client relationship with full trust and can only screw it up with insufficient service

• It is never the client’s fault that they don’t pay it is always your fault you did not do something right.

• Running a successful law firm means being proficient at getting business (marketing), doing the work (being productive) and thirdly getting paid (administration).

• While the bar association will never give continuing education credit for developing sales or marketing expertise, it will do so for repositioning the lawyer’s need to better communicate with the client which falls under the category of ethics so lawyers should seek out educational opportunities accordingly.

As the host of the event, I found it eye-opening to listen and learn how lawyers see their businesses operate from “their side of the table” and how similar yet different a law firm is from any other service business. While the legal vocabulary is quite different from that of other industries, I saw common ground in the challenges of balancing any firm’s need to sell, deliver and develop their businesses all at the same time as I have defined here. Whether you could attend or not or are a lawyer or not, what do you think?

If I am asked once, I am asked too often, “Why are you a consultant?”

Because (with my apologies to gym teachers)

1. Those Who Can, Do

2. Those Who Can’t Do, Teach

3. Those Who Can’t Teach, Teach Gym

4. Those Who Can’t Teach Gym, Consult

5. Those Who Can’t Consult, Do!

So if you ever wonder how and why people become or stop being consultants, I hope I have solved this conundrum for you!  Your comments and any consultant jokes are welcomed.

Here is one serious article on how to choose a consultant and another on how to be a consultant. Enjoy!

What do We Business Owners need most to “Get There?”

Regardless of our industry, success or condition, I believe we should have the

• Appetite (do we really want to do it)

• Capacity (do we have the money, time and talent to do it) and

• Timing (not too early or too late) so profound change pays off as quickly and  profitably as possible

I find I am always short on time or money so the more I focus on what I actually need to do to get there, the more likely I am to succeed.

 Your thoughts?