I’m Melissa Shanahan, and this is The Law Firm Owner Podcast, Episode #195.

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Well, hello. Welcome to this week's episode. I'm recording this from my hotel room in Chicago. I am here for the ABATECHSHOW. It’s a really fun conference. The first time I attended was last year, and really looking forward to it again. Meeting a whole bunch of people that I know in the online world, but meeting them in real life is just great. There's nothing that beats it. So, that's going to be fun.

Speaking of in real life and meeting people, last week, we hosted, Velocity Work, hosted a workshop for Mastery Group members only. They could opt in to come to this, it was in Atlanta. And, it was the most intense workshop I've ever led. It was awesome. I think we're going to have more offerings like this in the future, for people, where it makes sense.

But essentially, it was three days. All three days were workdays, so I would sort of tee them up, and then they would be working. I would come around, me and my team. Actually, my team was a huge part of the success of the event. And so, we would walk around and help make sure that they were able to make the headway that they wanted to make.

This was called The Core Assets Workshop. There were two core assets that we were helping them to build, create, and to the best of their ability, get integrated before they walked back into the firm. So, day one was to build their Accountability Charts. And then overnight, we had them designed and printed for them in a really pretty version.

The second day, was the Tracking Dashboard that they were going to create. And everyone actually ended up deciding to build it on Airtable, once we got there and we talked. And so, that was fun. That was very intense. But it was very fun to get everybody set up and squared away with their customized Tracking Portal on Airtable.

And then, Friday was Implementation Day. I heard from some participants that they were thinking, “This kind of feels like a fluff day,” or whatever. They weren't really sure. But that day was very useful. That was their chance to get on the phone with their teams, or on Zoom with their team, and roll out and help a key person, or a couple key people from their firm, understand what they've been working on and how this needed to be integrated into the firm.

And so, that's when they really got their systems down on how this was going to be successful once they walked back into the firm. We tied up loose ends on things. Made sure that there was SOPs and instruction sheets for their team to be able to utilize these things. I mean, it's the difference maker.

I've been to one too many workshops where you sit and you learn something really valuable and maybe you create something valuable, but then you go back into the busyness of work, and it doesn't get implemented. There's so much going on in the business and it takes forever by the time you carve out the time in your calendar. It takes forever to actually get this stuff ingrained in the business, so that it's a concrete thing that is used, and providing value inside of the business.

So, that was what I wanted to avoid, was that feeling for the participants, which is why we had the Implementation Day. I think that proved to be extremely helpful. And a good lesson for us, that we will do that in the future so that people don't feel like they have a lot to do once they go back to their firm. So, it was a success.

And then Saturday, we had a mastermind day that was optional. So, people stayed for that. It was an incredible whirlwind of a time, and I just so enjoyed being present with these people. In the same room and collaborating and working and helping in all the different ways that we can, when we're working on something like that.

So, thank you to all the participants who came. It was a blast. Thank you to my team, you made that event. And thank you to Ernie Svenson, who came for a day, on the Implementation Day, just to be there as a sounding board and a guide when it comes to all things processes and systems, and being able to implement them into your firm.

Considering they needed to do that for these two assets they built, I figured he was a great person to just have on hand for questions and to act as a resource. And it was such a treat to have Ernie, and I'm so grateful that he came as well. We'll make sure to put his information in the show notes. If you don't know who he is, you should absolutely go check out who he is and what he does. He's such a gift to The Law Firm Owner community, and you should know about him.

What we are talking about today, is a topic that people do not like to talk about. And they get really antsy when I end up talking to them about this. So today is really all about for those of you who have flat fee packages, and tracking your time around flat-fee packages. I hear from people, “That's why I switched to flat-fee, I was sick of tracking time.”

All right. Well, if you would have set it up at the front end, based on data, real data, and not hunches or feelings, then we wouldn't be having this conversation. But what happens, when I talk to clients and I start digging in on their stuff… I see this mostly with private clients, because I'm all up in their numbers and their business with them, like one-on-one. And so, we'll talk about profitability of certain matter types or case types.

There are some that are very obvious to them that they're profitable. But most of the time, there are certain matter types or case types that they're not sure that they're profitable, and they have a hunch it might not be. Or, on the flip side, they have a hunch that it might be profitable, but they aren't sure.

Now, this is a no, right? You're a business owner. You need data. You need to understand if you're profitable or not within the services that you provide. And if you're not, why are you okay with that? Because maybe, maybe, I don't even know what the reason might be, but maybe you're okay with the fact that you aren't profitable with that specific case type.

But it's okay, because over here with this other case type, you're exceptionally profitable. And so, you kind of know that it makes up… I don't know. I don't even know why someone would choose a matter type that they're not profitable on.

So, my point in saying that is, if you know the data, and you're making a decision based on that, then I'm fine with it. I actually don't really care. I do care, but this conversation is not about how profitable you should be on a matter type. This conversation is around understanding if you are profitable, and by how much? And if you're not profitable, and by how much are you missing the mark.

That is all I want you to know. You can make your own decisions after that. This is not telling you what decisions you should make. This is really about helping you identify the truth, and enabling you to make smart decisions from there because you have the data. Because this is based on the truth. Math is truth; numbers are truth.

We build tracking portals for clients. I mean, we call it, internally, “The source of truth.” This is the story of what is going on in the firm. And so, I want you to be able to do that for yourself. Many people I talked to initially, cannot do this. They have hunches, but they don't know.

Here's the other thing, when people are setting their flat-fees, they do it on something that does feel fair. But the problem with that, pricing it so that it feels fair, means that, yes, you might think through the steps and try to think through the time that's given and the resources that are given in terms of costs for the business to that matter type, in an average scenario.

But it also means, because it “feels” fair, it also means that they're usually up in the psychology of the client. And that, when you're setting fees, just trying to get the bare baseline for the fees, you can't be up in the psychology of your client. You have to figure out the truth, without any subjectivity, without any fear that they might think it's too much. Just get the truth.

I think that holds people back a lot because they don't want sticker shock for their clients. But they do want flat-fees because it's more convenient for the business. And there are reasons that they want to lean into flat-fees other than that. And there's reasons that the client tends to like flat-fees; but not if it's too high.

Now, if there's sticker shock, there's all these barriers that we allow to muck up the process of determining our fees. It's not that the psychology shouldn't be taken into consideration. But after you find out all the data, and you know, you understand, what it would mean to price in a really healthy way for the business.

Then, after that's determined, and that is the fee for the business, then you can start to play with; how does that get paid? How can you reduce sticker shock? How can you do a better job of conveying the value of them going with your firm for this?

There are all these different ways that you can get more acceptance, by potential new clients, of this fee. Instead of just knocking down your fee because you're afraid they're going to have sticker shock.

Okay, but that's also not what this podcast is about. This isn't a class on how to get people on board, your potential new clients on board, with saying yes, even though you are afraid that they may have sticker shock. There are things you can do there. That is not what this is about.

This is about coming back to being able to get the data and being willing to do the work to get the data. Now, some of you will tune out here, and I hope that you won't. I hope that you stay with me, because this doesn't mean, it doesn't necessarily mean, that you have to track your time, that everybody in the firm has to track the time for everything, moving forward.

It can look like that. But there are some other ways. And I want to share some of the things that I've learned over the years working with people, that have been really useful in getting them the data, and felt freeing. A better, lighter, way to keep track of their time. Or, to get the data, to make sure that their fees align properly with the amount of time and resources that’s being spent on the case or the matter.

So, here's what we're going to start with. There is a spectrum. I have a visual of a spectrum in my mind when I think about this for clients. Now, if you were to sit down, just choose one matter type or case type, and lay out all the working time involved on that particular flat-fee matter. And err on the side of things that take longer.

If you can imagine the spectrum, where on the left of the spectrum there's a big zero; there's no time spent, no resources spent on it. And then, in the middle of the spectrum is sort of where the average lies. And on the right side of the spectrum, is the matters where you have the outliers that are well beyond the average amount of time; that just was like, for that particular client.

And so, you kind of think about, there is the spectrum, after you lay out all the working time involved. For this particular matter, like an average matter, you want to err at a price point that's between average and well beyond average. That will help cushion and guard against errors, with you mapping out your time.

I mean, oftentimes, we underestimate what it actually takes to get the stuff done. So, it'll prevent against that. It also provides a little bit of cushion, room, for you if you hire someone new; it's going to take longer for a matter. There are instances when you just need a 20% cushion on the length of time that something is getting done.

So, on the spectrum, if you can visualize this, you can even write it on paper. On one end of the spectrum, all the way to the left is zero time, working time, being put into this matter type. And then, the center is the average amount of time being put into this matter type. And then on the far right, is well beyond average; the outliers. Where with the client it was going to take more, it took more.

And when you're thinking through this, I want you to err on the side of things in a way that puts you between the average amount of time and the outliers. Somewhere on that right side of the spectrum, between the last two points, is where you really want to find a sweet spot there.

Just to back up and make sure we all understand what we're talking about here, how I think through this for the client. I'm going to give an example of walking through the working time. So, let's say when you sit down to look at a particular matter type, and you add up all of the time through the different phases, that an attorney needs to spend about four hours, on average, on this matter type.

A paralegal needs to spend about eight hours, on average, for this matter type. And a legal assistant spends six hours, on average, per matter type. Now, if you haven't tracked your time, this is hunches. I know so many of you will be like, “Well, it's not, because I really know.” No. Anytime your brain says, “Yeah, yeah, I got it,” you should be very onto yourself. But that's usually not the case.

All right, so four hours of attorney time. And let's say, that the hourly fee that you attribute to your attorneys in your firm is $350 an hour. Then that would mean we'd be $1,400 for attorney time there. Now, for paralegal time, we said eight hours. Let's say, their billable rate, if you were going to bill them by hour, is $200 an hour. So, that's $1,600. And then, six hours of assistant time. Let's say, their billable rate, if you were going to bill them by hour, would be $125. That's $750.

When you add all of this up, this total, just the time involved, is $3,750. So, $3,750, for this case type, would be the flat-fee if you were going on average length of time times their rate, of every person billable that's involved.

Now, this is what happens. People come to me all the time, and they'll just be shy of their break-even mark; they're shy of it. So, in this instance, this should be, just to break-even, $3,750 for a very average case or matter. But they charge $3,200 so they're shy on it, but they don't know it. And this is invisible, unless you have data.

And, this eats away at a practice. This eats away at everything. It makes everything feel so hard, when you are just shy of break-even, because you don't know it. So, you can't really figure out what's going on, but you just know everything feels really hard.

There's a bunch of effects of it. And actually, when you think about what the effective hourly rate is then, for your people, it's lower than what you ever intended for them to be at, in terms of an hour of their time inside of your firm.

When I meet someone in this spot, I first have them sit down, because they don't have data. When they come to me, they don't track their time, but they do have flat-fee packages. And most of the time, they are feeling squeezed. They're feeling some struggle internally in terms of profit margin, etc. And when that happens, that's when I kind of dig in deeper.

I have had one client that priced their flat-fee packages so high, that the effective hourly rate he had worked out, the effective hourly rate was like $850 an hour for attorney time. Okay, we're fine. I don't need to dig into your stuff, man.

But when you're squeezed, and you're trying to figure out why you're squeezed, most of the time, people don't do the work to dig into this. To figure out what contribution their pricing has on what they're experiencing. Because it is work to figure it out. But it's not hard. And if you have someone like me, who loves it and geeks out on it, it's fun. I will make it be fun for you.

So, I will sit down with them, and I'll say, “Okay, I know you don't have time that you can rely on for data, but I want you to walk through the matter type.” Just like how I led you guys on this podcast. “I want you to put the working time, all along the way; for the attorney, for the paralegal, and for a legal assistant. So, we can add up their total, for the time spent, on average, on a case like this. And really take your time in doing that so that you're not skipping steps.”

I ask questions to ensure that they aren't cutting corners. To the best of my ability, I try to make sure that they aren't cutting corners with it when they're thinking about their time. It's not going to be perfect, but it's just a way for us to get a read.

Then we add up the time. I will ask them the rate for each position, and then we will do the math; just like I walked you through. And every single time, I'm not kidding, without exception, they have been short of break-even.

Sometimes they're very surprised, and very willing to just make the shifts. Like, they have to change the flat-fee pricing right away, based on what we just walked through. Okay, and that's not the end-all be-all, they're still going to have to track time. But that's one reaction I get out of people.

The other reaction is fear. And usually, they are surprised, but it's fear. Because they're so afraid of what the potential new client will think about a higher price point than what they currently have. And so, there's just a bunch of fear involved in changing it. Because they're afraid people will say no, and they won't get the people to the door that they want to get to the door.

And listen, I get it. I know, I know, sometimes this stuff can be, it just feels scary, for whatever reason, to raise your prices. So, if you're in that boat, I hear you, I see you. And you’ve got to step up as a business owner and do what you need to do.

I will say to you, and this is what I was going to tell you; I mentioned it earlier. I don't tell you guys what to do, because I don't have a full view inside of your practice.

One other consideration here, is efficiency. If there are ways that you are being drastically inefficient, then there's a chance you don't raise your fee, but you work like mad to get some efficiency in. So that there's no time being wasted inside of the organization as you are executing on this matter for this client.

That can help increase profitability, right? Because it can decrease the amount of time spent by the attorney, by the paralegal, and by the legal assistant. If you think you can actually decrease the time just by changing a few things or implementing a new system, for example, then by all means, go do that.

But something has to shift so that you are breaking even. You can do it by raising the fee. Or, you can do it by getting more efficient. And you can do it using a combination of both. But either way, the only way you can make these decisions and to look at it in this way, is to walk through this in the way that I'm explaining to you right now.

Okay, so now. Now, we need data. We need to test out if your walkthrough that you just did, to see how much time each person was spending on the matter for the client, you need to see if that's correct or if it's not. And you're going to have to get data on it to find out. And the only way to get data, is to track time.

And so, this is where people will shy away. But stick with me on this. When I encounter this with a client, and we're looking at a particular matter type, the first point in the decision tree on how to approach this: Is this is a short-length matter type, or a longer duration matter type?

From start to finish, short, in my mind, is one to three months, maybe four months. But one to three months, on average, for this matter type to get open and closed. And then, there's a longer timeframe, which is four or five months, all the way through two years plus.

The short turnaround time you can have “sprints” when tracking time and then be done, because you get a really good data set. For example, with my estate planning clients, when they're tracking just a simple will and they are trying to figure out if their fees are correct, then they will choose a period of time, to track their time on that matter type exclusively.

And so, one way this could look is to say, all right, for two full months, all of the new, simple wills that come to the door, we are all going to track our time on those cases, that come through the door in the next two months. So, let's say, in March, March 1st through the end of April, anybody who comes through the door, that's a simple will, we track our time on.

That means you'll be tracking time into May, maybe a little bit into June. But it's just on the ones that came through the door in those two months. That gives you a really good read. Now, if your volume is high enough, then you could get a solid enough sample with just one month of people coming to the door; it doesn't have to be two months.

So, for the month of March, anyone who comes to the door, we are going to track our time on those matter types until that matter is closed. And so, there's a sample set of people, that everybody in the firm agrees and does that. That's one way.

And then you're done, and you have a dataset for that matter type specifically. You can run it against your assumptions and see where you are right or wrong, and then make decisions from there. Then you go to the next matter type, and you do a blitz again, and you go to the next matter type.

So, clearly, you start with the ones that you think you're the most off on, or the data will help you more than the other matter types. Start with where the priority is, but you make your way through. And this may take a year or two to get through everything. But this will give you data sets that will be really meaningful to the business.

Now, if you have a longer case duration, on average, and you don't have the short turnaround times. So, anywhere from four months to two years plus. This is a little bit different, and I would encourage you to think through this. You can make your own decisions. But my recommendation is that if you do have longer turnaround time on cases… Maybe your threshold is six months, not four. You decide your threshold, for what you consider long versus short.

But I would say, anything four months and above, you are likely going to benefit more if you just commit to tracking all your time, on all your clients, and just go all-in as a firm. I realize this is a culture shift for many people. But again, you don't have to do it forever.

But you're going to have to do it for a while, because you have to do it from start to finish on cases to really get a good glimpse. So, I just think getting into a culture shift around tracking your time is going to be really healthy for the business.

And the reasons that people don't want to do it, aren't good enough reasons. If you are feeling tight, or if there are questions about profitability, you have to track your time; there isn't a way around this. And it's not something the client will ever see; this is for internal purposes only. But it is a way for you to validate or invalidate your assumptions. This is facts, not feelings.

I was having a conversation with one of my best friends, his name is Justin. We've been friends for, gosh, almost 20 years now. This guy's story is nuts. Just to give some context, he was a child prodigy. I mean, he graduated college at 19 with a double major. He got picked up by a consulting firm in Japan. Spent some time over there. Came back to the States. Started his own company, and sold that within seven years for tens of millions of dollars; and not low tens.

It wasn't a technology company. So, if you're listening to this, I'm from the world of Bay Area and tech. That can happen, right? Seven years actually might be a long time to sell it for what he sold it for. But this was a traditional business that didn't rely on being on the internet and relied heavily on logistics.

And so, to build this in seven years and sell it for what he sold it, was remarkable. I'm telling you all this because he truly is one of the smartest people I've ever met, and will ever meet in my life. I love getting together with him and talking about business and what's going on, and the barriers I'm experiencing, the wins that I'm experiencing, the realizations I'm having.

Hearing his perspectives on some of that, and him asking me questions I've never thought to ask myself, and so I really enjoy conversation with him. One thing that I've noticed, because we talked about his business too, one thing I've noticed is that he does not ever sway from fundamentals, ever, ever, ever.

Talk about facts, not feelings, this guy is the epitome of that. And it's one of the reasons he's so successful. He will do the work to get the facts so that he can make really good decisions. He also, which is such a crazy combination for someone at his level, he has really good intuition. So, he uses both, but he will not make a decision without data, period.

We were talking about tracking time. I wasn't actually talking about what I notice within my world. He was talking about within his portfolio of companies he works with. He tracks everybody on his team; tracks the amount of time they're spending on each client. Because, quarter over quarter, if it's exceptionally high, then they have to make a change.

They have to have meetings and take a look at things, to see if he needs to exercise certain rights to take some things over, because it's just not happening. That, really, you shouldn't be spending that much more time, quarter over quarter, on one company. What is going on in there? Why can't they get it together? Do we need to exercise some rights and take some things over.

And, we talked more in depth about this. But I just realized the fact that he tracks time on his clients, so that he has indicators to tell him what to do, what to look into, when to dig in, that is… It’s like, of course he does.

Because he needs data, he wants data. He's not just going to invest in these companies, and have him and his team work on those companies, and with those companies, and be helpful in different ways, if some, suck the life out of the company, and others don't. And they're going off of what people are saying versus data.

He would never, ever, put himself in a position to have to listen to his team who had hunches and have to make decisions on hunches. Never. So, of course he has data. And of course, they track time on every client, every company, in their portfolio.

This struck me, as I'm thinking about doing this podcast for you and writing the outline for this podcast for you. You are a business owner, and I know that as a lawyer, you have had experiences in the past that have sucked when it comes to tracking time. But please understand that you are in a position, that if you don't do that, you don't have visibility into things that are really important for your business.

I want to help law firm owners become better business owners. And, there is a way to do this. And if you ask any smart business person around you, they would never price packages without data. They would never make decisions like this without data. And they would have a way to extract at it in the future, to make sure that this is all moving and staying within the bounds of when it was originally set.

So, when it comes to tracking time, the thing I want to say here, is that you can change your mind set about this. Tracking time can be a very empowering move for a company. You have an edge that another firm down the road doesn't have. It's not about comparing to other firms. You have an edge that you won't have, without it. Are you willing to live with that?

Now, again, if your effective hourly rate, when you walk through the exercise that I was talking about, if you don't have data, but you really sit down and you think through each phase, for each role that's working on the firm, you come up with a number. If you're well beyond that, then okay. That's fine, that's different. You can throw this podcast out the window.

That's like the client I was telling you about, where he figured out the effective hourly rate for his attorneys was $850 an hour. It's because his flat-fees are so high, that of course, he's fine.

But most of you listening to this, they have flat-fees, are not fine. And, you are not pricing in that way. And, you don't have insight or visibility into this. That's who I'm talking to in this podcast. Any barriers you have, mental barriers that you have, around getting on board with tracking your time, what do you need, in order to melt those away and get going? Because this matters.

There are a few things that you need to think through, to prep, in order to get going on this. So, that's what I wanted to share next. One, is you need to choose a tool. Can you do it within the current software that you already use? Do you need to get another tool? I don't know that I have one person that uses the same tool to track time.

I actually did a quick search online before this podcast, just to see. I know some that are out there, but I don't know all of them. I was looking to see, and there's so many out there for lawyers. So, there are solutions out there for you.

One client has a whole database built out in monday.com that's extensive; she had an engineer build it. And, she can track time within that. So, there are options. You need to pick a tool that is going to work. Don't waver from that, just, whatever you choose, stick with it. That's your tool that you're going to use moving forward.

Then, you're going to have to think through how this is going to work. Really map out and think through some of the things that, from a habit’s perspective, how are you going to make sure that you, and the people that work for you, are going to have a habit and sort of a behavior shift in order to track your time in the ways that it needs to be tracked?

If you have half-baked data, this is not going to work. You have to do this right. Getting people on board for this is helpful. And you can get people on board, if you think through some of the things they're going to have to think about, to set themselves up for success with this. To just kind of think through, how does this shift happen in your firm? What can tee you and your people up, so that this is just what we do?

It's going to take some energy at first, around it. But you do need to just think about it ahead of time. Play it all the way out to the end and see, what are the things that you need to be aware of at the outset, so it sets you up for success.

And then, you want to roll it out to your team in a way that gets their buy-in. You can be funny about it; you could bring your sense of humor. “I know, we don't want to track time. But listen, we have to see if this all adds up the way that we think it adds up. And so, I need your help with this initiative.”

Get their buy-in. Have a start date, always. Have a start date when it's like, “Okay, here we go. March 1st. Everybody's going to start tracking time on this matter type only, for two solid months. Every matter that comes through the door, those are the matters we're going to commit to tracking our time on, through the end.” Or, if you aren't doing just a matter type and blitzes, then tracking your time every day for all the work that you do on files, is going to be necessary.

And then the last thing, which is the most important thing, is that you keep this alive culturally. You have to keep some energy happening around it. You can't just tell someone, your team, “March 1st, we're going to start tracking this.” And then you check in two weeks later, “How you guys doing?”

No, that is not going to go well. I'll tell you right now, it's not going to go well. This is a behavior change and a behavior shift. That is heavy leg work up front. Whether you are trying to become a runner, and you are going couch-to-10k, that is heavy lifting up front just to become a runner. It’s going to be heavy lifting up front just to become a time tracker as a part of your role. So, keep this alive culturally.

Maybe if you use Slack, maybe there's a Slack channel that is just for that. To remind people at the top of the day and put some funny gifs in there. How can you keep the energy alive around this topic, so that for everyone it is staying in their line of sight? And they are being reminded to, “Oh, yeah, this is what we do now.”

How are you going to keep this alive culturally? You can get creative with that, but you cannot just be quiet. You can't announce it and then be quiet for two weeks, and then expect that people are just going to do it. Because it's not that they suck as employees or as team members, it's because we are human. And when you make a behavior shift, it's going to take more umph than that.

So, what can you do, to culturally keep this conversation alive and keep this effort and focus alive, until it's just a part of what you do? I almost think the people that decide to just start tracking their time on everything, on all matters moving forward, I actually think that they will have an easier time than the people who decide to do blitzes.

And the reason for that, is because you really are engraining that this is just what we do. And it's not sort of splintered off with a certain matter type. But for some people, it just feels lighter and better to do the matter type, specific for a specific amount of time.

So, you get to decide, but you need to start tracking time. You need to get data. You need to decide if you're going to do blitzes or sprints with tracking. Or, are you just going to make this what you guys do in the firm. So, that you can verify that your hunches are right, that your flat fees are right, and they're healthy for the business as a whole.

All right, so if you’re flat-fee, takeaways: Make a decision to do this and which method you want to use to do it. Choose the tool. And then partner with your team, and go. I guess before all of that, you want to walk through the exercise I lead you through. Where you actually lay out the time, you map out the time, for a certain matter type and the fees associated with the time of the employees. And figure out if your fee is breaking even or not, for an average matter type.

That's the first thing. But then, once you have a look at all that, decide, unless you are way over, your flat-fees provide so much cushion to that matter type, then you don't need to go track time against it. You can, but you don't need to. I would start with the ones that feel iffier.

Once you have identified those, then make a decision about how you're going to track the time as a sprint. Or, is it just what we're going to be doing at the firm. Choose the tool you're going to use. Partner with your team. And, go. Set a date and go.

For Mastery Group members, I know we talk about this some, that comes up during strategic planning. But if this is something you want to dig into specifically, make sure to bring this up at strategic planning. Make sure to have it as a focus, as a Rock. And then, there'll be some accountability around it etc. And, some help and support.

But for those of you who aren't in Mastery Group, and you just want to take this information and run with it, do it. You, absolutely, have the ability to do it, and I'm cheering you on from over here. Get it done. Get the data. You deserve to have the data. You deserve to be profitable, for God’s sake. And you deserve to know if you're profitable or not. Or, if you're even breaking even or not.

And the only way you're going to know, is this way; there isn't another way. If there was, I would give it to you, because I'm all about trying to create some ease with getting what you need. And, you can create ease with tracking time.

If you are feeling dramatic about the fact that you're going to start tracking time and you're dragging your feet and you're so pissed that that's what you're going to have to do. Can you just reframe how you're thinking about this? Your experience with it in the past may have sucked, you don't need to have that crappy of an experience anymore. You're the boss. You're the owner. You get to decide what this looks like. You can find the tools that make this as easy as possible. Get a good attitude about this. Get your team on board. Decide your tools, and go. Don't look back. Because it will be invaluable to you in setting your fees.

All right, everybody. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful week, and I'll see you here next Tuesday.

Hey, you may not know this, but there's a free guide for a process I teach called Monday Map/ Friday Wrap. If you go to velocitywork.com, it's all yours. It's about how to plan your time and honor your plans. So that, week over week, more work that moves the needle is getting done in less time. Go to velocitywork.com to get your free copy.

Thank you for listening to The Law Firm Owner Podcast. If you're ready to get clearer on your vision, data, and mindset, then head over to velocitywork.com, where you can plug into Quarterly Strategic Planning, with accountability and coaching in between. This is the work that creates Velocity.