0:00

Hi and welcome back to the Marketing

0:02

LawCast . I'm your host , jennifer Goddard

0:04

, I'm the CEO of Integrity Marketing and

0:06

I'm so happy today to be having

0:09

our guest , victoria Collier

0:11

of Quid Pro Quo Law

0:13

.

0:14

Before we dive into today's episode , a special

0:16

shout out to our sponsor . Quid Pro Quo

0:18

. Are you a law firm looking to scale or

0:20

sell your practice ? Qpq's expert

0:23

team can help you unlock your firm's full potential

0:25

. Stay tuned for valuable insights brought

0:27

to you by QPQ .

0:29

Hi Victoria . It's always great to see you . For

0:32

those of our listeners who maybe aren't that familiar

0:34

with you , could you give us a little bit about who

0:37

you are , your background and your company ?

0:40

Sure , I'm Victoria Collier and prior

0:43

to creating Quid Pro Quo

0:45

in 2021 , I

0:48

actually started my own law firm right

0:50

out of law school in 2002

0:52

. In estate planning elder

0:54

law specifically I

0:57

became known as the expert in veterans benefits within

1:00

those subsets . I operated

1:02

that business for 18 years and

1:05

I sold it in 2020

1:08

, before the pandemic , which was great timing

1:10

for me . I learned

1:12

how to build a law firm from

1:14

scratch . I took it over seven figures for

1:17

about five years before I sold it and

1:19

then I sold it . After

1:21

I sold it , I was actually , as

1:24

you know , I own farm animals and

1:26

I bought a farm and I started

1:28

farming . But my colleagues who

1:30

I had known for

1:32

18 years , who I had coached

1:34

in the estate planning world , were reaching

1:37

out to me and they were asking me how

1:39

did you sell your law firm ? Can you

1:41

help me do that ? And

1:43

so I started Quid Pro Quo

1:45

to fit that need , because there's just not

1:48

a lot of resources for law

1:50

firms or law firm owners who

1:52

want to exit and actually

1:54

make money off of the sale , because

1:57

the traditional way was

1:59

just handing your cases over

2:02

to a colleague and be grateful that somebody's

2:04

taking care of your clients . But it doesn't have

2:06

to be that way anymore and , as

2:08

you've seen , jennifer , over the past five

2:10

to 10 years , law firm

2:13

owners are becoming

2:15

much more astute

2:17

and being business owners and

2:20

not just lawyers . So if

2:22

you're just a lawyer , it is still very hard

2:24

to offload your firm and have what

2:26

I call a great life after law . But

2:29

more and more lawyers are becoming

2:31

business owners and then they can sell their business

2:33

and that's what Quid Pro Quo

2:35

does .

2:36

Yes , and also like anything that you've

2:38

ever pursued . When you started this company

2:41

, you got all the education

2:43

. You got your certification in business

2:45

valuation and exit planning

2:48

. You never do anything halfway

2:51

.

2:52

No , I learned early on . I was a paralegal

2:54

before I was a lawyer and

2:58

I was taught that if

3:00

you're going to do something , you do it to

3:02

the best of your ability .

3:03

I mean , I was in the Air Force .

3:04

Our whole motto is aim high . You can't

3:07

do that by dabbling

3:09

in a topic . So , yes , I

3:11

became a certified value builder

3:14

person who values businesses

3:16

, and then also a certified exit planning

3:18

advisor as well . And

3:20

so I go just like lawyers

3:22

go to CLEs , I go to my own

3:24

conferences and educational

3:27

events for this industry .

3:30

Yeah , that doesn't surprise me one bit . That's exactly

3:32

how you approach everything

3:34

Today , victoria . We wanted

3:36

to talk a little bit about , you know

3:39

, it being the beginning of the year and

3:41

if someone has an exit

3:44

timeline in mind

3:46

, let's say , well , I'll let you talk

3:48

a little bit about that , because people

3:50

have different timelines in mind but sometimes

3:52

it comes down to the last minute

3:54

. But if someone has a timeline in mind

3:56

, what kinds of things should

3:59

they be doing and thinking about

4:01

now , at the beginning of the year ?

4:03

First of all , most people , when they have a timeline

4:06

and I say when , because most people

4:08

actually don't have a timeline , but vaguely

4:10

in their head they think of a certain age

4:12

. And so when I hit this age

4:15

, I want to phase

4:17

out is the way I hear it most often

4:19

from people is I want to phase out when I hit this

4:21

age . That age generally

4:24

comes down to either retirement

4:26

age , like at 65 or 67

4:28

, based on social security , or

4:31

it comes down to when their children

4:33

are graduating from either high school or college

4:35

, because they feel at that point

4:37

they have the freedom to not have

4:39

the same kind of income that

4:42

they've been striving for every

4:44

year . So that age

4:46

or that stage could be very different

4:48

for people . It could be a year from now , it could be

4:51

15 years from now . Regardless

4:53

of that , what they don't

4:55

ever know and that is what is the

4:57

value of their law firm they just don't know

5:00

that they might have a hint

5:02

of gut

5:05

desire as to what they want from

5:07

their law firm when they sell it . So they

5:09

might know that I want to

5:11

make a million dollars or $3

5:13

million , or I'd be happy if I walked away

5:15

with $200,000 . That

5:18

doesn't mean they know the value of the firm . They just

5:20

know that somewhere along

5:22

the line that's what they believe they can live

5:24

on in retirements . However

5:27

, they define that for themselves . So

5:29

I would say the first part

5:31

of the year is the best time

5:33

to actually get an evaluation , because

5:36

when we do the evaluation , it

5:38

actually gives you strategy

5:40

on how to increase the value of your

5:42

firm if you want to increase the

5:44

value . So when best to put a plan

5:46

in place in the beginning of the year ? So I would

5:48

say that it also helps us define

5:51

the gaps . If I'm here

5:53

and I want to go there , where are

5:55

the gaps ? And even

5:57

without evaluation , okay

5:59

, I would say that the

6:02

two biggest gaps that

6:04

we see that have the greatest

6:06

impact on selling our

6:08

law firm , our profitability

6:11

, is what's your profit margin ? And so

6:13

can we increase the profit margin ? And

6:16

second would be is

6:18

the firm autonomous from the owner

6:20

? What can we do that

6:22

would get the firm to be

6:24

autonomous from the owner in any aspect

6:27

whatsoever ? That could be in marketing

6:29

, that could be in sales , that could be in production

6:31

, that could be in you name , it

6:33

. Just pick one of them and work on

6:35

that , you know .

6:38

One of the things that I hear from

6:40

people is that they're afraid

6:42

if they're trying to improve their profitability , they're

6:45

afraid of hiring out anything

6:47

. They feel like I've got to do everything

6:49

myself , because

6:52

anytime I spend money on marketing

6:54

or sales or an administrator

6:56

or a CEO , then I'm

6:58

reducing my profitability . So

7:01

how do you kind of change that mindset

7:03

?

7:04

Well , it's hard to change that mindset

7:06

if you're talking about somebody who's been a sole practitioner

7:09

for 40 years or 30 years and

7:12

they're not a business-minded practitioner

7:15

, and sometimes you can't change the

7:17

mindset and for you just cannot do it . But

7:19

the best way that I found to try

7:21

to at least have them see

7:24

that there is a possible shift

7:26

is breaking down . What

7:29

is the hourly rate you

7:31

would pay for someone to do that

7:33

other task , whatever that is , how

7:35

many hours does it actually take you to do

7:37

that task ? And if

7:40

you were charging

7:43

your hourly rate in not doing

7:45

the task that you shouldn't

7:47

be doing , what would you be doing with

7:49

that time ? Some people don't

7:51

think about that . They just think about the added

7:53

cost which , first of all , there's

7:56

your first mistake . It's not a cost when

7:58

you do it right . It's an investment

8:00

. But people don't do it right sometimes

8:02

. So therefore it is in fact a cost

8:04

, right .

8:05

Right , exactly .

8:06

But let's assume they do it right and it's an

8:09

investment , which means that either

8:11

that other person is creating

8:13

money for them like I'm

8:16

paying you $10 and

8:18

you're making $30 for me or

8:21

if you're not making any money for me because

8:23

it's not a money type

8:25

task , maybe you're saving

8:27

my time , which then I

8:30

can be charging $150

8:32

for that same , for

8:35

that same amount of time that I'm paying

8:37

you $10 for , and so that's

8:39

where the investment is . Now I can reallocate

8:42

my time to higher , best

8:44

use profitable activities

8:46

. So , for example , I could

8:48

be out giving a seminar . I could be

8:50

having three more consultations

8:53

per week if I weren't doing my own

8:55

bookkeeping , which is the biggest

8:57

thing that I see that law firm owners do

8:59

is their own bookkeeping .

9:00

That was gonna be one of my next questions is

9:03

where are the big ones that you see that

9:05

people need to start not

9:07

doing ?

9:09

So I would say , first of all , a lot

9:11

of lawyers still do their own intake

9:14

calls , even before

9:16

the consultation , because

9:18

they feel that they are the only ones

9:20

that can screen the call well enough to

9:23

decide if this can

9:25

even possibly be a client . So

9:27

that's number one is spending all these five

9:30

to 15 minutes on the phone with someone just to

9:32

decide if they can come in and have a consultation

9:34

. Those five to 15 minutes really

9:37

add up , and so that's number one . Number

9:39

two is definitely bookkeeping the

9:41

lawyers that still do their own books . Number

9:43

three is billable

9:46

hours in reviewing the

9:48

time sheets , not just for themselves

9:50

but all their other employees . And I'm

9:52

not . This is not a this is

9:54

not a anti billable hour

9:57

discussion , but

9:59

it is a discussion

10:01

around where do we waste our time ? And

10:03

if I am the owner of the firm and

10:06

I am spending hours

10:08

per week or per month reviewing

10:10

everybody else's time and adding

10:12

to it or cutting from it , that's

10:15

a waste . That's a waste . Somebody else

10:17

should be trained to do that . If you're on a billable

10:20

hour schedule , Somebody

10:22

else should be trained to do that . Those

10:24

are the top three .

10:25

Those are the top three . So if you were to

10:28

work with someone who

10:30

is doing those things themselves right now

10:32

, how do you kind of help

10:34

them extricate

10:37

themselves from that ?

10:39

So the first thing we do

10:41

generally is I have them make a list of

10:43

every single thing that they do and

10:45

, secondarily , a list of their

10:48

other staff members they already have on

10:50

staff , and then preferably

10:52

having a list of everything they do , and

10:55

we get to know their competencies to

10:57

the extent that the owner can

11:00

share what they believe those competencies are right . So

11:02

does this person have the smarts

11:05

, the intelligence

11:07

, to be able to do certain things ? Do

11:10

they have the bandwidth ? And

11:12

how do you know if they have the bandwidth ? Because

11:14

you know , I hear all the time that , oh

11:17

, everybody's so busy all the time . Do you

11:19

know how much time they're spending on

11:21

certain tasks ? No , because we don't

11:23

chart time . That is one of the

11:25

first things that I have

11:27

my clients do is everybody needs

11:29

to start keeping track of their time

11:32

on every task , to include

11:34

breaks and lunches and

11:36

things like that , whether they're considered

11:38

billable tasks or not . We

11:40

need to know how they're spending their time

11:42

, not just to see how

11:45

long it takes to do a particular

11:47

task , but also to see

11:49

if I can do a quick review of so much

11:51

time I can see if they're working efficiently

11:54

as well , for example , if

11:56

I'm going to the copy machine room and

11:58

then I'm making a phone call and then I'm drafting a letter

12:00

, and then I'm doing this and I'm not

12:02

grouping my activities together like

12:05

factory work , then I'm going

12:07

to be feeling like I'm overwhelmed and running

12:09

all over the place and I don't have time for anything . But

12:12

if I can actually know what

12:14

my tasks are and I can group like

12:17

minded tasks , I can stay in

12:19

the same mindset and get them done

12:21

in a much faster way , which

12:24

then means they have more capacity to

12:26

take off things off the owner's plate

12:28

, because now they have time to do it , because

12:30

now they're working more effectively . Does that make sense

12:32

? Absolutely .

12:34

Do you get a lot of pushback about people

12:36

that don't want to ask their staff to do

12:38

it , or their staff doesn't want to do it , or they don't

12:40

want to do it for themselves . Of course

12:42

they get pushback .

12:46

But I can say this I

12:48

do get pushback and then I

12:51

pushback because I was like you know , you

12:53

came here for a reason . What

12:56

do you want and are

12:58

you willing to do what it takes to get there ? Those

13:01

are two separate things , right . And

13:04

so if you want these

13:06

results , then you have to take certain steps , and

13:08

the reason you don't have these results is because you've

13:10

never taken those certain steps . Now

13:13

, if you want to sell your law firm and

13:16

not take these steps , that's okay

13:18

too . It's just know that you're going to be missing

13:20

tens of thousands , if not hundreds of thousands

13:23

, of dollars of opportunity that you could

13:25

have if we were to take these steps . And

13:28

that's not my decision , that's their decision .

13:30

Right , exactly . So

13:33

if I'm a buyer and I'm

13:35

looking to buy a law firm , what

13:38

are some of the things that make me say this

13:40

one is so much better than that

13:42

one ?

13:45

Buyers first of all come in

13:47

all kinds of different cloths

13:50

with different motivations , and

13:53

so what one's looking for and a different

13:55

one's looking for could be completely different

13:57

. But let's assume you're first

14:00

of all the type of buyer

14:02

. It's more of an investor , a

14:04

business type for sure , that

14:06

wants a profitable turnkey law

14:08

office . So what they're looking

14:10

for is they're looking for predictability

14:12

and they're looking for consistency . Can

14:15

I predict that this company

14:18

, this law firm , is going to get

14:20

30 clients a month , every single

14:23

month , based on the marketing it's doing ? Right

14:25

? And how do I know that ? Because

14:27

I can tell from the website how many

14:29

people ping on the website . I can tell from

14:31

the phone records how many times the phone rings

14:33

per month Right . I can tell from

14:35

the files how many new

14:37

open files they've had historically

14:39

per month , right . All of those are indicators

14:42

as to predictability . That's what I'm

14:44

looking for . Then , of course , I want to

14:46

look at if any one

14:48

person in the firm was

14:51

to be hit by a bus tomorrow , what

14:53

would it take to replace

14:56

them and to train

14:58

the new replacement ? Do

15:00

we already have somebody on staff that is cross trained

15:03

in that ? Do we have policies and procedures

15:05

or training manuals that can train that so

15:07

I don't have to sit down and spend all kinds

15:09

of time . Or even if not me , another

15:12

person I'm paying to do a job

15:14

is now spending all their time training someone

15:16

, when in fact , we could have videos

15:18

or training manuals training this person instead . So

15:21

I'm looking at what is the impact

15:24

on my business when the risk

15:26

factors hit Right , and

15:29

so if I lose one stream of marketing

15:31

, do I have three others that's going to soften

15:33

that blow ? If I lose one

15:35

employee , do I have others that are cross

15:37

trained into that , or am I going to have to spend eight months

15:39

hiring somebody Right ? So those

15:42

are the things that , as a business

15:44

person that's looking to buy a law

15:46

firm , those are the kind of things

15:48

I'm looking for us to mitigate my risk . But

15:50

there are some buyers that

15:53

are just looking for kind

15:55

of like law firms

15:57

that have consistency

16:00

. They make $400,000 a year

16:02

, every year . Their staff has

16:04

not turned over at any time , but

16:06

they don't have any standard

16:08

forms . And let's say , for example , it's a state

16:10

planning firm that you know . They just copy and paste

16:12

from this trust to that trust every single time . They

16:15

don't have no standard forms , no database

16:17

like no database

16:20

where their client files are in there

16:22

, you know where they take notes , where they

16:24

can see where the file

16:26

production is , nothing like that . At

16:29

best they have Excel that might have a list

16:31

of those clients somewhere . So

16:33

we're talking about , you know , practices

16:36

that are still 30 years

16:38

ago operating the way , and so

16:40

I could be a business

16:42

person that comes in and says you know what the bones are

16:44

. Good , but we just need to

16:46

start working out and put some muscle

16:48

on this , and if I do that , I know

16:50

I can take this $400,000 firm

16:52

up to 1.2 in a matter of 12

16:55

months , if I can just put in

16:57

my systems and processes , because the

16:59

people are good , the clients

17:01

are good , it's just our way of doing

17:03

things is really bad . So

17:06

you know you could have a buyer that looks at a firm like that

17:08

too .

17:10

If I'm looking at my own firm , how

17:12

should I be looking at it in terms of making

17:15

the most , maximizing

17:18

my profitability , maximizing my

17:20

enjoyment and minimizing my own

17:22

risk ?

17:24

Yeah Well , and then I'm

17:26

going to say something that you start off with , which is

17:29

people think this is the cost and

17:31

so how can I maximize my profits ? But to

17:33

me you mentioned your own

17:35

enjoyment , profitability and

17:38

one other thing , and for me it comes down to

17:41

who's the team and what

17:43

are the systems . When you've got

17:45

team members who

17:48

are all involved and

17:50

they believe in the mission

17:52

and they really want the best for the firm

17:54

, and if you've then got systems

17:57

and processes that support the team , then

17:59

you can rock and roll and you yourself

18:01

, as the owner , can step back out

18:04

and start enjoying your life a little bit more and

18:06

not spending every day

18:08

there to include Saturdays and Sundays . And this

18:10

is one of the things I say is there's two ways to

18:12

exit . You exit

18:15

your role first and

18:17

then you exit the firm second . But

18:19

you might have six different roles that you've

18:21

got to exit . So we've got a strategically

18:24

plan which role will

18:26

I exit first , which role will I

18:28

exit second , and on down the line

18:30

until eventually the firm just doesn't

18:32

even need me . And now I'm exiting the

18:34

firm .

18:37

That is such an insightful way to

18:39

look at it , and it's so true that

18:41

if you are a small firm , you're

18:44

probably wearing a lot of hats and

18:47

deciding that you want

18:49

to take some of those off , but

18:51

you don't want that role , you don't

18:53

want that job to fall Right

18:56

.

18:56

There's so many options now with virtual

18:58

assistants , with people working

19:00

remotely , with

19:02

standardizing forms

19:05

that can be automated right from your case

19:07

management system or even your website , or even

19:09

if you just email it to somebody . There's

19:11

so many things that can be done

19:13

to help you get

19:15

out of your roles , and

19:17

it's just finding out what are those things and implementing

19:20

them .

19:21

When I talk to people who are coming to us to

19:23

see whether we could help them with the marketing

19:25

role , oftentimes the

19:28

motivation is

19:30

not so much that they want to stop doing

19:32

it , but , particularly

19:35

in more successful firms , it's

19:37

just taking all of their time

19:39

and they can see

19:41

that it's not cohesive , so it's

19:43

not as good as it might be and

19:46

yet still it's hard to let

19:48

go of it , particularly those people who

19:50

have had success doing it . But

19:53

they're just like they can see the opportunity

19:55

if they could offload it

19:57

, but they're really afraid to offload

19:59

it , yeah .

20:02

I mean first of all two things ego and control

20:05

. Right , and both

20:07

of those are hard to let go of , no

20:10

matter who you are , and certainly

20:12

as lawyers that we're trained

20:14

to mitigate

20:16

risk , to identify the risk and all

20:18

that . And if my name's on

20:20

the door , it's all risk to me and

20:23

so if I let go of anything , then

20:26

that could come back on me . So but

20:28

what they don't understand is that holding on to all

20:30

of that is actually riskier and much

20:33

more costly and could lead to

20:35

actual legal liability . Because if they're

20:37

focusing all their time on marketing , for example , and

20:39

they're missing deadlines for court or

20:41

they're not really reviewing

20:44

what their paralegals are doing , then

20:46

that actually is worse

20:49

than if they were to step aside and let your

20:51

company do the marketing .

20:53

Absolutely . And you know , victoria , we've both

20:55

been working with clients long enough

20:57

. I'm sure you've seen it , I've seen

20:59

it over and over If

21:02

a lawyer is in business long enough

21:04

, they're going to hit

21:06

a time in their lives when

21:09

the business , the law firm , can

21:11

no longer be their number one priority

21:13

, whether it's their health , their

21:16

spouse's health , a family

21:18

member's health , there's

21:20

all these things . And you know , I've seen so

21:23

many lawyers who were just rocking

21:25

and rolling and then something happened

21:27

personally and every defect

21:31

in that law firm just

21:33

boiled up to the top . And

21:36

I think that in looking , if

21:38

people will start to look at their firm

21:40

you know any business owner in

21:43

through the eyes of would I buy this firm

21:46

, I think I

21:48

can start to maybe mitigate some of see

21:50

those risks of being

21:53

the center of everything and

21:55

start to mitigate those .

21:57

That absolutely . You know , I learned

22:00

more about how to sell my firm after

22:03

I went through the process of almost

22:05

buying a law firm and

22:08

everything I went through to try

22:10

to buy this law firm , which ultimately

22:12

then fell through . But it

22:14

made me so much more aware of what I needed to do . But some

22:16

people , jennifer , are going to sit out there and say , yeah

22:18

, but I'm not going to buy a law firm , so

22:21

I don't want to go through that exercise , just like people

22:23

would say nothing's going to happen to

22:25

my health , even though things happen

22:27

to all of us all the time . So

22:30

you know , years ago I took a 30

22:32

days off and that was as

22:34

if I had died because my firm

22:36

could not reach out to me during

22:38

that 30 days , and so I

22:41

would say that chunk it

22:43

down into ways that people

22:45

can realistically see them

22:48

doing things . So we don't start

22:50

with 30 days off . Start with stop

22:53

working on weekends . What would that do

22:55

to the firm ? Take a half

22:57

a week off or take a full week off . What does

22:59

that do to the firm ? Really

23:01

? Take the time off and don't be attached to

23:03

email and don't be attached to text and stop

23:05

calling and rescuing everybody . Stop

23:08

rescuing your firm and

23:10

see how they do . Everything

23:13

can be repaired Everything

23:16

. You're not going to get a bar complaint that you can't answer

23:18

in eight days when

23:20

you come back . If you needed to , the

23:22

more we do that . That's where the cracks

23:25

are exposed . Like you said , that's

23:27

where you start seeing what can

23:30

we work on , not just the

23:32

owner leaving , but we need to

23:34

make sure our staff leaves for a

23:36

significant period of time , at least a week

23:38

here and there , because we need to see

23:40

what's falling through in their cracks

23:42

, because they have them . So many

23:44

lawyers realize so much on their team

23:46

members that they've ultimately

23:48

abdicated the responsibilities . If

23:51

that team member were to leave , they

23:53

would completely crumble . Then

23:56

they're going to find all the malpractice suits that are

23:58

waiting for them as well . Because that happens , I'd

24:01

say it's just as important to you

24:04

take time off and then have your staff

24:06

take time off and then find where those

24:08

cracks are . Some of them are hairline cracks , some

24:10

of them are the Grand Canyon , but

24:13

we don't ever know them until we've

24:15

left . I would say we need

24:17

to start with repairing

24:19

them , making small tweaks

24:21

that have the biggest impact . So

24:24

one of those , for example , in my firm

24:26

that after I had a staff

24:28

member leave who had been with me

24:30

a while and I just loved her and I could really rely

24:32

on her and I sang praises

24:35

all the time . Nonetheless , after

24:38

she was gone , we were finding

24:40

that there were deeds that were never recorded

24:42

. Never recorded and

24:45

that's a malpractice issue . That's

24:47

a huge Grand Canyon , but

24:50

it was a small tweak that

24:52

we can then have a big impact by

24:55

putting together a more

24:57

solid , standard operating procedure

24:59

with checks and balances beyond one

25:01

person who is responsible for that

25:03

, and then that had a

25:05

huge impact because of that , if not

25:07

eliminated , at least mitigated my

25:09

malpractice opportunities

25:12

, if you will . So look for the

25:14

small things that have the biggest impact and

25:16

start there and make a list and just start working down

25:18

the list .

25:20

So if we wanted to take maybe two

25:22

scenarios to wrap this up

25:24

, we're at the beginning of

25:26

the year . Let's look

25:28

at a scenario of I want

25:30

to be able to exit in some way

25:32

by the end of this year and

25:35

then maybe look at a scenario where I'm

25:38

not really thinking about an immediate exit

25:40

but I would really like to optimize my law

25:42

firm .

25:43

So the beginning of that answer is going

25:45

to be the same and that

25:47

is there's essentially

25:50

six main parts of a business . There's

25:53

your finances , your marketing

25:55

, your sales , your production , your

25:58

facilities and equipment , and

26:01

so you want to grade

26:04

all of those . How is the firm

26:06

doing in each of these areas and

26:09

what would have the biggest impact to

26:11

change these ? So if I only had a year

26:13

, I would pick my top two biggest

26:15

areas of default

26:17

, like find a black eye in those two

26:20

areas and I would work on repairing

26:22

those two areas to make them as strong as possible

26:24

. If I had much longer period

26:26

of time , then I would put in

26:28

a strategy to actually increase each

26:31

of those areas 10%

26:33

, 20% , whatever it might be and

26:35

I would prioritize those based on

26:37

, again , what

26:39

would have the biggest impact ? Probably profitability

26:42

. If I had the time , profitability

26:44

would be the biggest impact . If I have

26:46

just a year , profitability is

26:48

not there . I mean , we just don't have the time for that . So

26:50

instead I'd want to probably focus on team or systems

26:53

. But if I have more than a year

26:55

, I'm going to look at profitability , I'm going

26:57

to look at autonomy and then all the other

26:59

things beyond that .

27:01

Awesome . I know you have some free

27:03

resources on your website

27:05

that people could go to and download

27:08

, but also can you tell me

27:11

a little bit about how you work with people ? If

27:14

somebody says okay , I would really like to have Victoria

27:16

help me with this . What do they need to do ?

27:19

So the first thing we do is we do a consultation

27:21

, like everybody else , and we try to identify

27:23

what are their goals . Are they

27:25

looking to just have a sellable

27:28

law firm in 20 years from

27:30

now ? Are they looking to enjoy

27:33

themselves more ? Are they looking for profit ? Or

27:35

are they looking to get out of their firm

27:37

, like immediately , a year from

27:39

now , three years from now

27:42

? And so that then helps us

27:44

identify what product or service

27:46

would be best suited for them . Our

27:49

foundational product is get

27:51

a valuation , because no matter where you go

27:53

, that's the starting point

27:55

as far as where

27:57

am I ? So I know which direction I need

27:59

to go . Sometimes we do a valuation

28:02

and somebody had on the horizon I want to

28:04

sell in five years . But the valuation comes back and

28:06

they're like , oh well , I could accept that now

28:08

if we could find a buyer . And I'm like , well , would

28:10

you like us to look for a buyer ? Or

28:13

we get the valuation and they

28:15

notice that there's a big gap between

28:17

where they are and where they want to go , and then we

28:19

put in a strategic plan for that . And

28:21

when we put in a strategic plan , then

28:23

we can actually do one-on-one

28:26

coaching with them to help them implement

28:28

that plan to actually increase the value

28:30

of their firm . And so when

28:32

people coach with us , you said what's it like to

28:34

work with us ? We don't have like term

28:37

limits or anything like that . We don't

28:39

coach with people until it just doesn't make sense for them anymore

28:41

, and so we do it

28:45

either one time a month or twice a month as far

28:47

as our opportunities to work with somebody

28:50

. So we got the valuation , we got the

28:52

coaching , and then for people

28:54

who like self-paced stuff , instead

28:56

, we do have an online course

28:59

to help you increase the sellability

29:01

of your law firm , which helps

29:03

you put together the pieces

29:05

that we're talking about that have the impact

29:07

on the law firm , that make it desirable

29:10

for someone else to want to buy it . So a buyer can

29:12

say , hey , I like this firm versus this

29:14

firm because you have all of the things

29:16

that you should have in a firm

29:18

. So that's one online course we have

29:21

. The other online course we have

29:23

after someone's done a valuation but

29:25

they can do this on their own is that

29:28

valuation provides you a 30-page

29:30

report with eight

29:33

key factors as to what drives

29:35

value , and then that report

29:37

will tell you what you can do

29:40

to increase the value . Well , there's also

29:42

an online course that goes

29:44

with that report that they can

29:46

do at a self-pace to

29:49

increase the value by working

29:51

on each of those eight key factors

29:53

. And what I love about that so much

29:55

is that not only does it tie to the report

29:57

and you do what it says and you go through the modules

30:00

and it should increase the value , but

30:02

it doesn't have to be the owner going through that

30:04

. It can be the office manager or paralegal

30:07

or whoever makes sense in the firm

30:09

.

30:11

So they actually get done .

30:13

Exactly , instead of on the shelf Right

30:16

.

30:17

Not just another subscription that you bought

30:20

.

30:20

Exactly .

30:21

Exactly so . Those

30:23

are tremendous variety of opportunities

30:26

, depending on how much help people want

30:28

and how much they need it , and , if they want to

30:30

, like you said , if they want to be self-paced , that

30:33

sounds great . What's that website

30:36

address ?

30:37

again , yeah , so our website is quidproquolawcom

30:41

and all you know there's

30:43

information about the firm , information about me

30:46

, but as far as those products and services

30:48

, you would go to the shop link and

30:50

then take you through those Terrific

30:53

.

30:53

Well , we're just about out of time here , Victoria

30:56

. Is there something that I didn't ask

30:58

you , something that , a specific point

31:00

that you want to be sure we get made today ?

31:02

I would just say that you know it doesn't

31:05

matter when you want to exit . What does matter

31:07

is when you start preparing for that , and

31:09

you know there's nothing that

31:12

should stop you from starting

31:14

today in the preparation for

31:16

tomorrow .

31:17

Terrific . Thank you so much Until

31:19

next time , which I'm sure will be bringing

31:22

you back . This is a topic

31:24

that's important for people , whether they're wanting

31:26

to exit their law firm or

31:28

just be more profitable and have a more

31:30

enjoyable law firm . These

31:33

are all great pointers . Thank you so much

31:35

, victoria . Thank you , jennifer .

31:39

That's a wrap for today's episode , and

31:41

a big thank you to our sponsor , quidproquo

31:43

. Qpq is your partner in law

31:45

firm success , offering expert guidance

31:48

on scaling , selling and optimizing

31:50

your practice . With a team of experienced

31:53

professionals , they bring real world insights

31:55

to the table . Are you ready to take

31:57

your law practice to new heights ? Visit

31:59

their website at wwwquidproquolawcom

32:05

to learn more and start your journey

32:07

toward a thriving and sellable law

32:09

firm .