Best Practice: 5 tips to improve profitability

Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. Everyone seems to be working hard in our firm but it seems like we are not making any money. Do you have ideas or tips on what we can do better? A. Regardless of firm size, focus is the key to success and improved profitability. It is hard to serve two masters – clients and the business of your firm. Here are a few ideas.

1. Never eat lunch alone. Have lunch every day with clients, prospective clients, referral sources or members of your team.
2. Take our time management self test. Begin working on your problem areas one behavior at a time. Time is money.
3. Enter you time daily into you time and billing system - both billable and non-billable - as you work. Don't go home until you have accounted for an entire day. You may be dropping 10-25% potential revenue.
4. Look for ways to brand yourself - dare to be different. With the internet you really can expand your base beyond your local community.
5. Set a few goals and hold yourself and your team accountable.

John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC, (www.olmsteadassoc.com) is a past chair and member of the ISBA Standing Committee on Law Office Management and Economics. For more information on law office management please direct questions to the ISBA listserver, which John and other committee members review, or view archived copies of The Bottom Line Newsletters. Contact John at jolmstead@olmsteadassoc.com.