Having a clear focus is key to persuasive business writing. Nothing will make your reader lose interest more quickly than going off on a tangent.

With the short attention spans of people online these days it’s crucial to get to the point quickly.

Here is a quick exercise you can do to help focus your writing. You can use this whether you’re writing an email, a sales page, an article or a free report.

Follow these steps:

1. Sit in a quiet distraction free space with your computer or a pen and paper
2. Think of the next piece of writing you’re going to do in your business (could be an email, product descriptions, an article, a blog post . . .)
3. Write down your goal for the piece (what is it you want people to do when they read it)
4. What is the topic for the piece (if it’s an email maybe the topic is a new program or product you just launched)?
5. Set a timer for four minutes (I use the one on my phone since my phone is always with me)
6. During that four minutes write down everything that comes to you about the topic of your piece. Write it stream of consciousness style, which means let it flow with no editing, no judgment, and very little “thinking.” Just let it flow.
7. When the four minutes is up, re-set the timer for one minute.
8. Read through what you wrote and strike out everything that is either a) off topic, or b) doesn’t further your goal for the piece.

What you have left is focused writing. From here you can expand, edit and finalize.

If you loved this and would like to dive deeper,  check out my just launched program/membership site: The Initiative Based Writing Intensive Online! http://ibwprogram.com

Join the club!

I’m two weeks “behind” as I write this post right now!

If you’re blogging for business (which if you’re reading this you probably are), you know the benefits of consistent blogging:

• Organic search engine traffic

• Setting yourself apart as an expert using your own voice and unique experience and story

• Becoming visible as a go to resource for your ideal clients

• Guiding your ideal clients into your sales funnel

• Evolving your writing “voice” as your business grows and changes

The importance of consistent, committed blogging cannot be overstated – like anything else worth doing it takes effort. Effort that after awhile starts to snowball and can pay off HUGE.

So what do you do when you go “off schedule?”

Well as someone who gets alternately annoyed and paranoid when things go off schedule, here are my best tips:

1.  Pull back and look at the big picture. Let’s say you’ve got your editorial calendar in place and you have your blog posts scheduled, one per week, for 6-12 months out. You’re blogging along great and then something happens and you miss two weeks (no time like the present as I just went through this). Sure it sucks — and part of you feels like you “failed.” However, in the big picture missing two posts out of 50 is not such a big deal. It would be if this happened all the time, but if you’re otherwise consistent, it’s time to show some compassion for yourself and keep moving forward.

2. Own it! You can blog openly about it (as I’m doing here) or you can own it privately. What I mean by “own it” is look yourself in the eye, acknowledge what’s happened, and totally accept where you are. “Damn straight I’m two posts behind on my blog. I have some regret but I choose not to dwell on it. I’m human, I’m awesome and I’m picking back up where I left off.”

3. Don’t tolerate excuses. You don’t like hearing excuses from other people, don’t tolerate them from yourself. I could tell you what I’ve been up to that “kept” me from blogging. But the truth is I just didn’t make it a priority over the past couple of weeks. I’m not ecstatic about it – for sure. What I do know is that I’m 100% committed to my business, blogging is part of that commitment, and though I could list a litany of reasons the posts didn’t get done, I’m not going to dwell on those.

If you’re committed to and consistent with your blogging, you don’t need to beat yourself up, look at two missed posts in a vacuum of failure, and you don’t need to justify or dwell on the list of things that “kept” you from getting it done.  Your momentum is still there. Move forward. You’re still making an impact!

Who here has gotten behind on business blogging? How long did it take you to get back on track?

This past Sunday I raced my first triathlon of the season. It was my 2012 Season Opener and I felt like there was a lot riding on it.

2012 is an epic triathlon year for me. I’m racing Ironman 70.3 Boise in June and the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in September.

Triathlon gives people the chance to make impossible dreams real. It’s the only sport I know that gives non-speedy age group athletes like me the opportunity to race in a World Championship.

Big goals are important, and so is the work

I’ve been training for months. And for the past couple of weeks the training was starting to feel a bit . . . .dare I say it . . .

Burdensome.

Annoying.

Challenging (not in a good way).

Training to swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles and run 13.1 miles isn’t easy.

It requires commitment, perseverance and discipline. It requires living a lifestyle that sustains hard training, easy training, high volumes of training, rest, and recovery. Nutrition is sometimes called the fourth discipline of triathlon and has been a thorn in my side for longer than I care to admit.

Even in pursuit of something you fully believe in, that you’ve experienced life changing results from in the past, and are willing to ruthlessly prioritize for . . .

The fog will form around you, even as you are doing the work

During these past couple of weeks I could feel a fog permeating its way into training.  Obscuring my World Championship goal just enough for me to lose a degree of connection . . .  where I couldn’t see it as clearly or feel it as strongly.

Oh crap!

This is the World Championships we’re talking about!! How could this happen?!?!?!?

No matter what the goal, any loss of connection means things start to unravel. . . from your physical shape, to the mental gymnastics that abound in your head . . . losing a degree of connection opens that door.

The same holds true in business

Running a business isn’t easy. It requires commitment, perseverance, and discipline. It requires creating a lifestyle and mindset that allow the results you want. It’s something you fully believe in, have experienced life changing results from in the past, and are willing to ruthlessly prioritize for.

And yet . . .

I’ve experienced the fog in my business many times. The weakening of that connection, even for a short time, can cause you to feel like you’re staying in place or moving backwards, instead of advancing confidently toward your goals.

Which is why setting goals and creating milestones is crucial in business

As the first quarter of 2012 comes to a rapid close, take a look at where you are in your business. And where you want to be. Figure out what it will take to get from here to where you want to be. It might look something like this:

• Dig into your own story a bit deeper and rewrite your bio or About Page to connect with ideal clients on a deeper level

• Craft or update your editorial calendar so you can see and feel when and how great things are getting written

• Craft or update your content strategy (for both online and offline marketing and communication)

• Choose an event to attend that will teach you something you’re dying to learn taught by someone who inspires you

• Plan an event where you teach something that others are dying to learn who want to be inspired by you

• Set aside blocks of dedicated time to write and create for your business to take ruthless prioritization to a whole new level, making things much easier

• Reach out to a known expert in your industry who you resonate with — even if doing so makes you uncomfortable – ask that person out for a drink. Or for an interview you can share with your audience

These are strategic calculated actions you can plan to move your business forward. Taking actions like these ensures that you repeatedly come through for yourself no matter how burdensome the daily grind can get. It also allows you to make adjustments and improvements as your business evolves, to bring even more success your way.

An invitation for you

I’m involved in a fantastic tele-summit called Wealthy, Healthy and Wise with fourteen other brilliant entrepreneurs. The speakers (including me) are giving away fabulous content that touches on a lot of what I’ve said here. If you’re in a fog and are looking to learn some great stuff, this is just the ticket!

There are calls about:

• Copy Made Easy (mine!)

• Maximizing Social Media

• Quick Ways to Get More Clients Through Your Website

• Nutrition and Lifestyle Design

And much more!

This tele-summit has been in the works for months and it’s now here! It’s completely free of charge and it’s coming right up: April 12 through May 1.

I’d love to have you there as my guest. You can see all the details and register here wealthyhealthyandwisetelesummit.com/

And the fog lifts

Back to my Season Opening race last Sunday.

It was scheduled (months in advance) strategically to:

1. Test my fitness at this point in the season
2. Practice getting out of my comfort zone while racing
3. Get back into the “habit” of racing
4. Add to my impeccable record of coming through for myself, No.Matter.What.
5. See my local racing “hero” on the course and have him wish me well

 #5 falls within the realm of things you can’t plan for.
Those serendipitous things that happen when you put yourself in the right place at the right time.

Post-race I feel:

• Rejuvenated

• Re-motivated

• Back on track

• Hungry as all get out (a natural side effect)!

Go do whatever you need to do to Shake the Fog! And don’t worry. Though you have to do it regularly, it does get easier with practice.

I met a lawyer once who was not interested in traffic, Google rankings, or keyword search terms. No! She insisted that she did NOT want to receive new clients from her website. She accepts new clients by 100% personal referral only.  When I asked her why she had a website then she said “it’s for the clients.”

Light-bulb moment for me on the role that a clean clear web presence can play in a business . . .

An up to date, content rich resource for your current clients!

This attorney used her site as a primary means of communication and education for current clients. The site supported her and her clients in a way that was almost like having a neutral confidential third party in the room. There was a blog that educated clients about changes in the law. There was a “client only” secure portal (that required a password) where she and her staff uploaded important confidential documents and information into the cloud for clients on the go.

She had a home page, an about page, and a blog that were open for the world to see. The rest was secure, client specific content designed to move each case forward in the most efficient way possible.

Is there a way you serve your clients that can be streamlined by putting some (or all) of it in the cloud?

This attorney was smart. She had enough of a web presence to let referrals know she’s a real deal serious business.

This is necessary because . . .

People who are referred to you will check out your web presence!

And they will either be impressed and want to know more, or they’ll be turned off and keep looking. When I’m referred to a service professional, the first thing I do is check out his or her online presence. If I like what I see, I’ll take a next step. If I don’t like what I see, or if there’s no web presence at all, I question whether it’s a “real” business.  9 times out of 10 I’ll move on. It takes an exceptionally strong personal referral to overcome a mediocre or no web presence. I’m not the only one. Countless people have told me the same thing.

How much opportunity to close business are you missing if you don’t have a clean, clearly written web presence?

Notice I didn’t say fancy or expensive. I said clean.

A one page site which clearly and persuasively says how you can help me, and tells me what to do next is enough for me to take that next step.

Which is the key to it all because . . . .

You’ll convert referrals more quickly and easily with a clean clear web presence

• What’s your sales cycle like?

• How much education do your potential clients need before they’re ready to hire you?

• How much time do you spend converting a referral to a client?

• Can your services be easily selected and paid for online?

Answering questions like these will help you customize your web presence to make it easy for your referrals to decide to work with you – which means more time and money for you.

Having a website is not a “one size fits all” or “one strategy fits all” proposition. What are some other reasons you can think of for a referral based business to have a clean, clearly written web presence? Let us know in the comments!

[This is part 2 in a series: Why Most Lawyer Websites Are Awful and What To Do About It]

Awhile back we talked about how an effective layer website is reader centered. Specifically that the writing on your site is about what your visitors (your potential ideal clients) are going through – and what they want and need in order to contact you.

This post covers why stock photos do NOT belong on your site, least of all on your home page (shudder).

They’re Unoriginal

How many lawyer websites are out there with images on their home page that look like this?

Or this?

Too many to count (shudder)!

Not only are these images unoriginal, they’re cliché.

As a lawyer who practices in a focused area of law that you love, you’re anything but cliché. Your home page must reflect you in a non-cliché way.

They’re Unprofessional

Gasp! Yes having stock photos on your website home page is unprofessional. Think about it.

Unprofessional is defined as: Below or contrary to the standards expected in a particular profession.

As a modern lawyer who cares about her clients and runs a 21st century business, having stock photos on your home page is beneath you.

They’re Impersonal

This may be worse than unprofessional.

Impersonal is defined as: (of a place or organization) . . . . , featureless, and anonymous.

As a dynamic lawyer who realizes that who you are influences how you practice, you’re the opposite of featureless and anonymous. You make a difference and your website should too.

They Encroach (on your valuable internet real estate)

There’s a finite amount of space on your home page, and an even smaller amount above the fold.

Encroach is defined as: Advance gradually and in a way that causes damage.

A stock photo on your website may look “nice” but it’s really a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It doesn’t advance the purpose of your site – yet it’s there . . . taking up space . . . .

As someone who cares deeply about serving clients well and developing long term relationships, you can’t afford to have anything on your site that’s encroaching on the precious little space to communicate your value to a potential client.

So What DO You Put On Your Home Page?

Everything on your home page should be strategically written and placed to draw your ideal clients in and influence them to contact you.

In addition to great writing, here are some things that will add personality and will help move your potential client into your sales cycle:

• A headshot of you that you love

• A video of you giving amazing free information

• An email opt in box with an amazing free piece of information your potential clients want

• An email opt in box for people to subscribe to your blog

• Your contact information

• An original banner/graphic that reflects who you are and why you’re in business

• Links to articles you’ve written

• Testimonial of a happy client

• Links to your social media pages and profiles

Each choice is strategic, but doesn’t have to be hard or complicated. So please, remove the stock photos. ASAP.

What do you think? Do you agree, or do you think stock photos have a place on your website home page? If so why? Tell us in the comments below.

We met in his office. I was excited and hopeful. Since deciding to focus on attorneys as my ideal clients I was thrilled to get an audience with one. He seemed like everything I was looking for: solo practitioner with an established practice and a courteous staff. His website looked like it needed serious help. When I called (after a personal referral) he instructed his receptionist to schedule an in person meeting right away.

The promise of a shiny new prosperous working relationship abounded . . . until we started talking. Or, more accurately, until he started talking.

I left his office with what can only be described as a primer of objections and many many lessons on how to help future clients overcome them.

Central to his litany of objections was his absolute refusal to consider the concept of the Ideal Client. To do that would be limiting. It would turn away money.

Putting valuable information on his website to educate and empower prospective clients to hire him was a bad idea because it would make them not “need” his services.

Needless to say I was shocked, more than a little naïve, and embarrassed that I wasn’t able to guide him to see the value in my services.

He did not become a client – more importantly, he was not my Ideal Client.

Since that meeting I’ve landed other clients, some of whom are lawyers, including one who rolled her eyes when I brought up the subject of the Ideal Client. That story had a different ending however, because she was open to guidance on the subject, and as a result ended up with a website written to just that Ideal Client.

Why You Need to Identify Your Ideal Client

As a service professional, clients are the lifeblood of your business. Get this right, and more clients will want to hire you.

• You’ll enjoy working with your clients. As I mentioned in a previous post, your Ideal Client is a client with personality or organizational traits you identify with. Often you share similar beliefs. This does not mean that this person or business is perfect, problem free, or will never disagree with you. Quite the opposite. If your clients were perfect, problem free and 100% agreeable they wouldn’t need your service! Don’t be fooled though. The Ideal Client may present some challenging work but is easy to work with. So things get done. Projects move forward. You get paid. Your client is happy. Your client refers you more Ideal Clients. You’re doing work you love. See what I mean? This is not a pipe dream.

• You’ll be more focused and receive more referrals. Identifying your Ideal Client is liberating. Why? Because all actions you take to put your business “out there” will be focused — because you’re speaking and writing to a specific Ideal Client. Your networking, website writing, blogging, advertising, will become more streamlined and will speak to the people you really want to reach – and those who know them.

Here’s a real life example: I’m part of a networking group where we each get up at every meeting and say something about our business. Week after week the bookkeeper in the group would get up and say (always with some uncertainty) “Hi, I’m Ms. Bookkeeper and I do bookkeeping for all types of businesses.” Instantly, week after week I’d tune out after that first sentence. Imagine if she’d said (with confidence and a sense of purpose): “Hi, I’m Ms. Bookkeeper and I do bookkeeping work for small independent coffee and food businesses. You know the vendors you see at the farmers markets and the food trucks that are so popular around town that some of them are opening restaurants and coffee shops? Those are my ideal clients.” Wow! I’m automatically drawn to someone with that kind of confidence and clarity. And the wheels start turning as to who I can send her way.

• You’ll make more money. Business owners who care about their business enough to identify their Ideal Client and focus on that person or organization (and, by extension, the thousands out there who have similar traits, values and beliefs) are more confident, more modern, and let’s face it more dynamic than the average run of the mill service professional.

As a potential client, who would you want to hire: someone who will work for “all types of businesses” or someone who speaks your language, connects with you, and conveys the exact expertise that you need? It should be a no-brainer. Put yourself out there, confidently speak to and about your ideal client and you may be surprised at how many referrals come your way, both on and offline.

Defining Your Ideal Client Is a Two Step Process

1.  Be Clear About Why You’re In Business and Write It Down.

I always ask clients to write down three beliefs about why they’re in business. [Hint: This doesn’t mean to make money. Making money, though extremely important, is a result.] It means what gets you out of bed in the morning, excited to go to work? When you’ve had a bad day, week, month, or year, what keeps you going?

• Some Belief Examples: To empower women, to encourage people to embrace a healthy lifestyle, to provide quality legal services that people can afford.

2.  Be Clear About Who You Love To Work With, and Write It Down.

There was an in depth discussion about this not long ago in an online networking group that I’m a part of. The title of the discussion was “Defining the ideal client?” and someone said:

“It’s amazing what you realize when you write it all down.”

Here are some things to write down to get you started:

• Who is your favorite current client? Write down 3-5 things you like about them and why.

• What is his (or her) personality or organizational structure like?

• If an individual, is she confident? Busy? High or low attention span?

• What is his level of knowledge about what you do?

• What problems is this person or organization facing that need an immediate solution?

• Where is this person or organization located? Locally to you? In the US? Outside the US?

Here’s another dynamite idea from a member of that online networking group I’m in:

“It’s easy to let the ideal customer float around in your head but that does not give you a clear picture of who they are. A great way to get it out is to create profiles of your ideal client. Writing a brief story about two or three potential clients is easier than a list and you will be surprised about how much easier it is to nail the details down.”

I opened this blog post with a story about who my ideal client is NOT. Someone who is closed minded, has tons of reasons why something won’t work, and is limited by fear.

Through a lot of experience since then I’ve identified my ideal client as:

“A motivated service professional (lawyers are a subset of this – I have a soft spot for lawyers because I am one) who runs a business with 1-2 decision makers (I hate having to go through a “committee” to move projects forward and prefer to work directly with the person at the helm of the business), who believes he or she is here to make a difference through their business (all of the belief examples above are from real clients!).

This service professional is 30-55 years old, self-motivated, with a high sense of personal responsibility. These small business owners know what they want when they hire me and most often they want to hand over business and marketing writing to someone they trust, who can write in their voice, and who is trained to write in a way that will get them more leads and more sales.

A big thing my ideal clients also want is to have their time and energy freed up to do other things in their business. For example, one client wanted to be free from sales writing. Another knew what he wanted (website writing) but didn’t know how to do it effectively and didn’t want to spend a lot of his precious time figuring it out.”

You get the gist . . . . (and can probably see other places in this article where I’ve identified my ideal client).

Identifying and marketing to your Ideal Client is incredibly important. Whether you take the list of above questions (add your own to fit your business and industry), or whether you write a story (or several) to get to the core of who this person is, doing it will make an incredible difference in your business.

Did you roll your eyes at this article? If so did your viewpoint change as you read it? I’d love to hear where you are in the process of identifying your ideal client. Tell us in the comments below.

Are you a fabulous service professional who is starting (or has recently started) your own business?

Congratulations!

Celebrate your hard work, courage, and initiative!

Because you want to start off on the right foot, and hate not knowing what you’re doing (you can admit it, I’m this way too), this article will focus on one of the most important business tools you can invest in: A 21st Century Website.

Get this right, and you’ll have a tool you can use in perpetuity that will help you clearly communicate your value, make sales, and garner a stellar reputation. Get it wrong, and you’ll experience frustration, disillusion, and an ineffective site that you don’t much like.

First, What Is a 21st Century Website?

A 21st century website is a website for your potential clients to interact with, learn from, and take action.

According to Jessica Meher, who wrote Website ‘Must-Haves’ For Driving Traffic, Leads, and Sales (published by Hubspot) “a website needs to not just exist, it needs to perform. It needs to attract visitors, educate them, and convince them to buy.”

A 21st century website helps your ideal clients to decide to hire you.

Practical Ways a 21st Century Website Can Grow Your Business

Think about ways to translate your brilliance into writing, which is the first thing your site needs to influence prospective clients to hire you. It’s an ideal time (before you’ve actually “done” anything) to bring in a writing professional who can help set the stage for the following:

• Build Trust With Prospective Clients

As one of your primary marketing and sales tools, there’s a problem your site will face:  according to Edelman Digital’s 2010 annual survey of trust, fewer than one in three people trust marketing messages.

This is a golden opportunity, because it requires the writing on your site to show visitors how you can help and who you are. Writing your site to influence prospective clients helps you own your expertise and grow a loyal following over time.

• Educate and Empower  Prospective Clients to Hire You

Teaching your potential clients what they need to know in order to hire you is the antidote for accolade based “corporate-speak” found on many websites. You know what I mean – stuff that makes your eyes glaze over. You instantly tune out of that stuff, and so do your potential clients – by clicking away in less than three seconds.

According to Michael A. Stelzner, author of the book Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition, people are constantly bombarded with marketing messages  – as a result they’ve learned to tune out the instant they recognize they’re being “sold to.”

• Make More Sales At Lower Cost

Whether you start with a strongly written, cleanly designed 1-5 page site, or whether you need a blog, integrate your site with social media channels, or offer more advanced content, the goal is to close more sales at a lower cost than traditional marketing methods.

According to a 2012 marketing report published by Hubspot, businesses report that the cost per lead from online activities such as blogging, content publishing, search engine optimization and social media is up to 61% lower than more traditional activities such as direct mail, telemarketing and tradeshows.

Use These Five Steps to Create Your 21st Century Website

I see this scenario too often . . .

A business owner tells me she’s creating a website. She’s focusing on designing and building the site with barely any attention (if at all) given to the writing or the overall content strategy to attract clients and referrals.

Business owners who focus on design/build first and writing last are making a huge mistake. It should be the other way around.

Here’s a five step process to pull your site together to attract potential clients, influence them to hire you, and own your expertise and your piece of the internet space with authority.

Step 1:  Write Down Why You’re Creating Your Site

I’ve talked with too many business owners who created their websites because “everyone else has one.” Beyond that, they didn’t know why. Getting clear on Your Why will ensure that you receive the biggest return on your investment of time, energy and money.

Here are some questions to help you get started:

• What are your three strongest beliefs about why you’re in business?

• Why do you want a site at this particular point in your business?

• Where will your site fit into your business/marketing plan?

Step 2:  Write Out Who Your Site Is For

I was at a networking event recently where an attorney told me she didn’t want a site to attract clients off the internet because she accepts new clients through personal referral only. She wanted a site to act as a rich resource for current clients, through which she’s receive more personal referrals. This knowledge is everything!

Here are some questions to narrow down who your site is for:

• Who is your Ideal Client? Picture your favorite client and write down traits that make this person or organization your favorite client.

Hint: “Ideal Client” doesn’t mean someone who’s problem free or will never disagree with you. It’s a client with personality or organizational traits you identify with. Often you share similar beliefs.

• What are the top three problems your Ideal Client faces that your service helps solve?

• What will happen if your Ideal Client doesn’t hire you to help with those problems?

Step 3:  Write Goals For Your Site

I sat down with a client to talk about her goals for her site and by the end of the conversation she was more emotionally invested in the project. That may sound strange, but “seeing” how your site is going to serve your business is key to committing, following through, and getting it done.

Here are some basic questions to brainstorm some goals:

• Do you want potential clients to be able to buy directly from your site?

• Do you want potential clients to call you or email you for an appointment or initial consultation from your site?

• Do you want your site to rise in the search engines for more visibility?

• Do you want to measure statistics such as: a) how many people visit your site, b) which pages they spend the most time on, c) how many site visitors become paying clients.

Step 4:  Plan the Writing For Your Site

I’ve seen too many (frustrating) situations where steps 1-3 haven’t been followed, the writing left to the last minute, and the result is a scattered project without a strong foundation. These projects take longer and cost more to complete.

After steps 1-3 (ideally with the guidance of a professional writer) create an outline for the writing. Here’s a sample outline for a basic five page site to get you started:

• Home: Should immediately speak to your Ideal Client and draw her in for more

• About : Tell your story in a way that makes it easy for your Ideal Clients to trust and hire you

• Services: Highlight how you help in a way that has your Ideal Client saying “yes I need that!”

• FAQ: If there are questions you get asked over and over again by potential clients – this is the place to address them

• Happy Clients: Interview current or past happy clients and put these testimonials on your site so prospective clients will know what it’s like to work with you

Step 5: Decide How Your Site Will Look and Function

Whether you want a fancy site, a plain site, one page, five pages or more, it starts to gel during this step. The writing, design, and functionality of your site must:

• Make it easy for visitors to know how you can help and what to do next

• Look like a professional reflection of who you are and why you’re in business

• Help meet your sales goals

Suggestions for step 5:

• Work with a designer who’s creative and asks good questions. Gather links of active sites that you like the look and functionality of.

• If search engine ranking is a top priority, consult with a search engine optimization professional – you’ll need a good content strategy and strong writing to accompany the SEO work.

• If you plan to blog, build an email reader base, or want clients to purchase directly from your site, now’s the time to make and implement these decisions.

I recommend printing this article out and using it to create your next website – you can also use it to revamp an existing site. Have questions, or a website experience (good or bad) that you’d like to share? Leave a comment below!

A coach with a spiritual coaching practice recently said something during a conversation that alarmed me.

She said until recently she didn’t believe coaches should have “legal” agreements with their clients because coaching is a sacred contract for deep transformational work.

Intellectually I knew this belief existed, but never felt it until this conversation. I was floored. Speechless. Shocked.

How many talented coaches out there share this belief? And how much energy and money are they losing because of it?

As a full time practicing lawyer for eleven years I worked with businesses (large and small) who had tons of legal work done – in that environment it was easy to take their agreements for granted because they nearly always had them.

What does your agreement say . . . was the first question for clients who came to us afraid they wouldn’t get paid for their work.

Before working with a spiritual business coach, I had no clue that spirituality existed in business. The very idea of it would have been comical. Outlandish. Silly. Way too soft.

Fortunately my business coach is as business savvy as she is spiritual (she uses a fee agreement with her clients), so I saw right away how the two go hand in hand.

How the spiritual allows a coach to do deep transformational work with her clients and how the legal agreement grounds that on a solid foundation. I believe that no coach or service based professional can have one without the other.

Sure it’s possible to limp along with one missing, but where’s the fun? The transformation? The sense of purpose? The money? The chance to make a real and lasting difference?

There are three core beliefs I’ve identified over the years that connect to coaches and service based business owners not having strong, legally viable fee agreements backing them up in their business.

Belief #1: I’m Not Good Enough

What it looks like: You have years of experience in your field, backed by an advanced degree(s), and you receive positive feedback from clients. You’re respected by your peers and are often asked to contribute to exciting projects that you genuinely believe in. All while knowing your business has a purpose that’s aligned with who you are and why you’re here on the planet.

Yet you can’t quite bring yourself to step up and have each and every client sign a legal agreement to work with you.

Result of believing you’re not good enough:  You deal with too many clients flaking on you, wanting refunds, or blatantly ripping you off. You’re not making enough money to sustain your business and are afraid if something doesn’t change you’ll go under. I’ve been there!

Belief #2: Having a Legally Binding Agreement is not Spiritual

What this looks like:  Your work is so personally meaningful to you that it feels sacred. You support clients to make huge transformations in their businesses and personal lives. You receive immense personal satisfaction from this work and there is no doubt in your mind that you’re guided by a higher power to do this work. You have a high intuitive sense that serves you well in nearly every situation.

You feel uncomfortable asking clients to honor the commitment to work with you by signing a binding legal agreement.

Result of believing that having a legally binding agreement is not spiritual: Clients don’t take your business seriously and know they can stop working with you whenever they feel like it with no consequences, no accountability, and ultimately no transformation.

Belief #3: I Can’t Afford (or can’t find) a Good Lawyer Who “Gets” My Business

What this looks like: You know your business needs a solid fee agreement. And you know the internet is not the best place to get one because you realize that you don’t know what you don’t know. Legal fees are expensive and you either haven’t had much experience with lawyers or you’ve tried, had a bad experience, and despair of ever finding a lawyer who “gets” your business and will truly be worth the investment. It (almost) feels better to wing it.

Result of believing that you can’t afford or can’t find a good lawyer:  Too many clients want out of their commitment and you are at a loss as to how to hold them accountable, both practically and energetically. Every time you sign a new client on you feel an undercurrent of fear and “hope” that whatever you’re using for an agreement sticks. Coaching in high service from this place is really tough – if not impossible.

Do any of these beliefs ring true for you?

In future posts I will delve more deeply into each belief and give you tools and information about creating a fee agreement that fits your business and aligns with your beliefs.

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Most lawyer websites are just plain bad.

If your site talks at your reader about things like delivering the highest level of professionalism, or integrity, experience, and determination, this blog post is for you.

When they come to your website, your potential clients don’t care about how great you are – they care whether you can help them solve their problems. And you have precious little time to convince them you can.

Most lawyer websites are lawyer centered – they aren’t written for:

• The person surfing the internet at 2am who needs to file for divorce and is searching for some answers that may allow for sleep.
• The couple considering filing for personal bankruptcy who never in a million years thought this would happen to them.
• The small business owner who needs a professional service agreement but is so skeptical about finding the right lawyer that she’s tempted to just pull one off the internet.

Effective lawyer websites must be reader centered – written to draw potential clients in through educational, empowering information, which influences them to contact you.

This blog will particularly help you if you:

• Practice in a focused area you love (like family law, bankruptcy or estate planning)
• Run your own solo law practice or are part of a small, well managed law firm
• Realizes that who you are influences how you practice (they are not separate)
• Care deeply about serving clients well and developing long term relationships

Here’s the most important thing to know about lawyer marketing on the Web

The one way accolade-based communication you’re used to writing for a yellow page ad or brochure doesn’t translate effectively to the Web.

“Web marketing is about delivering useful content at just the precise moment that a buyer needs it.”

Scott, David M (2010), The New Rules of Marketing & PR. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An effective lawyer website is reader centered

Your website writing needs to provide useful, compelling, empowering information. The most effective lawyer website makes the people who visit feel:

• Understood
• Respected
• Valued
• Empowered

How to write a reader centered website that will make you sales

• Get personal.Don’t be afraid to let your site reflect who you are, and why you do what y ou do. Getting personal is a wonderful way to build trust and trust is why people hire you.
• Empathize. If you practice family law, step into the shoes of that person surfing the Web at 2am. What is going to draw her in, help her to finally get some sleep?
• Avoid industry speak and jargon (avoid it like the plague). Your website must be written in a way that your potential clients understand and relate to. This does not mean you have to “dumb” complex legal issues down. It means you must be absolutely clear about how your grasp of those complex legal issues helps your clients, and write your site from that perspective.
• Freely give of your knowledge and insight on your website.  A lot of professionals are afraid to do this because they erroneously believe that giving away “too much information” will mean no one will hire them. In fact, the opposite is true. Give away some of your best stuff and you’ll find over time that:
• You need to spend less of your time educating the people who contact you because they’ve spent time on your site.
• The people who contact you through your site are more ready to buy than those who have not been to your site.
• You’ll stand out from lawyers who still rely exclusively on the yellow pages. Potential clients today expect to receive valuable useful information online –   giving it to them will get you more business.

• Call your readers to action. Set goals for what you want your reader to do for every page of your site and make it easy for them to do it. Want them to contact you? Have your number and email address on every page. Have a pdf you want them to down load? Tell them why they should download it and make it easy for them.

Is your website making the sales you want? If not I can help. Email me at  Consult@initiativebasedwriting.com

If you’re a coach, writer, lawyer, consultant, or anyone who provides a professional service, there are many ways a client can flake on you.

What happened to me is a worst case scenario

It was the summer of 2007.

I was in what can only be described as a horrific limbo, personally and professionally.

After eleven years as a law firm employed attorney I’d just started my first business as a lawyer. Formed my LLC specifically to take on my first client.

This client was very promising. She said all the right things. I was impressed by what she was trying to achieve. She seemed exceedingly professional and believable and I was excited about the work.

She didn’t hesitate to pay me a $10,000 retainer, and things were going great.

Until she never paid me again

With this client I was using an antiquated billable hour model, under which the client pays a retainer, the lawyer holds that money in trust and bills against it, and when it’s gone the lawyer bills the client directly, in a “pay as you go” arrangement.

Things were chugging along on the project and when she missed the first couple of payments that were due after the retainer ran out I hardly gave it a second thought.

We were busy.

Things were moving quickly.

She promised the check was in the mail

I believed her. After all, she was a professional woman with a huge vision.

It’s hard to pin down when I fully realized that her promises were empty and hollow, and that I’d fallen victim to a desperate, futile, anxiety ridden cycle of “hope” that she’d just pay me because I’d held up my end of things and done the work.

I got screwed

Royally, totally, fundamentally screwed.

The financial hit was devastating enough.

By the time she disappeared she owed me $35,000

By the time I (barely) got past the shame, humiliation and self loathing to take action to collect, interest and attorney’s fees put the number north of $40,000.

The sick, sad part was that the financial screwing was not even the worst of it.

The emotional fallout was much, much worse. I spent a year living with shame, humiliation and self loathing (the details of which are a subject for another post).

Again, this is a worst case scenario. There are many “lesser” ways that clients flake.

Some common examples are:

• Not showing up for appointments
• Showing up late for appointments
• Rescheduling appointments at the last minute
• Requesting a refund due to “buyers’ remorse”
• Paying late
• Not paying at all
• Not doing the things you recommend
• “Disappearing” owing you a large sum of money

Consistently allowing clients to flake comes at a steep cost

Every time a client flakes it erodes something inside us. The erosion may not be apparent at first – but the resulting pain insidiously grows and festers.

That pain plays out in any number of ways.

For example you could:

• Experience shame, humiliation and self loathing (like I did)
• Question your self-worth
• Question your ability to run a business
• Wonder why people don’t take your business seriously
• Find yourself giving too many refunds
• Stress a lot about money
• Wonder whether you’re charging too much (or too little)

Before you read any further, understand this: I’m not saying that all clients flake — in my experience most of them don’t.

And sometimes things happen unexpectedly and need adjusting. Of course they do, we’re all human, and as business owners we need to be flexible.

But make no mistake, your ability to make money is vital to your business and every client who does flake erodes that ability, and ultimately slows your growth.

The Antidote: A Professional Service Agreement That You Believe In

The best thing you can do for yourself, your business and your clients is to start every new client relationship with a solid Professional Service Agreement.

As I transitioned my business from straight up lawyering to writing website copy and content  I began working with a business coach.

Through her I connected with tons of coaches and business professionals, many of whom would ask me about things related to what they could do when a client flakes. I was shocked at how few small business owners don’t actually have a solid, strong professional service agreement.

What a Professional Service Agreement Is

A Professional Service Agreement is a written, legally binding agreement signed by you and your client, where you both clearly understand and intend that you’re rendering and your client is paying for a professional service.

Whether you’re a coach, consultant, intuitive healer, or a writer, you provide a professional service.

Why You Need a Professional Service Agreement

The main reason you need a Professional Service Agreement is so that you can sleep well at night knowing you and your business are protected from the insidious erosion of both confidence and finances.

Since your business needs to make money first and foremost, and since new clients are your main source of income, the professional service agreement forms the foundation of your work, serves as a roadmap for how you work with your clients (including how and when they pay you), and maps out how the relationship is going to end.

While no agreement is ever going to be 100% airtight and invincible, starting each new relationship with a Professional Service Agreement sets the stage for full performance (by both your client and you).

Having a legally enforceable agreement that you fully understand and believe in allows you to work with clients more confidently. It also allows your clients to fully step up to the plate to receive and implement the valuable work you do together.

A well crafted, solid agreement lets you do things like:

• Set enforceable boundaries with your clients
• Get clear about how much to charge for your services
• Get clear about how and when your clients will pay you
• Minimize refund requests
• Decide up front what will happen if you need to fire a client
• Decide up front what will happen if a client wants to fire you
• Be in the best possible position should you need to take legal action

A solid Professional Service Agreement gives you the foundation to stand up for your business when you need to – to stop flaking dead in its tracks, make more money and be confident in the process.

Do you use a professional service agreement that you’re happy with? If not, what would you most like to know in order to create one and start using it?