Downturn in economy, upturn in mediation use?
April 25, 2008
LegalZoom is suggesting that mediation is one of the Top Businesses to Start in a Sluggish Economy. It comes in at #4 in the list of ten.
Their reasoning is, “In tough economic times, many people turn to mediators rather than attorneys to settle disputes simply because they are less expensive. If you’re skilled at negotiating this may be the business opportunity you are looking for.”
The full list looks like this: [Read more]
How to make ADR marketing part of your routine
April 18, 2008
A teleseminar participant recently asked me for advice about making time to do the marketing necessary to build a truly healthy mediation practice. I’m already working full-time as an attorney, she said, and have a family. Exactly when would I market my mediation services…midnight?
Making Mediation Your Day Job offers an entire chapter on the topic, of course, and I’ve also written about it here in articles like Do You Let the Urgent Get in the Way of the Important? and How Much Time Should You Spend on Marketing?
Chris Brown of Branding & Marketing blog [Read more]
Find sample business and legal documents with .docstoc
March 25, 2008
On the surface, .docstoc is a website for finding and sharing professional documents related to business, law, technology and education.
Need an invoice template but don’t want to create one from scratch? Look on .docstoc. Want to store and share a few documents privately online? Try .docstoc. It’s free, too.
But .docstoc’s cool factor is the ability to embed a document (Word, pdf, PowerPoint, Excel, etc) on your website without all the usual geekery. You don’t even need an account. You just need to know how to copy and paste into your website.
Here’s sample document, [Read more]
Jim Melamed announces InstantAssist conflict resolution
March 20, 2008
There are a few ways to succeed in ADR business: Serve a market that’s already served but do it better or differently than the rest. Compete on price point (high end or low end). Or fill a niche that’s under-served and succeed by being among the first.
Jim Melamed is a master at the latter (and maybe the others, too, but I’m focusing on the latter), seeing opportunities in the marketplace and creating ways to address them. Mediate.com had its foundation in that kind of market awareness and now he’s announcing InstantAssist.
InstantAssist’s tagline is “Immediate Conflict Advice,” and its market niche is described this way: [Read more]
What does your email address say about you?
March 6, 2008
It costs about a nickel a day. Less than a large pizza with the works bought once a year. Far less than a week’s worth of your cell phone contract.
It’s easy to buy and set up, probably less than one hour.
What is it? Email associated with a domain name you own.
So I can’t help but wonder: Why do I see so many mediator email addresses that end in yahoo.com, gmail.com, and hotmail.com?
An email address with your own business domain name conveys some pretty important messages: [Read more]
The mediator tech article vault, february 2008
February 19, 2008
The Mediator Tech Article Vault is a monthly feature that dips into the archives and shares still-relevant articles from a year ago.
Here’s this month’s selection, with a little something for everyone:
- How I Started My Mediation Practice, a two-part series
- Relationship Blogging for ADR Pros
- Prevent Spammers from Harvesting Your Email Address
- Trying to select a domain name for your ADR blog or website? Read Stephan Spencer’s Company Names Don’t Always Translate Well to Domain Names first. Reminds me of the classic story about Chevrolet trying to sell the Nova in Latin America. No va translates to it doesn’t go. The story is apparently an urban legend, but you get the point. For articles I’ve written on naming your ADR business or site, click here.
Good stuff from around the web
February 14, 2008
If you regularly read my articles via your email or an RSS reader, you may not be aware of a feature I’ve had on the Mediator Tech website for a while: Good stuff from around the web.
As I read ADR, marketing, tech and small business management blogs, I mark items that I think have good content that’s relevant to mediators. The result is a little list that’s always in the left-hand sidebar on Mediator Tech. Think of it as my recommended web reading list. It looks like this and I update it weekly, even daily [note: if not visible in the version you're reading, click on the article title to be taken to the web page]: [Read more]
Mediation follow-up: it really matters
February 10, 2008
Do you follow up with your mediation clients after the agreement ink has dried?
I do and always have. So do other good mediators I know. But I don’t think it’s as common a practice as it ought to be.
In his excellent article, The Importance of Follow Up, mediator and Mediate.com editor John Ford points out, [Read more]
ADR resources roundup, february 2008
February 7, 2008
My monthly roundup is a short list of links to services, ideas, and articles that help make marketing and managing your mediation practice more effective and efficient.
And fun. Let’s not forget fun (be sure to read to the bottom for the laugh link)! Here’s the latest:
Mediation marketing and management vault, january 2008
January 19, 2008
The Mediation Marketing and Management Vault is a monthly feature that dips into the archives and shares still-relevant articles from one year ago. Here’s this month’s selection:
A Great Low-Tech Item for Facilitators and Mediators: Genius Pads: Sticky notes on steroids are perfect for facilitation activities and creative problem-solving in mediations.
Networking Online: Using LinkedIn to Make Connections with Clients: Have a LinkedIn profile but haven’t put it to much use yet? [Read more]
