By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach Electronic mail (otherwise known as e-mail) plays an important part in any business these days. It’s helped make communicating and doing business far more efficient and simpler. However, as with most things in business, there are certain rules that professionals should follow when it comes to using e-mail. If not done correctly, it can actually create unnecessary confusion, chaos, and an unnecessary amount of miscommunication (and maybe even legal liability!). Below, you will find what I consider to be the ten most important e-mail etiquette rules to live and work by. (NOTE: These are…
Free Checkup Meetings Generate Lots of Revenue!
By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law In a prior article, we discussed the “free service package” alternative to an annual maintenance fee program. The package included a free attorney checkup meeting every three years. You may be wondering, “How do you get your existing clients to come back in for these checkup meetings and actually generate additional revenue from them?” (Before I address these questions, let me first note that, even if you do have and decide to keep your current maintenance plan, periodic checkup…
Tips for Boosting Morale In Your Office This Thanksgiving
By Kristina Schneider, Practice-Building & Marketing Specialist There’s no doubt that this year has been a challenging one for many people – – both professionally and personally. There’s been a whirlwind of things going on this year and it’s hard to just “check it at the door” when you come into the office. Speaking with numerous attorneys about their current challenges in their practice, one thing seems certain. Office morale is down. Low morale at the office usually results in reduced productivity, compromised work performance, tardiness and absences, and even personal conflicts and emotional outbursts. As we wind down the…
Six Big Mistakes When Choosing an Associate Attorney
By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law Although attorneys are trained in the technical aspects of the law, we haven’t been taught how to run a successful business, often relying upon trial and error as costly teachers. In the process of building my own practice, I have made each and every one of the following mistakes when hiring associate attorneys, so I am speaking to you from experience. Mistake #1: Focusing mainly on the associate’s law school, credentials, experience and technical expertise. As educated and experienced…
Tips for Managing the Top 5 Interruptions at the Workplace
By Kristina Schneider, Practice-Building & Marketing Specialist One of the most costly killers of productivity in the workplace is interruptions. There are some startling statistics about how much interruptions really cost a business. It is believed that interruptions can cost a company up to over 6 hours per day in productivity, which equates to over 30 hours in a week (almost an entire full-time employee!). It’s also estimated that social media alone costs the U.S. economy over $650 billion per year in all of the lost production. Crazy, right? Interruptions are pretty much impossible to avoid, but there are definitely…
Summer Vacation Might Be Different This Year, But Be Sure to Take a Break!
By Kristina Schneider, Practice-Building & Marketing Specialist There is no denying that this summer feels is different. No, let me actually just call it for what it is—IT IS WEIRD! With all that’s going on in 2020, there’s no telling what tomorrow will bring (did we miss the murder hornets, cause it feels like we skipped those…). This comes as here in California, we just got ordered back to working from home and a lot of things that just opened up less than a month ago are closed back up. All that being said, I have found myself thinking that…
Check-In With Your Employees (and Yourself!) Right Now
By Kristina Schneider, Practice-Building & Marketing Specialist 2020 is certainly not letting up with its challenges and difficult events to work through. It feels like an eternity since I was at DFW airport boarding a plane back to Los Angeles, getting the devastating breaking news that Kobe Bryant had just died in a helicopter crash. And, it feels like ever since then, month after month, there was just more and more difficult things to process. From a business perspective, I bring awareness to all that’s going on, because we are all human. We are all experiencing what’s going on right…
When Life Hands You Lemons, It Might Be Time to Throw Them Out!
By Kristina Schneider, Practice-Building & Marketing Specialist There’s a saying, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!” That’s definitely a very positive way of looking at things and during these current challenges that so many are going through right now, there’s certainly a great deal of lemons being handed to us right now. There are definitely some opportunities here to make some lemonade though, but I am also going to share another piece of advice that (frankly) I’m sure some of your staff might not want to hear either. Let’s Make Lemonade! So, let’s start off with something positive and…
Helpful Resources for Executing Documents During Pandemic
EDITOR’S NOTE: Many estate planners are grappling with how to execute documents without an in-person client meeting and yet still have them considered valid. This article helps shed some light on this issue. Thank you to attorney, Susan K., for passing along this fantastic article to us. Application of the Harmless Error Doctrine in California and Beyond By Jessica Uzcategui of Sacks, Glazier, Franklin & Lodise, LLP THE HARMLESS ERROR DOCTRINE The traditional definition of a “will” is changing. Historically, courts insisted on strict compliance with will formalities. In California, this meant that a will had to be signed by…
What Things You Can Learn From (and During) This Crisis
By Kristina Schneider, Practice-Building & Marketing Specialist There’s no denying that what we are all experiencing right now is certainly uncharted territory and unlike anything any of us have ever gone through. And, while the news reports and uncertainty that we may be surrounded by right now may create a lot of stress and concern, what I will say is that I do think that there’s a lot of silver linings and positive lessons to be learned from all of this right now. Here are just a few things that I think this whole COVID-19 crisis has brought to light (at…