You're Just a Highly Paid Bookkeeper with Adam Rossen

Are you looking for growth in your business? Did the pandemic cause a slow down? In this episode, Adam Rossen shared his experience in growing a law firm. He speaks to how the pandemic caused a decrease in business, but how adopting a few new habits and new ways of working, turned his business into a success again.

In order to get his business back to how it was pre-pandemic, Adam double downed on marketing his business. He focused on internet marketing projects and revamping his website.

When you run your own business, wearing too many hats can be an issue. It can even lead to you becoming overwhelmed and burnt out. Adam mentions how during his quest to make his business successful again, he was doing all the bookkeeping and office management for the business. This took him away from the real work. From this, Adam speaks on learning how to delegate tasks, hire the right people and hold yourself accountable.

When searching for new people to join a business, it is crucial to develop a streamlined hiring process. It's important to be smart in your hiring. Don't overanalyze everything but focus on those who are the right fit for your company.

Forecasting can be a helpful way to predict what your business will look like in a few months or years. If your business is set to grow, it could be an indicator you will need to hire people to support that growth. Being proactive is a great way to get ahead.

A mix of the right team and hard work will lead to increased success and revenue.

Every challenge is a new opportunity to grow and learn!

Listen in.

Episode Highlights:

• 2:11 Significant law firm growth 
• 9:17 The experience with the hiring process and how they streamline it
• 10:09 The importance of taking action in business decisions, but also being smart and not getting caught up in chasing new ideas without careful consideration
• 13:09 The process of letting go of control in various aspects of their business, such as bookkeeping and office management, in order to grow and scale their firm
• 19:34 The goal of becoming a data-driven firm and the need for another lawyer

🎥 Watch the full video on YouTube here.

Connect with Adam:

• Website
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Facebook
• TikTok
• Linkedin
• Youtube

Resources:

• Join the Guild Membership
• Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer YouTube Channel
• Follow us on Instagram
• Join the Facebook Group
• Follow the Facebook Page
• Follow us on LinkedIn

Transcripts: You're Just a Highly Paid Bookkeeper with Adam Rossen

Speaker 1 (00:00:00) - In today's episode, we're sharing a presentation from Max Con 2022. Keep listening to hear Adam Rossen as we share his talk. You're just a highly paid bookkeeper. What I learned at Max Law Guild and what I've done about it. You can also head to the maximum lawyer YouTube channel to watch the full video. Now to the episode.

Speaker 2 (00:00:19) - Run your law firm the right way. The right way. This is the maximum layer podcast layer podcast. Your hosts, Jim Hacking and Tyson Metrics. Let's partner up and maximize your firm. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 3 (00:00:42) - Hi, everybody. Thank you, Jane. So, you know, I thought about this topic or when when Jim and Tyson asked for speakers. I'm like, what could I speak about? Right? And I was really thinking about it. And I had such a transformational time at last year's Guild Day that I wanted to bring that experience to everybody here because it really was. So let me give you a little bit of background about me in the firm so that way you can know kind of where I was at.

Speaker 3 (00:01:09) - The mindset that I was at in October of 2021. And of course, we're going to talk about what happened there, what I've done since, and we'll talk about what some of you guys can do and should do when we leave here. Right. Because this everybody can anybody can come here, have a great time, get all this great information. But what happens when you leave? So for me, we do criminal and DUI defense in South Florida. Our main office is located in Fort Lauderdale. And right at the beginning of the pandemic, we had grown from 4 to 6 total people, which was a big jump in employees to go from that 4 to 6 range. And we had three employees at the time who were with us less than 90 days. And especially in criminal defense, if people aren't out partying, having a good time, doing messed up things, we're not really in business. So we went from about 12, 13 new clients a month pre-COVID to April 20th 20 to 3, and I believe May we had five, right? So everything for us shut down.

Speaker 3 (00:02:11) - Luckily, we live in Florida and we opened up pretty quickly. But what I did was and I talked about this on my Max Law podcast a few months ago, so I won't go into so much detail. But what we did is we doubled down on all of our marketing. We did all of these Internet marketing projects, all of these referral projects. We revamped our whole website, we had all of these marketing initiatives. So and what that did is that led to 2021 being a year of tremendous growth. I didn't lay anybody off or do anything. You know, I like the core and I like the newbies that we had. So we just double and triple down. And 2021 was a huge year of growth. So we went from six employees January 20th, 21 to 12. By October, we went from two lawyers to five. We hired three lawyers from January to August of 2021. And, you know, for a small firm, I mean, I really I think for any firm, but especially for people like us, that's huge, massive growth.

Speaker 3 (00:03:09) - We two and a half X Star business in revenue, you know literally like snap of the fingers few months it was crazy. So in my mind I'm on the plane in October coming here and I don't know if I'm like if you guys are like me, but I love being alone in some in a metal tube with shawl over just being in my thoughts, writing things down. I have the remarkable and I love keeping everything there. Or it could be a notepad and just being left alone to my thoughts and being energized that I'm going to a conference or I'm coming back from a conference and I'm there and my whole remarkable is all filled up. 12 to 20. That's the next step of growth. How do I go from 12 to 20? What does that look like in people? What does that look like in revenue? Blah, blah, blah. Right? And I'm like, That's going to be my guild day. I'm going to come in and that's going to be my issue. Growth, growth, growth, growth, growth.

Speaker 3 (00:04:03) - So we get there and I have this guy as our leader. Okay, raise your hand if you were here last year at the conference, do you remember the Nerds or Weirdos speech? Right. Well, who's this? This. This is a weirdo. This is King weirdo. Okay. And he was there with us, and he was our group leader. And it was the Guild Day. Last year was amazing for me. I went second and I get up there and I'm roaring and ready to go. But in the few days before I came here, I was stressed. I was frustrated, and that frustration immediately came out instead of the plans for growth. Well, part of the plans for growth. But it was really that frustration. And I'm sitting there like, yeah, you know, I had to write all these damn checks before I got here and I had to do this with HR and this with management, and I had to create a new ad and, you know, all this stuff.

Speaker 3 (00:04:57) - And everybody kind of looked at me and especially Jim, but everybody in the group was like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, dude, who's doing your books? It's like me. And they're like, What? You're talking about going from 12 to 20 employees and you're doing your own books. Who's your office manager? I'm like, I'm a shitty office manager. That's me, right? And they're like, What's wrong with you? You're crazy. You're completely focused in the wrong things. Right? And it was great because the entire time everybody was piling on, but in a good way, in a very good way, in a place of trying to help. And what we came up with. Right. You know, Jim basically said for the next two days, every time I see you and occasionally on stage, I'm just going to say, hey, Adam, you hire a bookkeeper yet? I'm going to hold you a. All right. That's the most important thing that that happened is that I had a group that was there.

Speaker 3 (00:05:48) - Not to say, Adam, you're great. We love you. You're my friend. You're this. Right? But to say, Whoa, dude, I barely know you. I know you a little bit. Some people are like, I just met you today, but I can see outside that you're a little misguided, right? I can see from outside that situation. And I'm sure all of us have had that, you know, with our friends and family when we're able to step outside of it. And I really thought about it long and hard and I was just like, okay, well, like, you guys are right. You know, you guys are right. And so anybody heard of Pearson's law here? No. Yes, maybe so. Pearson. I forget his first name. You can look it up on Google. I think he was a mathematician. But one of the things that he did is Pearson's law, which is when performance is measured, it improves, but when it's measured and reported, performance improves exponentially.

Speaker 3 (00:06:38) - And this is something that my team now knows the whole firm knows Pearson's law because I tell it to him twice a month. We talk about that and being at that group and having the accountability right of, Hey, Adam, you know, I'm going to see you in January in Phoenix. You better have a bookkeeper and an office manager by then. And me going, Oh, crap, I don't want to be that guy. Right. Who's bringing up the same issues or who didn't take action. And for me, that was a huge motivator. Well, let alone the motivator of I want to build a better firm, not just a bigger firm, but a better firm. Right? That that makes my life happier, that makes my employees lives happier. But just sometimes you need that external kick in the butt. That's what that did for me. That was really the power of of the mastermind, the guild, and being in a room full of like, really smart people, you know, it really helps.

Speaker 3 (00:07:34) - So what did I do about it? So I left. I went home and I'm on the plane and I'm planning all these things out. So there's two things I did immediately. The bookkeeper was really important, but I didn't think that was my number one big issue. I thought the office manager, especially at our level, right. 12 people. It was unwieldy, right? So but I started on both. So I went to who did I go to? Right? You know, you guys know what kinetic energy is, right? Okay. It's very hard to get started from scratch. So I went to the Max Law Group when I was in with my guild members in our guild group. I got information and referrals from them. So I interviewed bookkeepers and I wrote the ad for an office manager. I didn't write it from scratch. I got it from one of the people in the guild. They said, Hey, Adam, I'll give it to you now, make it your own. And I did.

Speaker 3 (00:08:24) - So I took it. I tweaked it. I made it my own right. So I had help writing the job. AD one of the people in the group that had them, I have these great 25 pre screening questionnaire that really helped me weed out the fakers from the good candidates. And I said, Amazing. I've never even thought about that. That's going to save me a ton of time. So I got that from the Guild, right. And I got again, bookkeeper referrals as well. And the platforms, you know, before I had only used really. Indeed, sometimes I'd mess around on LinkedIn and when I was there they mentioned wise hire. Wise hire was fantastic. You get a free disk profile. So not only did we get disk profiles for people who were interviewing, but I put my entire team through the free disk profiles and I think if you buy it on your own, they're like 30 or 40 bucks a pop. So I looked at Wisehart and I was like, All right, 200 a month.

Speaker 3 (00:09:17) - This is a no brainer. They had a cool Kanban board view which just helped me organize everything. So that's the way I did it. We had 100 applicants, right? So part of the reason that I hated the hiring process and I was like, this is the last position that I will ever directly be 100% involved in hiring, right? That was also part of this hit, 100 applicants. So, you know, some of us can know what we need to do, but there's that mental block of, oh my God, there's so much work involved, How can I do this? And then you're just sinking in quicksand, right? So because I have this help and because I have this plan and because I was so motivated to fix it and have this be my forever last employee hire that I am 100% involved in, you know, we did it the right way. We went we had our top 60. You know, I whittled it down to a top 60. I gave the 25 questionnaire.

Speaker 3 (00:10:09) - Only 15 people answered and I was like, dancing in the streets. I'm like, fantastic. I only have to really deeply look at 15 people. So my managing partner and I, because at this point I'm pretty much out of being a lawyer, continuing to get out and. We went through all the 15 and we put them into categories and we had our top three and we go, the interview process starts there with three. And if we are having trouble, then we'll go to the next three, right? Luckily it went very well. We had our top three went very well and we hired our top candidate and Malene is now our firm administrator and she's doing an amazing job with the firm and we hired her in November. So I went quick, but I also went smart. And if you remember yesterday morning, Tyson talked about kind of taking action. Right. But then Jim before that, I think talked a little bit about like, whoa, slow your roll a little bit, right? Because we come here and we get some sometimes like shiny object syndrome and we get so excited because there's so many cool technology out there from all the vendors and this plan and that plan.

Speaker 3 (00:11:14) - Right. I think what they said works together. It's kind of a combination. You want to take action, you want to move you, but you want to be smart about it. Too many of us, the people that go to these conferences, we just were like and especially myself, sometimes my brain, I'm just like a squirrel or a hamster running on that wheel and just chasing the new thing. So we can't do that, right? We have to take action. We can't just always be thinking and conceptualizing, but it has to be smart. And luckily I screw it up all the time. But this time I got it right. Then we moved on to Bookkeeper. It was a mix of some referrals. Some people I found online, the Max law community, but I didn't want to overanalyze it. It's a bookkeeper, right? But it was important for me because we were going to try to revamp some of our processes and procedures with bookkeeping, criminal defense when we're running. Now, we're at about 32 to 35 new clients a month.

Speaker 3 (00:12:09) - You know, that's 400 a year with plans to double. So and most of our clients are on payment plans, so we needed it to be done right. But we interviewed three. We picked the best one. Now we have a bookkeeper. And you know what? Now my bookkeeper is Jim's bookkeeper. She was the best one. Not because of Jim, but because we interviewed three and we loved her. And she was the exact person I was looking for, the person that dreams about Kubo and about SKUs and about all those things. So we and based on last year's presentation, for those of you who are here about Jim's presentation about SKUs was kind of mind boggling to me. It was just like, wow, like, wait a minute, your lower revenue cases are actually your higher profit cases. That gives you clear direction on marketing, on sales, on what may be the legal product, the legal operations team that you need to service more of the high profit rather than the high fee, Right.

Speaker 3 (00:13:09) - So now we're starting we're not done with it, but we've begun that process because for me, you know, big sex cases and DUI manslaughter cases could be great, but the price has to be the fee has to be right when we're doing our flat fee versus churn them and burn them. Domestic violence cases, that could be over and done very quickly. Right. So we're trying to figure that now for us. Where are we now? Right Where am I now? You know, it's about letting go. Some of us, most of us, especially myself, it's all about wanting control. Not from a bad way, but from just a way of, hey, I can do this, I know this, I can do this better than myself, especially even with the bookkeeping. I've heard a million of horror stories about people getting ripped off embezzled. I can't let that go. Well, because, you know, if I want to grow to where I say I want to grow, then we have to let go.

Speaker 3 (00:14:07) - Luckily for me, which might be different from you guys, I was actually pretty good at letting go of the legal work because my lawyers are amazing. I'm a good lawyer too, but they're amazing and I trust them. But for me, it's I've let go of bookkeeping. I've let go of the office management and the HR and the hiring. I'm still involved in the final stages of hiring. Right. But I'm not doing any of the beginning stuff and I have more to let go intake, right? And some of those other things. And we run on iOS and traction. So having that accountability chart has been fantastic. So where do you all of us, where do we go from here? We've taken the time to purchase the flight to tell everybody we're away If we're a litigator, to tell the judges I'm unavailable, right? To be away from our team, to learn to meet people, network, build our businesses. But what do we do? So we have five core values at our firm.

Speaker 3 (00:15:05) - We have animals with each one. I think it's pretty cool. And so core value number three for us is take action, right? And the animal is the frog from the book. Eat that frog if you're familiar with it or read it. It's a very good book. Basically, you wake up and if you got ten tasks, don't do the nine easy ones do the one hardest. One Don't confuse activity with accomplishment. And that's what we tell our team all the time. Don't confuse activity with accomplishment. Right? It's about leaving here and saying, All right, this is the one thing. The two things no more that are going to make a difference in my firm and my business in my life, in my family's life, because all of those things trickle down. And it's about accountability, right? Who really in your life is going to hold you accountable? You know, that's why. Right? I went to Phoenix. I was here on whatever day it was Wednesday. I flew in Tuesday came Wednesday for the Guild Day.

Speaker 3 (00:16:03) - And we had a whole host of other issues. And luckily there were people in my group on Wednesday that remembered my talk from October. So now they can see some of the transitions and some of the things. So that's what it's about. So I strongly urge each and every person here when you're in that zone, leaving, right, drinking from a fire hose, coming to this conference, pick those 1 or 2 things, commit to it smartly. Right. Okay. Let everything else go and then get someone to hold you accountable. Because for me, like I said before, I was not showing up to Phoenix and going to be that guy. Right. There were some. People without talking about what happens in the master mind, right? Because it's all confidential. But as I'm sitting there, there were some people on Wednesday that I said to myself, I go, he or she, they'll be back at the next one and they're not going to do a damn thing. They're not going to take any action because the issue is mindset, not the strategy or the tactic.

Speaker 3 (00:17:06) - Right. And I have those those thoughts, at least with a few people on Wednesday. And I have those thoughts sometimes with myself. So my big urge, my big ask, my big takeaway for you guys is make sure you're in the right mindset. Pick one thing and take action and have somebody there to hold you accountable because you wouldn't be here, right, Unless you wanted to grow your firm. Personal and professional development. Right? To build a better firm for you, your employees, your family and your clients. Right. Clients are part of the team as well. That's all I have. This is my version of what Alexis is. Cool little thing. We're doing those now too, and it has all our YouTube, social media, all that stuff. I love talking to people. I love helping. If there's any questions, I think we have two minutes. I wanted to go kind of slow and just tell you guys my journey from there till now.

Speaker 1 (00:18:00) - Are you ready to unlock your full growth potential, both professionally and personally? The Guild Maximum Lawyers Exclusive Community of Legal Entrepreneurs invites you to our upcoming in-person mastermind event in Miami, Florida.

Speaker 1 (00:18:12) - There's something truly extraordinary about the breakthroughs that occur when you're physically present, working through your business and mindset challenges in real time. By attending our Mastermind, you'll engage in deep discussions, share experiences, and receive expert guidance from our coaches and fellow law firm owners who understand the unique challenges and opportunities within the legal industry. This collaborative atmosphere fuels creativity, accelerates problem solving, and stimulates innovative thinking. Investing in your personal and professional development through attending an in-person mastermind is an investment in yourself and in your future. The breakthroughs, knowledge and strategies you'll acquire are priceless assets that can transform your practice and propel you towards your goals. Visit Maxwell events.com today to join the guild, reserve your spot and secure your ticket at the best possible price.

Speaker 3 (00:19:06) - We had, it just it skyrocketed. So because we were in Florida. So by June, July, we were kind of back to normal with our 13 ish clients a month. August, I think we had 18, September we had 22, October we had 25. And I was just and the firm at the time, it was two lawyers, right? And I was like, shit, Like the stuff that we're doing is kind of working when everybody else put their head in the sand.

Speaker 3 (00:19:34) - When we had criminal lawyers, you know, bought an RV, drove around the country, which is super cool and fun. And I was jealous of that in some ways. But they weren't. They just put their head in their sand and gave up. We were working, grinding. So before you knew it, it was just skyrocketing. And then I'm like, we need we need one more. So and I'm not One of the things I'm committing to getting better at is the numbers, the metrics. We want to have a data driven firm. Okay? That's that's our goal. We're not there yet, but knowing we need another lawyer. So we hired another lawyer in January and we're before we knew it, more cases, more cases. Once we hit January, for whatever reason, we bumped up another revenue level. It just jumped, skyrocketed again. And we're like, all right, if we're on by by May, we're going to another one. May I reached out to the number two candidate from for the January hire.

Speaker 3 (00:20:21) - She was ready to come on board. Boom. She started in June. And then what happened with us is we had a unicorn come available, one of the best criminal defense lawyers in South Florida, lifelong public defender, career PD. She got disenfranchised. And I said, you know what? I don't even care if we can afford it or need it. I will take that out of my own take home because she's going to be the one to get me out of law. And you don't get a unicorn like this ever. And I said, screw it. And then we just kept going. So, you know, not the best way, Right? But it was it was carefully considered and thought and looked at numbers and everything. You know, just we're trying to get better at that. That at least help and a lot of it trial and error and using EOS. Now we're trying to forecast. So now in our EOS scorecard, we're looking at every week cases in, cases out. And it's like if we're averaging three new cases per week, well then you know what? That's 39.

Speaker 3 (00:21:14) - At the next quarter, that's going to be 80. If we're plus 80 and six months, that means we're going to need another lawyer in six months. So now we're trying to look at it like that, you know, but in forecast. But back then, we had no idea. With all my lawyers. I mean, look, the good news, the criminal lawyer, especially if you've been a ten year PD, you're not making a ton of money. You're a great lawyer usually, and you're not making a ton of money. So we made sure to give them, you know, a big bump. But then we also the way we do it, because our intake is just the way we do it, we're trying to make it better. We have attorneys on call nights and weekends every week that we rotate so they get 10% of what they sign up nights and weekends only. And we did that purposely so we can build in. So maybe the next level would be to give them 10% of everything they sign up.

Speaker 3 (00:21:55) - But we didn't want to give them that right away. And I can tell you we've had lawyers make a lot of money with our signups. We incentivize them on referrals that they bring in as well, you know. But yeah, but but we give them a nice base too, because I wanted people, especially the lawyers, if they're leaving the safety and security of the government, I want them to be invested and have the safety and security of us. So we've also now we do a guaranteed 7.5% to to 10.5% with a pension plan, a 401 K and A and a profit plan two. So they're pretty good. I think that's it. So thank you, guys. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (00:22:33) - Thanks for listening to the Maximum Lawyer podcast. Podcast. Stay in contact with your hosts and to access more content. Go to maximum lawyer.com. Have a great week and catch you next time.