It’s August here at the little law office on the prairie which means that we’re in the betweens – between planting and harvest when crops are left to mother nature’s care; between birth and breeding when calves and lambs frolic across verdant pastures; between early summer and early fall when the still hot days are best spent in the shade of a porch – something the hound dogs discovered weeks ago; between the completion of second quarter’s work and the flush of fourth quarter’s new matters when we are reminded that our marketing efforts need as much tending as do our vegetable gardens.
It’s that time each year when every rural practice sails through the doldrums, a time to review and restart, to reinvigorate what works, to let go of the what doesn’t, and to look into a few new ideas. It’s when the entrepreneurial lawyer’s thoughts turn to systems, automation, and business plans. For the little law office, this year’s reach through August’s heat is a renaissance of fundamentals in which technology is relegated to a supporting role and the old wetware takes center stage once again (all of which is a nice way of saying that I’m spending more time with pen, paper and a comfortable chair than I am with scanner, word processor and automation).
This years moment of retreat finds me on the back porch with that traditional American creativity-enhancing drink in hand (aka a cold beer – no, really alcohol helps your brain come up with great ideas & there’s science to back it up) looking for inspiration and reflecting on the hows, whys, and what’s next’s of a rural practice. Implementation will follow in the cooler months aptly fueled by that implementation-enhancer, coffee (Again, there’s some science lurking here – caffeine promotes the production of adrenaline & cortisol – basically the biological equivalent of igniting a bottle rocket in your brain. Problem is, your brain gets used to it and eventually it takes more & more caffeine to repeat the effect). The trick to this beer-coffee prescription for creativity is to keep all things in moderation; more than one beer and your significant other may classify that peaceful movement of introspection as loafing whereupon you will be reminded of the 238 things still left on your to do list. Too much coffee and you’ll simply find yourself doing stupid things faster
In reflection I see that, as tech-savvy as my practice is, I’ve not spent a great deal of time looking at the overarching systems – how the information (and clients) flow from on-line to real-life to an in-house digital domain (or , from marketing to sales to matter to profit). While CRM software can automate much of the process, it is the human wetware that has to start learning new (good) habits and to realize that even though my boss is really relaxed about office systems, I can’t be. When it comes to office resources, time is that one commodity that must be doled out with an eye-dropper (a bit like CPU time and disk space back in the technolithic era). Having (and using) systems keeps the old time budget in the black.
On the other hand, I find inspiration coming from taking the time to listen to some fresh voices talk about their approaches to hunting that elusive prey – the repeat client. It is truly amazing what you find when you reshuffle your RSS reader, take a random trip through the blogosphere, or simply stop to talk with the artist down the street. Granted, this may take one through some of the internet’s seedier districts, or listening to someone ramble on about producing trope l’oeil effects in Chinese brush and ink drawings, but you do run into the occasional little hole-in-the-wall site that’s just brimming with marketing ideas or garner some fresh insight on the fundamentals of good graphic design (or come across the ideal prescription of creativity).
Rather than being summer’s last messenger, August brings the seeds of new efforts to the little law office on the prairie and there’s a kind of coolness in that.
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