Solo In Chicago…Grow Your Practice!

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Some nuggets I e-mailed to myself and finally got around to reading…

So You Want to Go Solo? You Sure? I was underwhelmed by this piece from the November ABA Journal…with the title I thought this would be useful and it’s not a short article. Several note-worthy persons are quoted in the article but perhaps the author didn’t ask the right questions or something. The best take-a-way:  “Like it or not, having a viable solo practice requires sales skills as much as legal skills.”

10 Ways to Conquer Your Procrastination. I struggle with this, not sure if it’s this general “procrastination” or just a malaise related to not enjoying the work that sits before me enough. The 2 best tips:  Embrace Discipline and Set a Big Goal.

Facebook a friend to small businesses. This includes some great tips and frankly it’s an area I’m deficient in. We’ve had an SIC group on Facebook for a while but it’s misguided…clearly a fan page is the way to go. Here’s good lawyer fan page usage. And our friend Ed Poll is profiled in the piece.

Real-Life Lessons in Using Google AdWords. Because one of these days I’m going to finally test these out & because I hear a lot of stories of ineffective usage.

I attended a pretty good real estate CLE last week down at CBA.  Like many of you, I complete most of my CLE thru the Chicago Bar’s CLEAdvantage program which is essentially unlimited CLE for $125 annually (sorry ISBA I love ya but the Firm’s bottomline must come first). Mostly review but real estate is my second largest practice area and you always get a few tips.

But they still don’t talk MONEY!! Is it me or is there an aversion to talking billing/collections/billing rates at CLE programs?

Speaking personally, I can think of nothing that’s more important yet of which I’m more ignorant about than pricing legal services. Seriously, my fee setting is based on experiences at two firms I worked at some 5-7 years ago and seeing the rare fee petition that gets filed against a client. So, in an attempt to be part of the solution, I’ve created a couple forums where I hope some frank discussions about the business of law will occur:

• Solo In Chicago on Facebook
• Solo In Chicago on LinkedIn
• Follow Solo In Chicago on Twitter:  @soloinchicago