Lawyer Business Advantage

Alay Yajnik
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Lawyer Business Advantage Podcast

This podcast is dedicated to helping attorneys earn more money, get better clients and spend more time with family. Your host, Alay Yajnik, is a law firm growth expert, author, and the founder of Law Firm Success Group. Get inspired, learn best practices, and get ready to grow your law firm faster and easier with this informative and inspiring podcast. Listen, learn, and remember: You CAN seize freedom. You CAN embrace happiness. You CAN build your Perfect Practice!

  1. 4 HR AGO

    Four "Must Have" Financial Advisors for Law Firms with Ryan Kimler

    In this episode, Alay and Ryan discuss:  The four financial positions your firm needs as you grow. Adding on advisors as your firm grows and taking a tiered approach. Challenges your firm will face as you approach 7+ figures. Communication between your financial advisors.  Key Takeaways:  During your law firm’s growth, you must have a bookkeeper, a good tax preparer (for both personal and business), a part-time CFO, and a retirement advisor. Start early and build the relationships now, even if you don’t need that financial advisor yet in your firm. Finding the right people can take time. Valuing a law firm requires time and is not an exact science. Working with a retirement specialist as early as you can will help you in the future. Having an annual meeting with all your financial advisors together will get everyone on the same page and will easily give you a 10x return or more on that hour of time.   Tweetable Moments: * “A bookkeeper is going to do it cheaper, they’re going to do it faster, and they’re probably going to do it better than you can.” —  Alay Yajnik * “The CFO that you hire, they’re really the linchpin of the financial team. We do a lot to communicate and make sure that the whole team is on the same page.” —  Ryan Kimler * “All four pieces do need to work really closely together, and they do need to communicate together.” —  Ryan Kimler * “By getting your financial team on the same page, they’re going to spend less time chasing their tail, trying to figure out what to do, and what’s in your best interest.” —  Alay Yajnik    About Ryan Kimler:  Ryan is the Founder of Net Profit CFO. A Financial Services Firm bringing clients clarity and guidance, giving them one clear path to having a growing, more successful and more profitable business. We provide business owners with an Outside CFO guide to help them understand what is working in their business and what is not. We give owners the tools they need to make corrective actions to meet their goals and objectives. Ryan double majored in Accounting and Finance at Illinois State University. After College Ryan worked at a CPA firm with a wide range of small business clients. Ryan has since started his own firm and has specialized in working with attorneys for over 6 years and has helped more than 200 law firms. Working with attorneys is my passion. I have found that attorneys seem to be really underserved by the accounting and finance community. Most accountants waste Attorney’s valuable time by explaining and reviewing, Profit and Loss or Income Statements, and Tax Returns. Instead, attorneys need clarity – clarity to move their business forward, make informed financial decisions, meet their goals, and improve profits.   Connect with Ryan Kimler:  Website: https://www.netprofitcfo.com/ & financialclarityllc.com  Email: ryan@financialclarityllc.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryankfinancialclarityllc    Connect with Alay Yajnik:  Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/  One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com LinkedIn: linkedin...

    21 min

  2. 19 SEPT

    Law Firm Financials with Ryan Kimler

    In this episode, Alay and Ryan discuss:  CFO versus accountant versus bookkeeper.  Trust fund collection procedures and utilization. The importance of regular meetings on your law firm’s financials.  Addressing new metrics and financial problems as you clear up the primary issues.  Key Takeaways:  When trying to figure out where you’re having a cash flow problem in your business, go through your financials, learn the numbers, and start there. Bringing in a third party can also give you a different perspective on what is and isn’t working.  Bookkeepers do the day-to-day work (like a junior associate), and accountants look at the financials more deeply and make adjustments as needed (like a senior attorney). Then the CFO takes those numbers and looks at the big picture, does the analysis of strengths and weaknesses, future tracking, and proposes corrective actions to the owner when needed.  Analysis allows you to put numbers on the same page to compare and see trends that having separate reports does not always allow for.  There is no wrong way to utilize trust collection as long as you are actually using it and not solely focusing on tracking clients down for payments. Tweetable Moments: * “We’re going to take the final numbers, and we’re going to analyze where are the strengths of the business and where are the weaknesses of the business. What are the numbers that are really holding the business back from being more successful?” —  Ryan Kimler * “If you want to think about growing your business, you’re forecasting into the future. That’s not something your bookkeeper or accountant can necessarily help you with.” —  Alay Yajnik * “The big key is to make sure, especially when we’re doing hourly billing, that we have the funds available to bill against, and that we’re utilizing trust funds at a very, very high rate, and so that way the money’s there and we’re not running people down for collections.” —  Ryan Kimler * “We continue to move forward and address new problems. After we took care of the accounts receivable problem, the next problem that we really dove into was payroll and utilization.” —  Ryan Kimler    About Ryan Kimler:  Ryan is the Founder of Net Profit CFO. A Financial Services Firm bringing clients clarity and guidance, giving them one clear path to having a growing, more successful, and more profitable business. We provide business owners with an Outside CFO guide to help them understand what is working in their business and what is not. We give owners the tools they need to take corrective actions to meet their goals and objectives. Ryan double majored in Accounting and Finance at Illinois State University. After College Ryan worked at a CPA firm with a wide range of small business clients. Ryan has since started his own firm and has specialized in working with attorneys for over 6 years and has helped more than 200 law firms. Working with attorneys is my passion. I have found that attorneys seem to be really underserved by the accounting and finance community. Most accountants waste Attorney’s valuable time by explaining and reviewing, Profit and Loss or Income Statements, and Tax Returns. Instead, attorneys need clarity – clarity to move their business forward, make informed financial decisions, meet their goals, and improve profits.   Connect with Ryan Kimler:  Website: https://www.netprofitcfo.com/ & financialclarityllc.com  Email: ryan@financialclarityllc.com  LinkedIn: a href="https://www.

    20 min

  3. 12 SEPT

    Can You Afford to Hire? with Ryan Kimler

    In this episode, Alay and Ryan discuss:  How much do you pay new hires?  Profitable versus scalable when looking at new employee expenses and incomes. Properly building cost centers into your business.  Specific guidelines and benchmarks for hiring different positions in your organization.   Key Takeaways:  Look at what a competitive salary in your area for the position is as the base.  401(k), taxes, insurance, and other benefits are all part of the employee’s cost, not just their salary. In your law firm’s expenditures, the overhead category is typically where you can return some of the percentages of your profits to your business.  Having a net income of 20 to 25% will typically ensure that you’re going to have a positive cash flow.    Tweetable Moments: * “Everybody has goals for yourself, and a certain level of compensation and cash flow is really what’s going to get you there.” —  Ryan Kimler * “The true cost of that employee is probably going to be somewhere if you mark up their salary by 20-25% to 50% on the high side, you’re going to have their full cost mostly captured, and maybe even some to spare.” —  Alay Yajnik * “I typically work with firms and have them shoot for a consistent profitability of 20 to 25%.” —  Ryan Kimler * “As your firm grows, that does take cash.” —  Ryan Kimler    About Ryan Kimler:  Ryan is the Founder of Net Profit CFO. A Financial Services Firm bringing clients clarity and guidance, giving them one clear path to having a growing, more successful and more profitable business. We provide business owners with an Outside CFO guide to help them understand what is working in their business and what is not. We give owners the tools they need to make corrective actions to meet their goals and objectives. Ryan double majored in Accounting and Finance at Illinois State University. After College Ryan worked at a CPA firm with a wide range of small business clients. Ryan has since started his own firm and has specialized in working with attorneys for over 6 years and has helped more than 200 law firms. Working with attorneys is my passion. I have found that attorneys seem to be really underserved by the accounting and finance community. Most accountants waste Attorney’s valuable time by explaining and reviewing, Profit and Loss or Income Statements, and Tax Returns. Instead, attorneys need clarity and clarity to move their business forward, make informed financial decisions, meet their goals, and improve profits.   Connect with Ryan Kimler:  Website: https://www.netprofitcfo.com/ & financialclarityllc.com  Email: ryan@financialclarityllc.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryankfinancialclarityllc  Podcast: https://netprofitcfo.com/podcast/    Connect with Alay Yajnik:  Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/  One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alayyajnik

    18 min

  4. 5 SEPT

    Delegating to Assistants with Gina Cotner

    In this episode, Alay and Gina discuss:  Differences between different types of assistants.  How the tech layoffs have affected the virtual assistant market.  US versus international virtual assistants.  Generational changes with remote working.    Key Takeaways:  The right-hand person who can do nearly anything is often the first hire of lawyers, even before they can bring on a full-time person.  Younger generations, Millennials and Gen-Z in particular have always built relationships and connections online and do not need the water cooler conversations to create the culture in a workplace.  Create a clear definition of “done” that everyone understands and is on the same page.  Be willing to provide correction when necessary, and deliver professionally and kindly.   Tweetable Moments: * “The words you use don’t always indicate the skill level. [It can also vary depending on] the cities you’re in.” —  Gina Cotner * “Right now, you can just start writing down: what are the tasks that are repeatable? I do them regularly, they’re not rocket science, they don’t require a law degree, or I’m just not good at it, or I just freaking hate it, and then you want to start handing them over.” —  Gina Cotner * “You’re really investing in who you’re going to be in the future.” —  Gina Cotner * “When you have a high caliber person, you can coach, you can correct…you don’t have to coddle.” —  Gina Cotner    About Gina Cotner: Gina Cotner is the CEO of Athena Executive Services, a firm that pairs virtual Executive Assistants around the United States with swamped and successful entrepreneurs and executives. Her team of high-caliber Executive Assistants work part-time, from home, taking many tasks and projects off the plate of successful people, leaving them free to spend their time where they are needed most. Gina has worked remotely for over 15 years on national and international teams. More recently she has focused on the work-life balance, wellness, and personal satisfaction of busy professionals. She is known for developing leaders and having them rise up around her.   Connect with Gina Cotner:  Website: https://athenaexecutiveservices.com/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AthenaVirtualAssistants/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/athenaea/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/athena-executive-services/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/athena_executive_services/    Connect with Alay Yajnik:  Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/  One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alayyajnik

    23 min

  5. 29 AUG

    Best Practices for Onboarding Clients with Belle Walker

    In this episode, Alay and Belle discuss:  Why client onboarding is key to law firm success.  Knowing when and why a conversation should happen with a prospective client.  Who should be doing the process mapping.  Understanding the right questions to ask as you build a process map for your client onboarding.  Key Takeaways:  Every law firm has to onboard clients if they want to succeed, but it is not taught in law firms or in early associate roles.  Saving time on your client onboarding saves time for you (the lawyer), your team, and the client.  Process mapping should not be done by the lawyer, but it should be done.  Every law firm will have a different process, but that is part of what makes your process special.  Tweetable Moments: * “If it’s seamless and if it works really, really well…their level of trust in you is going to be sky high.” —  Alay Yajnik * “This is more of a secret weapon. Now you know about it, you can get access to it. This is going to give you an edge.” —  Belle Walker * “If you have a standard set of process maps, every firm is going to run probably a little bit differently, and so you get to make changes.” —  Alay Yajnik    About Belle Walker: Belle Walker takes organizations from Friction to Function, recapturing lost efficiency and engagement by aligning structures and processes with strategic goals.  Her clients span tech, professional services, nonprofits, and more. Prior to consulting, Belle built several successful teams for HERE Technology, including one responsible for the quality of maps for autonomous vehicles, and received two patents.  Belle began her career at Google, building a nationwide aerial photography operation.  She has also built Product Management and Customer Service organizations.   Belle has a Mechanical Engineering degree from Harvard and a Systems Engineering master’s from USC where her research studied organizations as systems.   Connect with Belle Walker:  Website: https://belleviewconsulting.com/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bellekwalker/    Connect with Alay Yajnik:  Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/  One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alayyajnik

    21 min

  6. 22 AUG

    Best Practices for Onboarding Staff with Belle Walker

    In this episode, Alay and Belle discuss:  Benefits of having a process map for onboarding staff.  How to document your processes and procedures.  The knowledge and expertise that is hidden in underdeveloped documentation.  Different ways of brainstorming for process maps with your team.    Key Takeaways:  Simple checklists are helpful for experienced staff. They are not the end-all-be-all for every process, especially in an industry as complex as law. There should be at least three visual shapes for your process map to make different stages stand our clearly. For example: start, finish, tasks, etc.  Process mapping requires significant time to gather information and visually layout the process map.  Interviewing individuals alone rather than as a group is more effective due to the different points of view and information given. Tweetable Moments: * “The only thing worse than onboarding new staff is having to terminate somebody. Unfortunately, if onboarding isn’t done right, oftentimes the logical next step is the person that either quits and leaves or you, as the owner, have to let them go. And we want to avoid those outcomes.” —  Alay Yajnik * “A process map can literally be a map to help your staff navigate the different tasks and steps and activities that are needed to onboard a new client, to screen, to make sure there’s a fit, and to make sure that all of their information is tracked.” —  Belle Walker * “The change was really manifested in the process map. By really ordering in that process, map how to approach those questions, they could filter down the most efficient path, or the most likely the efficient path, and also listen for keywords that they may not have known to listen for otherwise.” —  Belle Walker * “The best place to get started is to think through where the expertise comes in for your staff.” —  Belle Walker * “You could almost flow right through: the process map is when to do it, Loom is how to do it, the checklist is proof you did it.” —  Belle Walker    Episode References:  Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/  Loom: https://www.loom.com/    About Belle Walker: Belle Walker takes organizations from Friction to Function, recapturing lost efficiency and engagement by aligning structures and processes with strategic goals.  Her clients span tech, professional services, nonprofits, and more. Prior to consulting, Belle built several successful teams for HERE Technology, including one responsible for the quality of maps for autonomous vehicles, and received two patents.  Belle began her career at Google, building a nationwide aerial photography operation.  She has also built Product Management and Customer Service organizations.   Belle has a Mechanical Engineering degree from Harvard and a Systems Engineering master’s from USC where her research studied organizations as systems.   Connect with Belle Walker:  Website: https://belleviewconsulting.com/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bellekwalker/    Connect with Alay Yajnik:  Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/  One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com

    24 min

  7. 15 AUG

    Law Firm Invoicing with Belle Walker

    In this episode, Alay and Belle discuss:  How process mapping can help a law firm’s operations. Many processes that now don’t make sense or should be obsolete often started because of valid and important reasons. Visualizing the information flow to see how the processes happen.    Key Takeaways:  Being proactive will allow you to prevent problems before they can occur and cause a big mess in your law firm.  Bringing in an experienced third party will be less expensive than utilizing a law partner’s time and they know the right questions to ask to help identify processes. Reviewing your invoicing process will allow you to see where unnecessary time is spent.  One common symptom that you might need process mapping is recognizing that you don’t know how something works within your firm.  Tweetable Moments: “It’s not like the partners were uninvolved in the process, but there were pieces that were just beyond their line of sight that benefited from a little bit of retrospection and introspection.” —  Belle Walker * “The attorneys don’t know that they have these inefficiencies. They have no idea until you jump in there and uncover it for them.” —  Alay Yajnik * “Fewer steps do not always mean higher overall efficiency.” —  Belle Walker * “The more clearly you can articulate all the work that’s being done, the easier it is to then ask, ‘Is this specific piece something Cleo can support?’” —  Belle Walker    About Belle Walker: Belle Walker takes organizations from Friction to Function, recapturing lost efficiency and engagement by aligning structures and processes with strategic goals.  Her clients span tech, professional services, nonprofits, and more. Prior to consulting, Belle built several successful teams for HERE Technology, including one responsible for the quality of maps for autonomous vehicles, and received two patents.  Belle began her career at Google, building a nationwide aerial photography operation.  She has also built Product Management and Customer Service organizations.   Belle has a Mechanical Engineering degree from Harvard and a Systems Engineering master’s from USC where her research studied organizations as systems.   Connect with Belle Walker:  Website: https://belleviewconsulting.com/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bellekwalker/    Connect with Alay Yajnik:  Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/  One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alayyajnik

    23 min

  8. 8 AUG

    Public Speaking for Introverts with Saja Raoof

    In this episode, Alay and Saja discuss:  The benefits of public speaking.  Best audiences to speak at for introverts.  Choosing the topic to speak on.  Key Takeaways:  Don’t get lost in the details, focus on the results. When you speak about what you do, you will be remembered. It is an investment of your time and effort. Use your time in the car to practice your speeches and pitches. Record yourself and learn from what you’ve done right and what you need to improve on.  Speaking can help others as they relate to what you’re saying or have their thoughts validated by what you’re saying.  Tweetable Moments: “Public speaking is a wonderful channel for giving.” —  Saja Raoof * “Public speaking requires far and away the most effort, but it also can far and away touch the most people in a profound way.” —  Alay Yajnik * “Once you get through that fear, once you begin speaking, you’ll get into a flow, you’ll see the audience’s eyes fixated on you, they’re thinking about what you’re saying, you can see the nods, and you can see that what you were saying is resonating that is worth the anguish up until that point.” —  Saja Raoof * “‘How to Network as an Introvert’ is now one of your talks. That is great. What an awesome example of taking something that a lot of people would consider a disadvantage, and turning that to your advantage.” —  Alay Yajnik    About Saja Raoof: I’m the proud daughter of an “alien of extraordinary ability,” a visa classification which recognized my dad Dr. Ameed Raoof’s distinguished career in medical education. My family background is part of the reason I chose to devote my career to helping talented foreign nationals pursue the American dream through employment-based visas. As a business immigration attorney, I help companies and foreign-born nationals navigate the increasingly complex field of immigration law. Having focused on business immigration since 2006, my clients have included engineering companies, architecture firms, startups, overseas companies and nonprofits and their driven foreign national employees. My immigration career started with my internship at the National Immigration Project in Boston during my first year of law school. I also focused on immigrants’ civil rights during my internship at the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. My family is from Iraq, where the first laws in human civilization were written. Before moving to the US I grew up in Scotland and Saudi Arabia. When I’m not working you’ll find me kayaking, embroidering or traveling internationally. As a member of the State Bar of Michigan, I am authorized by US Citizenship and Immigration Services to represent companies and individuals nationwide in immigration matters.   Connect with Saja Raoof:  Website: https://www.sar.law/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sajaraoof/   Connect with Alay Yajnik:  Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/  One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alayyajnik

    19 min
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About

This podcast is dedicated to helping attorneys earn more money, get better clients and spend more time with family. Your host, Alay Yajnik, is a law firm growth expert, author, and the founder of Law Firm Success Group. Get inspired, learn best practices, and get ready to grow your law firm faster and easier with this informative and inspiring podcast. Listen, learn, and remember: You CAN seize freedom. You CAN embrace happiness. You CAN build your Perfect Practice!

Information

  • Creator
    Alay Yajnik
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2024
  • Episodes
    180
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright by Lawyer Business Advantage®
  • Show Website
    Lawyer Business Advantage

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