Jun 17 2009 Posted by

Given the challenging business climate we are all as lawyers now living through, I thought the advice that Tom Kane passed along in yesterday's blogpost was worthwhile to keep in mind.

Tom shared in his blogpost some suggestions taken from an article Stacy West Clark published in The Legal Intelligencer, "25 Value-Added Services to Offer Your Clients for Free."   Tom's suggestions were as follows:

• Visit your clients off the clock;
• Ask for client feedback;
• Buy your clients products and services, where possible;
• Send them customers or clients;
• Support your client’s charity(ies) of choice;
• Offer free CLE programs for their legal department;
• Attend board meetings free;
• Nominate your client for an award;
• Give the client’s kids tickets to events, theme parks, and such;
• Entertain clients;
• Ask client to join a panel with with you; and one of my favorites
• Befriend your clients. 

While I am not sure that all of the tips are relevant for most start-up lawyers (for example, I rarely have tickets to give away to clients the way that I did when I was at my prior law firm), I think the advice still has merit.  As start-up lawyers, the tendency is to think about the short-term: bringing money in the door right now, so you can keep the lights on.  However, in a tough economy like this, there are limits to what you can do today to bring in business, so it makes sense to take a longer view and think ahead to the future, when the economy improves.  And one of the things we can definitely do to build our relationships for the future is to focus on developing relationships with our existing clients to the extent possible.

So, instead of just spinning your wheels trying to figure out how to pay the bills, why not take a few minutes each day to think about the value you can add to your existing relationships, whether they be existing clients, past clients, or mere prospects or potential referral sources?  In all likelihood, those few minutes will prove to be a worthwhile investment in the future of your business.