“I’m not a numbers person”.

If I had a nickel for every law firm owner who has said this to me, I’d have more than $500 -that’s because I’d have more than 10,000 nickels! Which would weigh a little over 110 pounds, btw.

So before we get into why this is so important and blah, blah, blah let me just say this: I run the largest C-Suite Advisory service for small law firms in the world. With more than $30 million dollars in revenue. 100+ employees. And 500+ law firms under management – which if taken all together would account for more than half-a-billion-dollars in gross revenue. I also run the largest bookkeeping business exclusively for small law firms in the known universe.

And I’m not a “numbers person” either!

But you know what?

You don’t have to be a numbers person to become confident and empowered when it comes to the financial controls of your law firm. And let me just tell you something, learning how to become confident and empowered with regard to my firms’ financials was one of the most amazing “growth experiences” of my life; I’d put it right up there with becoming a parent. Seriously.

And I still count on my fingers.

So even if you never learn a single thing from me beyond this, please allow me to help you understand:

There isn’t just one way to read a set of financials.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way the accountants took control over financial analysis in the universities and ever since, the only way to read, interpret, analyze, make sense of, understand and make confident decisions based on a set of financials has been dictated by the way accountants prefer to read a set of financials.

But there isn’t just one way to read a set of financials.

In fact, the things that probably make you a very effective lawyer – your ability to read and make sense of the English language, your analytic abilities and all the skills you learned in law school related to taking depositions, conducting discovery and drafting legally binding agreements... these skills and abilities and ways of seeing the world equip you to be far MORE effective at reading, interpreting, analyzing, making sense of, TRULY understanding and making confident decisions based on a set of financials, than are most accountants.

Here's the thing. There are two different parts of a financial statement. One that’s filled with numbers. The other that’s filled with representations and assumptions that are expressed in words. If the assumptions are valid, if the representations are honored and if the explanations make sense, then the numbers are supposed to add-up; but just because the numbers add-up doesn’t mean any of the assumptions can necessarily hold-up to a vigorous cross examination, or that the representations will necessarily be honored or that the explanations are defensible.

“So what does any of this have to do with your book? Or my law firm?”

Nothing. And everything.

You see, “The Lie” I wrote about in the first chapter you already read isn’t the only lie you were told in law school that might be making a mess out of your law firm and creating all sorts of other problems for you in your life. There are lots of lies about the business of a law firm we are fed in law school, in most CLE programs we attend, and which get repeated so often in Bar association meetings and by our mentors and colleagues that we just begin to accept it as “the way it is”. But that doesn’t mean that’s the way it has to be. You have the option to upgrade your operating system and live a very different kind of life as the owner of a highly successful law firm that works for you.

OK so back to this FREE THANK-YOU-FOR-BEING-AN-ALPHA-READER workshop I’m hoping to meet you at. . .

You’re going to learn, in plain English, what the key financial reports your bookkeeper should be giving you by the 7th of each month, are. You’re going to gain a pretty big appreciation for why it should matter so much to you if you get these financial statements by the 7th, the 14th or even by the end of the following month. You’re going to learn some simple questions you can ask your bookkeeper that will give you a better handle on what’s really going on in your business. So you can make more confident, more empowered and ultimately much more profitable decisions that will better serve your family and your life.