A Billable Hour Fairy Tale for Paralegals/Attorneys

Once upon a time, there were three paralegals who had billable hour goals to meet by the end of each year. This may sound familiar to you.

Hope. The First Paralegal adopted a strategy of 'hope' when it came to meeting her billable hour goals. She did her work and hoped she'd meet her goals at the end of the year.

The problem was that she disliked entering her time so she never did that until the end of the month ... and then she couldn't remember what she'd done during the month. She'd spend hours searching her computer and her files to come up with time entries but she never got everything. At the end of the year, she had not met her billable hour goals.

Then the Big Bad Wolf of Billable Hours came to her office and started knocking on her door.

"No, no, no, this can't happen! I'm here to be a successful paralegal!" said the First Paralegal as she continued to 'hope' she'd have enough billable hours to meet her goals...without adopting any new habits to make that happen.

Then "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll see you get no bonus this year! said the wolf.

So the wolf huffed and puffed until it became clear that even though the paralegal had worked very hard all year, sometimes staying late and coming in on weekends, she didn't have enough billable hours entered in the system to demonstrate her hard work. The First Paralegal would get no year-end bonus.

Ignore. The Second Paralegal adopted a strategy of 'ignore' when it came to meeting his billable hour goals. He did his work and ignored the billable hour issue.

The problem was that he was frequently interrupted by his co-workers (and even by himself) and he constantly stopped his work to answer e-mails and take phone calls. He had trouble keeping track of all the 'tiny time' he spent on those tasks. He ignored the fact that 'tiny time' can add up to 'big time'

Then the Big Bad Wolf of Billable Hours came to his office and started knocking on his door.

"No, no, no, this can't happen! I'm here to be a successful paralegal!" said the Second Paralegal. But he continued to ignore all of the small tasks he handled each day and didn't enter them in the system....and when his email notification sounded, he stopped everything to check it.

Then "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll see you get no raise this year!" said the wolf.

So the wolf huffed and puffed until it became clear that even though the Second Paralegal had worked very hard all year, he didn't have enough billable hours entered in the system to demonstrate his hard work. He would get no year-end bonus.

Decisions. The Third Paralegal had writer's block. When she tried to enter her time, she couldn't decide what to write. The process was laborious and took too long.

Her time entries didn't demonstrate the value of her work. Much of her time was written down or written off by the billing attorney. Often clients refused to pay for the work she did because it sounded 'clerical' and not important to their case.

You can guess what happen! The Big Bad Wolf of Billable Hours came to her office and started knocking on her door.

"No, no, no, this can't happen! I'm here to be a successful paralegal!" said the Third Paralegal. But she continued writing pitiful time entries, not knowing that there were formulas and phrases she could use that would demonstrate the value of her work. Her billable hour totals continued to dwindle.
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Then "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll see you lose your job!" said the wolf.

So the wolf huffed and puffed until it became clear that the Third Paralegal could not draft time entries that confirmed value and demonstrated her hard work. She lost her job.

What about you? While this may sound like a fable, it happens all too often and to paralegals you know...maybe even to you.

Falling short of billable hour goals is usually the result of at least one of the following:

1. Lack of planning for billable hour goals and devising a strategy to meet them.
2. Forgetting that 'tiny time' must be entered...it adds up to 'big time'.
3. Drafting time entries that do not demonstrate valuable.
4. Neglecting to enter billable time until the end of the week or the end of the month.
5. Spending too much time on non-billable work.

And there are many more reasons. They can all be traced back to not establishing a clear plan for your time. A plan that keeps the Big Bad Wolf far away as you move steadily toward your billable hour goals.

Are you worried that the Big Bad Wolf of Billable Hours is going to come knocking on your office door? Be sure to check out Turn Your Time into a Billable Hour Gold Mine.

Join me on Wednesday, February 6th to learn how to keep the Big Bad Wolf of Billable Hours away in 2013!

 

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©2013 Vicki Voisin, Inc

Increase Your Billable Hours with Low Hanging Fruit

You can thank Mother Nature for the expression "low hanging fruit".

A fruit-bearing tree usually has some branches that are low enough for animals and people to reach without much effort. While the fruit on the lowest branches may not be as ripe or pretty as the fruit on the higher limbs, it’s easier to harvest.

Thus the popular expression ‘low hanging fruit’ generally means selecting the easiest target with the least amount of effort.

The term is often used in business to refer to the sale of consumer products or services. Salespersons may be encouraged to seek out the easiest customers first. These might not be the highest commission sales but they may be easier to close AND there may be more of them.

Here’s another example: Imagine for a moment that you’re taking a trip to Italy but you don’t know how to speak a single word of Italian. It’s obvious that you should start with the easiest words and phrases first such as wine…coffee…please…good-by…thank-you…taxi…etc. instead of beginning by conjugating verbs.

By choosing to learn the simplest words and phrases first, you are picking the low hanging fruit. In this case, you are not necessarily choosing the less important but, instead, the easiest way to reach your goal.

You can apply this example to almost anything you are working on, but in this instance let’s apply it to increasing your billable hours. How do you increase your billable hours with low hanging fruit? By choosing to do the work that will yield the most billable hours.

Instead of focusing on minor projects that having you starting and stopping and entering .2 entries all day, focus on the larger projects on which you can spend a considerable block of time and for which you can bill all, or at least most, of that time.

In a law firm, this is not necessarily the easiest work. Instead, it is work that will yield the maximum billable hour results...or picking the low hanging fruit.

What do you have to do today that will yield the most billable hours? The deposition summary? The medical records review? The answers to interrogatories? The estate plan? What pleadings need to be drafted? Each of these may take several hours.

Begin your day with those larger projects when your energy levels are at their highest. Close your door, do not take phone calls, and do not check your email. This should be absolutely uninterrupted time.

Once you have spent your block of time on the low hanging fruit projects, tackle the smaller projects such as email, phone calls and correspondence all at once. This is all billable time but if you draft a letter, then work on the deposition summary for a while, then return some email, then return some phone calls, you will have turned your day into a mishmash of work. In fact, you may begin a whole bunch of projects and finish none. Jumping from one task to another reduces your focus and your productivity. The result is fewer billable hours.

Of course, you can pick all the low hanging fruit you want, but you have to turn it into profit before it does you any good. Be sure to enter the time for your longer project as soon as it's finished so that you don't lose any billable hours. The same goes for those shorter tasks. You will have the greatest number of billable hours if you input your time as your day goes along and be sure it's all entered before you leave the office in the evening.

Your challenge: Always plan your day around the low hanging fruit. Before you leave the office in the evening, consider what must be done the next day. Once you have that list choose the project that will take you the greatest amount of time and schedule a block of time for that first. Then bundle the smaller tasks and plan to do them all at once. If time permits, spend another chunk of time on more ‘low hanging fruit’ later in the day.

Focus on the low handing fruit and you're practically guaranteed you'll reach your billable hour goals by the end of the year.

 
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© 2011 Vicki Voisin, Inc.

Do you want to use this article in your newsletter, ezine or Web site? You can, so long as you include this entire blurb with it: Vicki Voisin, "The Paralegal Mentor", delivers simple strategies for paralegals and other professionals to create success and satisfaction by setting goals and determining the direction they will take their careers. Vicki spotlights resources, organizational tips, ethics issues, and other areas of continuing education to help paralegals and others reach their full potential. She publishes a Paralegal Strategies, a weekly enewsletter for paralegals and co-hosts The Paralegal Voice, a monthly podcast produced by Legal Talk Network.

More information is available at www.paralegalmentor.com where subscribers receive Vicki's 151 Tips for Your Career Success.

Billable Hour Goals? Do The Math!

Most firms set annual billable hour goals for attorneys and paralegals and reaching those goals is very important for a variety of reasons, the primary one being to demonstrate value to the firm.

If you do not break down the billable hour goals into 'chunks,' it's a good possibility that come next December you'll find yourself falling short of the goal or scrambling to do two months' time in one month. Neither is good, one is virtually impossible. Instead, you need to do a bit of math and some simple planning NOW to be sure you meet your goals eleven months from now.

I'll be revealing how to do the math and the planning this coming Thursday, January 29th at 1:00 pm Eastern time when I present Seven Secrets That Will Increase Your Billable Hours. For more information, follow this link.

Want To Know How To Increase Billable Hours?

Has your firm set your billable hour goals for 2009? Are you wondering how you're going to reach those goals? Are you thinking it's impossible?

You need to know my seven secrets!

Seven Secrets That Will Increase Your Billable Hours launches on Thursday, December 11th at 4:00 p.m. ET (3 pm CT/2 pm MT/1pm PT).

Does quitting time come and you have no idea what you did all day? Do you scramble at the end of the month to get your time entered so bills can go out? Do you reach the end of the year and find you've fallen short of your annual billable hour goals? STOP! Stop the madness and stop the overwhelm!

Regardless of your experience or expertise, recording time and reaching billable hour goals is perhaps the most important thing you do. How do you reach those goals?

Do you have to work harder? NO!

Do you have to work longer hours? NO!

Do you have to sacrifice your quality of life? NO!

The seven secrets I will reveal are tried and true. All you have to do is take seven simple steps...form seven simple habits...and you'll be optimizing your day...you'll be working smarter...the result will be an increase in total hours recorded and billed.

Join me Thursday, December 11, 2008. For more information and to register, follow this link.

Dedicated to your Success!

Vicki

The Issue of Paralegal Salaries

Paralegal salaries are always an issue for discussion. So many factors play into the the determination of salaries: productivity, gender, education, geographic location, and the value the firm places of the role of the paralegal. Follow this link to an interesting blog post that everyone should read regarding paralegal salaries.

Productivity in the form of total billable hours remains an important factor in determining salaries. Do we have to work longer hours to increase our billable hours? The answer is 'No.' More information about my brand new teleclass 'Working Smarter: Seven Secrets to Increase Your Billable Hours' will be available soon. For a sneak peak, send a request to vicki@paralegalmentor.com ... put 'billable hours' in the subject line.

Vicki