Lawyers are essentially professional writers. Last year, I saw my friend and New York Times best-selling author Scott Sigler speak at Phoenix Comicon about how he managed to be a prolific writer and handle the business side of being a professional artist. To date, he’s written 15 novels, six novellas and dozens of short stories. His devoted fans get tattoos inspired by his work. He even has his own annual convention. Scott is one of the hardest-working, most successful and seemingly happiest people I know. When he mentioned he had a system that allows him to manage all his projects and still have time to play bass in a band, I wanted to know more. Thankfully, he was willing to share his productivity secrets, along with the truth about being a successful entrepreneur.

Are you feeling like you can never get out from under the pressure of running a small law firm? Now you have statistics to validate that. When Thomson Reuters published their 2017 State of U.S. Small Law Firms Study, it revealed these five challenges — and little has changed.

If you’ve decided to try your hand at video marketing, here are some steps to start promoting your video content.

In an earlier post, "Money Management Tips for New Associates," we focused on how freshly minted lawyers can start their financial life on the right foot. Now let's fast-forward a few years and consider some guidance for mid-level associates and young law firm owners. So, you’re older and wiser. What should you do at this point to keep your finances on the right track?

Back in January 2017, I was having breakfast with a local lawyer when he said, “I think I need to raise my rates this year. I am just not making enough money, and raising my rates should make the year more profitable.” This led me to ask, "Do you know how much additional money you would actually make by raising your rates?" Maybe raising rates was needed; maybe not.

When discussing business development, we often talk in terms of strategies — identifying top prospects, building niche practices or targeting selected referral sources, for example. But every now and then, I am reminded there are terrific chances to get business that fall into the category of being opportunistic — like riding a wave. Some lawyers reap great returns for a year or two from these efforts; others enjoy the benefits for an entire career. Opportunities will present themselves to every lawyer at some point in his or her practice. To take advantage, you must recognize a trend, an emerging issue or a hot topic and then find an audience to promote it to — quickly.

Year after year, I refer to ABA TECHSHOW as the “relationship” conference. It’s where you spend time with old friends, make new ones, provide and receive mentorship, and come away energized with lots of new ideas to try out with a community of support behind you. In the past couple of years, this community has included members of the Startup Alley. This year, 15 innovative legal startups were showcased in the Expo hall after winning a Start-Up Pitch Competition put on by a joint effort between ABA TECHSHOW, Above the Law, Evolve Law and Bob Ambrogi’s LawSites blog.

The opening ripple of ABA TECHSHOW 2018 last week was the conference's second annual Startup Pitch Competition, where 14 legal technology startups competed. Voluble, a social media data analyst provider, won. Here's more on the pitch contestants, new product launches, notes from the expo hall and other TECHSHOW tidbits.

Ryan Nevin’s article “Ways to Get Clients After Hanging Out Your Shingle” has some great tips. He’s right that you should network with attorneys who don’t do what you do to get referrals. But that’s only part of the answer. You should also make a point of building relationships with the most successful lawyers who do what you do. The reason?

Your big-picture digital marketing goal is likely straightforward and logical: Convert the prospects who find you online into clients. Achieving this goal requires time, attention and money. You just need to make intelligent investments that lead to a good return on those investments. Here are three smart updates that should top your marketing to-do list so you can achieve your big-picture goal.