For the month of December, we’re giving you a challenge each week. Last week Karen challenged you all to eliminate redundancy in your writing. Today, we’re challenging you to boost the profitability potential of routine services and commoditized practices.

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Many lawyers cringe at the thought of their practices being considered commoditized. They think low value/high volume is a bad thing. We don’t. We think potential. BIG POTENTIAL.

In a commoditized practice, the deliverable is basically the same.

• Any law firm can deliver it.
• The lawyers are fungible and the service is a product.
• Margins are typically thin, and fees are usually fixed.

You can find this kind of work being done in almost every law firm, regardless of its size.

But most lawyers work on their commoditized services the same way they work on higher-value work that’s billed by the hour: inefficiently. And the impact of that inefficiency is worse in flat-fee routine work, where every minute you waste hurts your bottom line.

Today’s challenge: Take one small step towards efficiency

1. Choose one routine service you deliver. Look for one that’s high volume and lower value than some of your other work, possibly with a fixed fee.
2. Allocate one hour to thinking critically at HOW you deliver that service now.
3. Write down the steps, including who does each task and what tools they use (if any).
4. Identify the wastes. Use our Eight Wastes workbook to help you.

You will find waste. And it’s not just a question of looking for the “low-hanging fruit” when you're hunting for things you can improve. As our friend Art Wilson likes to say, there’s plenty of rotten fruit on the ground. Art’s a Project Manager at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin in Toronto.

Look for:

• a step you can eliminate
• a step you can automate, even if it’s creating a simple template in Word
• a task you’re doing that an assistant or clerk or junior can do for less cost

Every small improvement that you can make in a fixed fee, routine service you deliver will make you more efficient, and make your practice more profitable.

And that’s it for this week’s tip. Join us next week for more on building a more profitable and productive law practice.

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Thanks a lot everybody! See you next week.