How to Work Smarter When Building Your Estate Planning Practice

Work Smarter. Achieve Success Faster.

If you’re anything like most lawyers, I know you’re working hard. 

You’re willing to put in as many hours as it takes and then some to help your clients get the outcomes they want. And perhaps even when you’re not at work, your mind is spinning with goals, to-dos, and ways to take your law career to the next level.

You’re giving the law everything you’ve got. But are you getting the best return from your efforts?

It’s a common misconception that if you want to get more out of their law degree, you have to work harder. But the truth is you’re already working hard enough and just need to work smarter.

The problem is that working smart is not always intuitive, and law school certainly didn’t teach us business smarts. 

But there is a better way to practice law that yields better results for you, your clients, and your loved ones.

So, today I’m going to show you what it really means to work smarter and how changing the way you work can help you to reach your goals faster and achieve more with less effort.

Why it’s essential to learn to work smarter now.

Working smarter requires making big changes, and most people are resistant to change. But holding on to what’s not working only pushes you farther away from your goals.

As a lawyer, you are a high achiever. And you’re probably used to keeping your head down and focusing on reaching the next rung on the ladder so you can make it to the top. But the thing is, it doesn’t matter how high you climb if you’re climbing the wrong ladder.

So, it’s important to stop and ask yourself are you pursuing the right goals?

Be sure that you only pour yourself into endeavors that will support your lifestyle and well-being.

If you don’t already have your own practice, now is the best time to start. If you start now, realistically, you could have a profitable 6 figure practice this time next year. And then a 7-figure firm 2 years after that. I have helped over 360 lawyers make it happen.

And you might be thinking that next year is far away. But that year will pass you by anyway, whether you take action or not. Would you rather look back and feel gratitude that you have a law practice you’re proud of that provides for you and your family and supports your lifestyle? Or would you rather look back with regret wishing that you had gotten on the right path sooner?

If you already have your own practice but aren’t consistently reaching your goals, it’s important to fix what isn’t working sooner rather than later so that you can enjoy the fruits of your labor and have a life and business you love.

That’s why the time to work smarter is now.

What does it mean to work smarter?

You deserve to be rewarded for your hard work, but the only way to do that is by working smarter.

What do I mean by working smarter?

The key to working smarter is to learn from the people who have already walked the path before you and leverage their frameworks and processes instead of reinventing the wheel. 

Everything I’ve accomplished I was able to do because I saw someone else do it first. I invested tens of thousands of dollars in the best coaches and consultants to learn all the processes and frameworks necessary to build a thriving law practice I love.

And now, I’ve taken everything I’ve learned and created a New Law Business Model that I have taught to thousands of lawyers who have used it to build high 6-figure and 7-figure firms.

As part of the New Law Business Model, we teach that working smarter means managing what we call your TEAM resources in a way that achieves results within the shortest amount of time possible and in a way that allows you to love your life.

Your TEAM resources are your Time. Energy. Attention. Money. How you manage these resources dictates the type of life and law practice you can create.

If you want a law practice and life you love, here is how you can work smarter and manage your TEAM resources better to make it happen.

Time

We help our lawyers manage and invest their time more wisely by teaching them goal-based time management. The first step in goal-based time management is setting goals. 

What kind of law practice and lifestyle do you want to have? 

• A Solo Practitioner, taking home around $100k a year with a flexible schedule and a part-time assistant?
•  A Staffed Practice, bringing home more than $250,000 per year while working 3.5 days per week with the support of 2-3 staff members? 
• Or a 7-Figure firm taking home $350k-$450k with a 40-hour work week and the support of a full team, and the ability to take off 2-4 weeks at a time?

Determining the practice model you want to pursue will help you know how many initial client meetings you need on your calendar, how many hours you need to work, and what to do with those hours.

Energy

The importance of managing your energy is often overlooked, but if you don’t have health, vitality, and energy, it doesn’t matter how much time you have because you won’t be able to enjoy your life and accomplish your goals. That’s why we help our lawyers build systems to protect their energy. In our goal-based time management system, we teach that not all activities are created equal and that different types of activities should be given a different level of priority.

This is the hierarchy we teach:

1st: Self-care – that is time you reserve for yourself to rest, learn, play, and recharge.

2nd: Family – this is time for spending with loved ones that lift you up and fill your cup.

3rd: Income – this time is for business activities, and it’s important to note that we mean income generating activities – not busy work or side projects.

When you prioritize your activities this way, you make sure you have enough energy for the things that really matter so you can enjoy the journey.

Attention

One of the biggest things that distinguish lawyers who achieve their goals from those who don’t is lawyers who accomplish their goals know what to focus on instead of trying to do everything at once. Our coaches help you to analyze your goals and law practice metrics to determine exactly what to focus on so that your other resources, like time, energy, and money, go to good use.

Money

If you want to have a successful law practice, you must invest your money wisely. Some lawyers are too afraid to invest in their practice when they need to, and it halts their growth. And other lawyers invest in the wrong things too soon, which leaves their practice financially unstable. Our coaches use a tool called the Cash Flow Forecast Planner to help you see where you can afford to invest in your practice and when you should hold off on investing and focus on generating more revenue first.

You can have a law practice and life that you love. And you can have it sooner rather than later. But the key is to take action now and to start working smarter by leveraging processes and systems that are proven to work instead of reinventing the wheel. 

When you become a Personal Family Lawyer®, we give you all the tools and systems you need to build a successful estate planning practice in the most efficient and enjoyable way possible. If you want to learn how we can help you work smarter and achieve your goals faster, schedule a call with a Law Business Advisor. On the call, they will help you figure out whether our program is a good fit for you and whether you’re a good fit for our community of trusted lawyers.