When I work with law firms, the first thing I do is insist that the law firm owner refer every phone call from vendors and marketers to me. The reason I do this is because I deal with this on a day to day basis and see a bigger picture for the law firm. The law firm owner is looking day to day and what a vendor or a marketer says makes sense, gets the enthusiasm going, and suddenly a small check here or there or a purchase without thought is made. When I get a hold of the calls first I make the caller prove to me the validity of their approach based upon the vision of the firm and the direction of the marketing budget.

You can't do this until you make yourself set down and write out a budget that starts first with what you can afford, then add to it what you are willing to invest out of your net profits over the next year, and finally what will give you the highest return on your investment.

One of my very favorite lawyers constantly tells me "well it is only $150" or "it is free for the first 2 months". If he had the $150 or he had the time to get it up and running then I want to put it where we planned for it in moments of clarity.

You are coming to the end of the year and by November 1st you should have your firm budget for 2010 in place and approved. More importantly you should have out of this budget your marketing budget. This includes very dollar planned from yellow pages to direct mail to any item that you believe will deliver you more clients at the most reasonable cost.

Do you know what the cost of each case you get in the door? If your marketing budget is $50,000.00, and you generate 50 cases then the case cost you $1000.00 just to march it in the door. Let's say that your average fee is $5000.00. Take out the marketing cost ($1000), deduct your over-head (say 50%), and your net profit is $2000.00. That may or may not be a good deal for you. I have one firm I know that has their marketing cost per case down to $525.00. Now that is someone who understands "what it means to be 'for profit'".