February 21, 2011
Turn Your E-mail Messages into Cash!
By Cliff Ennico http://www.creators.com/     As frequent readers of my articles know, I am not the biggest fan of e-mail.     Each day I find myself answering at least 30 to 40 e-mails on matters relating to my law practice, the books I've written, upcoming speaking engagements, and messages from old high school friends who are preparing to attend our 40 year reunion this year, to say nothing of (ahem) these articles. Last year I made a resolution to check e-mails only twice a day - once in the late morning, and again in the late afternoon - as some of the popular "time management" books recommend.  When I was answering e-mails I did nothing but answer e-mails, I did not respond to e-mails between my two timeslots, and any e-mail that came in after "working hours" didn't get a response until the following morning. Well, you know what happens to New Year's resolutions . . . When I'm in the middle of doing a "rush" deal for a law client, or a reporter is "on deadline" and needs to interview me in the next 10 minutes, or a meeting planner needs to book a keynote speaker fast and has sent identical messages to 10 of my competitors, responding to e-mails only "twice a day" simply doesn't cut it.  I would lose too much business if I didn't respond to certain e-mails in "real time", and that's just a fact of life. So this year I'm trying another tactic to keep my e-mail traffic under control, as least as much as I can.  Since I cannot seem to manage my e-mail traffic by budgeting my time, I'm going to do the next best thing.     I'm going to charge for reading and responding to certain e-mails from my law clients.     Yes, that's right.     Since it takes me at least 6 minutes (one-tenth of an hour) to read and respond to most e-mail messages, I am billing my law clients one-tenth of my hourly rate for each e-mail exchange on their particular matter.  When I send a retainer agreement out to a new client, I now include a statement that "A minimum charge of $X (one-tenth of an hour) will be applied for each e-mail or IM text response relating to your matter."  In bold face type, just so the client can't claim they never saw it.     Similarly, when I send out my monthly invoice to the client the last line-item reads "e-Mail exchanges w/client during month -- $XXX (13 e-mail exchanges at $Y each)".     Needless to say, some of my law clients aren't too happy about this.  They seem to have the idea that anything happening on the Internet is free of charge, even if their e-mail is a request for legal advice running to 10 or more paragraphs.      But . . . they are paying the fee, however reluctantly, and I am finally being compensated fairly for an activity that takes a goodly chunk out of every working day.     Even better, I am receiving fewer e-mail messages each day.  My clients are calling me more often with their thorny, complex legal questions, which is what I would prefer them to do.  Not only do they get a better quality answer that way, but I'm not committing something to writing that may get posted all over the Internet ("Hey, everybody, see what Cliff Ennico thought of this!").     Now, of course, there are some rules about when I do and do not charge for e-mail responses.  Here are some of the ones I've come up with: I charge only my law clients - I never charge editors, meeting planners, speakers' bureaus, journalists, friends, relatives, or any reader of this column who wants to ask a question (although with my long-winded old high school chums, it's tempting); I charge only those law clients who are paying me by the hour - if I am charging a flat fee for a particular matter, that will include e-mail responses up to a certain point (usually one to two hour's worth); I only charge for "substantive" e-mail responses - confirming a lunch date by e-mail, or merely forwarding another message to a client without comment, will not be charged; and I make sure (by keeping timesheets) that I am not charging more than 24 hours a day for e-mail responses.   This approach to e-mails is a "work in progress," and it may go the way of my "twice a day" program last year.     But so far it seems to be working - I haven't lost any clients yet because of it -- and it may work for your service oriented business as well.  Give it some thought.     And if it works really well, I will consider applying the same approach to my telephone calls, daily trips to the UPS Store, and household chores (although sending my spouse that monthly invoice might be a tad tricky . . . .)     Cliff Ennico ( crennico@gmail.com ) is a syndicated columnist, author and former host of the PBS television series "Money Hunt." This column is no substitute for legal, tax or financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our Web page at http://www.creators.com/ . COPYRIGHT 2011 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO.  DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM  Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com

Posted by Staff at 4:59 PM