If you aren’t spending as much time working with your clients as you need to;

If you aren’t as productive or profitable as you’d like;

If you’re suffering under the weight of unbillable business and administrative work, and spending more time at the office than reasonable (like most lawyers…)

STOP! Take a deep breath, step back, and look at WHAT you’re doing and HOW you’re doing it.

Want to watch this tip instead?

Don’t Be Afraid

This week’s tip? Don’t be afraid to recognize and acknowledge the inefficiency of existing processes. You can’t do anything about your inefficiency until you see it. Then you can work on eliminating or at least reducing the inefficiency, frustration, and friction that permeates so much of what we do. That friction and inefficiency cost us time, money, and effort.

Reducing that waste is the simplest and most effective way to grow your income and deliver even better service in less time and with less effort.

I know it can be hard to admit that you’re inefficient. We have some clients who don’t publicize their improvement efforts. They don’t tell their clients they’re taking our courses, or starting process improvement, or implementing project management. Why? Because they don’t want their clients to think that they’ve been inefficient for years.

A Shocking Revelation

But here’s what we tell them….: Surprise! Your clients already KNOW! They’ve been thinking you’re inefficient for years.

When you admit it and take clear, intentional steps to make your practice more efficient, your clients will thank you.

How to Avoid Leaving Money on the Table

So look at WHAT you’re doing. If it’s something you do more than once, recognize that you’ve got a process and write it down. Written processes enable you, in the real sense of that word, to delegate tasks more easily and effectively to the right people - those people who do have the time and skills to do the work correctly, quickly, and more cost-effectively than you.

If you’re not creating a clear, written process for everything you do more than once, you’re leaving money on the table.

If you do have written processes, ask yourself: are they efficient? Are they effective? Are people following them? Do they still serve the purpose they were designed for or do they need to be modified to account for changes in people, processes, circumstances, or technology?

Identify and Reduce the Waste

If you need help getting started identifying inefficiency in your practice, our free Eight Wastes Guide and Workbook is a great resource. Use it to identify and reduce waste, so you can spend more time serving your clients and generating revenue.

The Road to Recovery

Once you acknowledge that you’ve got some inefficient processes, you can start making them better. Every minute you invest now updating and improving your processes (whether legal, or business and administrative) will deliver compounding returns. So don’t delay. Get started today. Grab a coffee, sit back, and spend a few minutes really thinking about how and why you work the way you do. Using our Eight Wastes Guide and Workbook will help you see things in a very different light.

And that’s it.

Also, if you’re looking for better ways to manage your practice, with less stress and less effort, consider our Matter Management Masterclass. It’s a 2-hour course that teaches an easy, visual method to track files, allocate work, and stay on time and on budget. The blended online program includes video lessons, a workbook and guides, plus live-online group coaching. The Masterclass is now available on demand and the live-online group coaching session takes place at 3 pm Eastern on the last Thursday of the month.

Thanks a lot everybody! See you next week for another practical and highly actionable tip aimed at helping you create a more profitable, productive, and fulfilling law practice with less stress and less time at the office.

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