Lawyers May Love This Little Black Book

One of my favorite business development books for years has been Jim Hassett‘s Legal Business Development. This simple and direct outline of a marketing process for lawyers is going to have some company on the bookshelf from now on.

I’ve just finished Paula Black’s latest “The Little Black Book: A Lawyer’s Guide to Creating a Marketing Habit in 21 Days.” Paula has a couple of “Little Black Books” already in print and has gotten wide notice and some kudos for her earlier work. The new one is the ultimate quick read, perfect for busy lawyers who have plenty of reasons to say their lives are too packed to develop a marketing habit.

Spanning the stated 21 days are Paula’s 21 steps into a regular personal marketing habit. Each day, starting with the first Monday of the first week of the period, has a single word to start the day, couple of sentences to direct the lawyer’s thinking about the step, an action to take that specific day and a tip that anticipates the need for a couple of words that will increase the effectiveness of the action.

There’s no magic knowledge here, just pragmatic direction and advice that breaks down resistance to developing the marketing habit by enabling the lawyer to make incremental yet speedy progress and keeps the workload manageable. Paula’s contribution is to recognize that each day must build upon the previous steps and yet be an complete element unto itself.

I think this might just work for both lawyers who cannot get started because the work of personal marketing seems too overwhelming in the whole and lawyers who claim there is just not time to attend to the mechanics. Paula’s book gives them both something to do (but not too much to do) in an attractive and readable format. For the next 48 hours, she’s giving away almost 40 gifts with each book order, so check it out at her Web site.