Making Delegation Easy: Buy Back Your Time with Bibi Goldstein

Do you worry about handing off tasks to the appropriate people as a law firm owner? Could you be wasting precious billable hours because you haven’t delegated effectively? Did you know that you can hire virtual support that’s more than just another vendor you need to keep tabs on? 

Bibi Goldstein is the founder of Buying Time, a virtual support company that supports busy professionals, from solo entrepreneurs to multi-mullion-dollar companies with hundreds of employees. They are committed to being more than just another transaction, and Bibi is on the show this week to highlight the multitude of ways they have become an indispensable partner to law firms across the globe.

Listen in this week to hear Melissa’s experience of hiring Buying Time, and the types of services Buying Time handles for law firms. Bibi is sharing the core philosophies that make Buying Time a totally unique virtual support company, and how they help law firm owners find a sense of calm doing what they love, instead of paralyzed by the things they don’t.

If you’re a law firm owner, Mastery Group is the way for you to work with Melissa. This program consists of quarterly strategic planning facilitated with guidance and community every step of the way. Enrollment is open so click here to secure your spot!

What You’ll Discover:

• How Bibi’s company, Buying Time, came to fruition.

• The types of tasks and services Buying Time handles for law firms.

• How law firm owners often get in their own way when it comes to delegating.

• The systems in place at Buying Time that allow them to be great at what they do.

• Why the way Buying Time operates makes delegating easy.

• The core philosophies that make Buying Time a unique virtual support company.

• What the intake process at Buying Time looks like.

Featured on the Show:

• Create space, mindset, and concrete plans for growth. Start here: Velocity Work Monday Map.

• Join Mastery Group

• Join the waitlist for our next Monday Map Accelerator, a 5-day virtual deep-dive event.

• Schedule a consult call with us here.

• Buying Time: Website | Email | Facebook | Instagram 

• Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell

Enjoy the Show?

Leave me a review in Apple Podcasts or anywhere else you listen!

I’m Melissa Shanahan, and this is The Law Firm Owner Podcast, episode #230.

Welcome to The Law Firm Owner Podcast powered by Velocity Work for owners who want to grow a firm that gives them the life they want. Get crystal clear on where you're going. Take planning seriously and honor your plan like a pro. This is the work that creates Velocity.

Melissa Shanahan: Alright, welcome to this week's episode, everybody. Thank you for tuning in. We have a special guest this week, Bibi Goldstein. Hi, Bibi.

Bibi Goldstein: Hi, Melissa, how are you?

Melissa: I'm so great. Thank you so much for being here.

Bibi: Oh my god, I'm so excited to talk with your community. I love talking to you. I literally think that you and I, without recording a podcast, could just sit here and chat for hours.

Melissa: Definitely. 100%. I'm going to let you introduce yourself a bit, and just give everybody a little bit of background. But I thought I would let all the listeners know how I came to know you.

So, I have two private clients that use your services. Bibi’s company is called Buying Time. And so, one of them, the first one that really talked to me about you is an appellate attorney. He has told me that appellate attorneys are sticklers for margins and spacing, and all the things. And your company produces presentations for him that he loves, when he gets them. He doesn't have to go correct a bunch of stuff.

I am crazy about margins and spacing and typos, just the details, so when he said that I thought, “How did you find someone to deliver you something you give a thumbs up on? Because that's amazing.” So, that was my first conversation about Buying Time.

Then there's another client that also uses your services, and is super happy with you guys as well. So, they introduced me to you. We talked and it was very clear you could help me some of our needs. Now, Velocity Work is one of your clients as well. It has been an absolute joy to be a client of yours.

So, I'm excited to talk today because not only do I know that there's two law firm owners from my sphere that are extremely happy with their services, but so am I. I'm going to stop talking now because I'm talking too much.

Do you want to give everybody just a little rundown of who you are, and what your company does, and then we'll dig into the evolution?

Bibi: Yes. Okay. I think that the best way to kind of start is that my life before Buying Time, was in the corporate world. I worked for 26 years or so in the transportation and logistics world. Now, I would never have thought that that would translate to this. But there were so many things that I was doing on a regular basis… And we can get into a little bit of that as we talk about the evolution of where Buying Time started to where it is now.

But, for me, that corporate history taught me a lot in how to build teams, because I was working for large companies like UPS supply chain; I was a mid-level manager for them. I mean, I was running a transportation center with hundreds of employees.

It was something that I had built in with me, that I could build a team. I knew how to build a team; I knew what to do. I knew how to get to that next level. So, fast forward to 2007. My father actually had passed away in 2000. They were immigrants who came to the States when we were very young. I was a year old little over a year old when I came to the States.

My father did everything. My mom, she didn't even get her driver's license until she was in her 40s. That's who she was. So, when my dad passed away, she had to take on handling everything. And so, we ran into a lot of challenges and things like that.

The reason why Buying Time came even to play was because I was traveling all the time. I had a small child. I was married five years or so at that point to my second husband. And I'm sitting there going, I don't have time to do all of this. I don't have time to be here to write checks for your bills, and find somebody to go take your grocery shopping; because we had to take her license away.

And so, I started to look for a company that did stuff like that. That just helped people to do whatever it was. It didn't matter what it was, but I couldn't find anybody. Hence, Buying Time was born.

Melissa: Yeah, tell everybody what Buying Time is. I didn't say that, yet.

Bibi: So, Buying Time is a virtual support company now. We started out as a personal assistant company. So, we were the people who were picking up dry cleaning, walking dogs. You name it, we did it. But we were working for busy professionals. People who were traveling a lot, didn't have time to go grocery shopping, didn't have time to take their car in for maintenance, didn't have time to get their car washed. Things like that.

Over time, interestingly enough, we had a local attorney, who was a business attorney, who came to us and said, “Hey, I want to appear bigger than I am. How about if you guys take all my consult calls, in-takes, book the conference room…” she was working out of her house.

And so, we handled all of that. We started taking care of that. Then she started to do more speaking, so I was like, “I did PowerPoints, I can handle that.” Then I came across this world that I did not know existed. That was 16 years ago.

I discovered this idea that there are virtual assistants. They work anywhere, they work only online, and so we evolved. The insurance was cheaper, and everything was better than people driving around and doing things. And so, we transitioned to a virtual system.

At the time, I had a business partner. In 2011, we split and I kind of started to create this opportunity for us to have more services that was based on the idea that we looked at what somebody needed, and we never said no. “Hey, do you know how to use this software?” “Nope. But I will learn it. If it's something that you need help with, I'll learn it.” And we learned it on our own time, we didn't charge clients for the learning curve.

Now, I would say that we are probably somewhere in the range of about 50-60 different software, on an annual basis. Whether it be different website platforms, different CRMs, different phone systems, different platforms for creating graphics. I mean, there are so many software out there. I know, I don't have to tell you this, you probably use several of them in your business.

And so, Buying Time just really kind of became that, that place [inaudible] everything.

Melissa: You know, I’ve got to say, now that I've experienced working with you guys, and I'm sure we'll get into this, there is a level of commitment from your team that is impressive. What I mean by that is, normally it would scare me when someone says, “Yes, we'll learn the software.” It's like, “Okay, really? I'll just go find an expert that knows the software.” And I guess that's an option, right?

But what is true, is that you guys really do make a commitment to learn it and learn it well. You're not interested in not being proficient at the software that clients are using. And so, you take it very seriously. It's very clear to me how serious you guys take it. And that means a lot.

It sort of states that you really are wanting to be a partner with that business, and not just a transaction. That goes a long way, from an owners perspective, for sure.

Bibi: For sure. I think it's hard to wrap your head around the idea that when you hire a vendor, a service, that the service is giving you what they said they were going to give you. But then, being able to take it even a step further, right?

It's like, for us, the idea is that I want to learn that software because it creates a new skill set. And, guess what? If you're asking for that software, then somebody else is going to ask for it. And now, I can say, “Hey, we're proficient at this. We've begun to use this software.”

Not to mention, a lot of software companies that… We have a client now, who we learned something from, and now we have another client who has the need that we now have a resource for. That happens a lot for us, where we'll be able to refer someone to somebody else.

I don't want my team to ever be in a situation where they're uncomfortable. They may not be the right person to learn it, but there's going to be somebody on our team who might be the right person to learn it. Who wants to know that software. Because we have a whole team it makes it a little bit easier.

Melissa: I think I should make a couple of things clear, just in case, for listeners, you’re U.S. based only. You guys are on the west coast, but you serve clients all over the nation, and probably beyond. Is that right? Okay. Yeah. Ideal clients...

Bibi: I want to clarify that. We are primarily based; 90% of our staff is U.S. based. We've had folks in the U.K. working for us. So, we have had those specialized folks working in other areas.

Melissa: Totally, yeah. Then, ideal clients for you are law firm owners. That's how I met you, was through to law firm owners.

Bibi: We love them. Because they're busy. They're very specific on what they need and what they want. And they are so good at delegating, so good at delegating. And that's one of the toughest parts when you're bringing on team members. Because that's the other part of our service, as you said, we're part of your team now. We're not just a vendor for you.

Melissa: I don't know, I'm putting you on the spot here because I didn't ask you this before, do you think that you can rattle off types of things that you handle for law firms? Because I think when people think about getting virtual support, administrative staff comes to mind. But a lot of people think about paralegal, legal assistant, that kind of stuff.

But there's so much, I know, for the clients that we share, that you do for them, that is such a relief to their world. I could probably think of some things, but can you think of some things off the top of your head, or types of things that you do for law firms?

Bibi: For sure. And I do want to say, that although we only share two clients together right now, we also have several other attorneys that we provide service to.

Melissa: I did know that. I should have said that.

Bibi: So, when I look at all of the things that we're doing for them, social media is a really big piece. That's one of the areas for attorneys that they know they have to do. Especially for the owners, they know that they have to do it, they know that it needs to be there, but they don't want to do it.
The second one you already mentioned, helping them with PowerPoints, with presentations. We've put together entire PDF manuals and things for them. We have an attorney that gives us things to do that are non-legal. Like, filing a Statement of Information, it does not require you to be a paralegal to do that.

There are situations like email management. We have an attorney who has set up an assistant at whatever, and we handle the customer service aspect of things. In some cases, we're sending invoices for those folks as well.

You know, one of the attorneys has their own podcast. We send out the podcast information or GIFs after the podcast is done. We have a variety of different areas where it's booking travel. Again, helping them with email inbox management. There was a point in time with one of our clients that we were helping them with document management, and helping them to put the right documents in the right folders online, that went with the different cases.

So, there are a ton of different things that we can do for attorneys. I think that some of it is really getting them to get it out of their head and onto paper. It's one of the things I always encourage people to do first. It’s keep a notebook with you or something, for just for a week.

And start to write down the things that you're doing every day that you don't like doing, and the things that you do like doing. Just put a happy face and a sad face on one side and the other, and just write them down. Because if you can get rid of those things that you don't enjoy doing, right off the bat, get rid of them.

Although we're talking about attorneys, another industry that we work a lot with is therapists. So, it's the same kind of concept with therapists and with attorneys, in that they are doing a one to one in most cases with clients. When they are a law firm owner, they have other attorneys that are also doing them.

We know the whole conversation about billable versus non-billable, right? You want as much billable as you can. So, why is that attorney putting together the invoice that goes out to the client, when even that 15 minutes of billable time is worth a lot more than what they would be paying a virtual assistant?

Melissa: Absolutely. One thing I don't want to forget to ask you. I've asked this before, but I don't remember what you said. Have you read Buy Back Your Time?

Bibi: No, but you recommended it to me.

Melissa: You have got to read that. Actually, I know that one of the mutual clients that we've been talking about uses your company to implement that email management system, and it's going really well. It's seriously changed their life. And I love listening to them talk about it.

I mean, that's the kind of thing that they didn't want to hand to someone inside of the firm, because of the sensitive nature of things that can be in an email, so they chose to use Buying Time, and it has totally changed their world.

In that book, I think that you could use that to market yourself with law firm owners, because there's so many law firm owners reading that right now. Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud.

Bibi: I have barely started it. So, I am getting into it. But especially with that particular client, I think that one of the things that I can't emphasize enough, is that they are always willing to try. “Okay, let's try this. The worst that happens is that it doesn't work, and I’ve got to figure out another solution. But let's try this with you guys first.”

It's funny, because you and I were talking about having the right attitude about things, right? And that is so important in this. If you have the right attitude, and you have the ability to say, “Yes, I'm going to try this, and the worst that happens is that I fail. Then, I'm going to try it another way.” I don't know, I love that idea.

Melissa: I do, too. I think a lot of people, they are hesitant to be that gung-ho because typically, law firm owners are used to, or think, that this is the way it needs to be, or they have done it this way in the past, where they are lifting to get something delegated.

But truly, with Buying Time, that has been a very different experience for me. All I have to do is say it, and someone is like, “Alright, let's get going,” They take the lead. That is a big deal.

I was just thinking, as you're talking, there's two things this week that I realized. Why am I doing this? Part of me has waited, I haven't put it in the channel that this is a thing, because I need to get my ducks in a row first. And that's not true. With you guys, I don't need to get my ducks in a row, you will get my ducks in a row and get the task handed over.

So, it's funny, you can get in your own way even if you intellectually understand this stuff. You can still get in your own way with it.

Bibi: We all do. We all do. And I think that the more that you can stop yourself, like you just did, and say, “Hold on. I don't need to. Let me, at least have the conversation, and figure out what the next steps are.”

And I appreciate you saying that, because I think that that's one of the things, and the philosophies, that we really tried to get our team focused on. It’s, “Listen, you don't have to have all the answers when you talk with the client.” It's “Let's figure out what they need support with.” And then come back to the whole rest of the team, there's 10 of us, let's all brainstorm or let's figure out how to make this happen.

Melissa: I mean, let's talk, you mentioned your team. Let's talk about your team for a second. I do not know how to explain it very well, but I'm going to try, and then I'm going to let you fill in the gaps of your team. As a client of Buying Time, you don't just have one V.A., you have a team.

So, Bibi has set up people in specialized roles. There is one email address that I contact or channel. We use Slack sometimes with you guys, but there's one inlet for us. And then, from there, there's someone who picks up the task, decides who this should go to, delegates that, comes back with any questions they have, whatever.

But there's someone that does the handoff to the appropriate person on your team. Truly, it's not that I think another reason people might be hesitant to just hand over whatever, is because you're kind of assuming that one person can do it all. But they don't need to assume that with you guys, because you have a bunch of people on your team with specialized skill sets, that there is a person to pass it to.

And that's unique. I've never worked with a virtual support company that is that. I've always worked with a virtual assistant. And though there's been a lot of value in that, it's different. This is different. So, I don't know if you want to speak to how you set this up. You said that it wasn't always this way. You came to this setup because of your experience working with clients. This is the best setup.

Bibi: Yeah, I think that the way that I could express this the best, is that when clients would come to us and say, “Okay, well, I have this contractor I'm paying to do my graphics for my social media, but I want you guys to post them because you're more cost effective. I also have my blog that needs to get posted to my website. But you guys are more cost effective than the web designer that has to go in and do that. And, I don't want to learn how to do it.”

So, we ended up having these conversations over and over again. And I started to figure out, why can’t I just have somebody on our team that does the web stuff, and that does the graphic stuff, and that does the social media? Over time, we built all of these.

I will say that currently, 100% of our staff has come to us referral based. They were someone who knew someone, or that even one of our existing staff already knew and had a skill set that would come to play.

I will tell you the story of one of our V.A.s, who had very little skill set of anything, and she’d been really active in ‘I’ll learn that,’ and now she's turned into one of our V.A.s that is so specialized in automation, and understands all of those things. But it wasn't something that was there before she got here.

And that was that same philosophy of ‘let me learn,’ and really encouraging our team, let me learn the next thing. So, when you're talking about a virtual assistant, like you mentioned, you're getting one person with one set of skills.

With Buying Time, we wanted to build the atmosphere of a team, that's the first thing. We wanted to build the atmosphere of a team, and we wanted to create the opportunity for more revenue for us, and more opportunity for the client to not have to go to multiple contractors to find what they're looking for.

Everybody's heard of Upwork, and these things that are out there, but you still have to go and vet them. You still have to go and find them. You still have to be the person who is managing them. You have to be the one who reaches out to them and says, “Hey, where's my stuff that I hired you for?”

We have created a business that allows for our clients to communicate to one place, as you mentioned, and at the same time have a point person based on the majority of their work.

So, if the majority of their work was, let's just say, CRM management, and they were doing all of the automation and email marketing and everything, and that was 50% of their business, then that point person would then be the person who would reach out when you needed other things and get the other person involved, the other team member involved.

I don't think, I could be wrong, but I don't think that there is a single client, really, that we have, aside from bookkeeping, that really only works with one of our team members for everything. Whether it's our operations manager staff, or our QC manager, someone else is working with them as well. Yeah, there's always someone involved.

Melissa: I really love the setup. It's so much easier to drop in the channel, @Buying Time, “I need this done. Here's a loom…,” and then somebody will respond, “Got it,” as soon as it's delegated. “If we have any questions, I'll let you know.”

It's passing the ball; the ball is always picked up. And it's always given to the right person. And then it comes back to me, or to a team member, that's an employee of our company. So, I'm just super grateful for it.

You mentioned, before the recording started, that part of what you've learned is, you've gotten systems in place now that really serve you and make things easier. I don't know exactly what you mean by that. But there is the communication system for one, like how you communicate with clients. So, that's great.

But then also, as an example, the person who handles our social media has a killer spreadsheet. I mean, I'm a spreadsheet nerd, and she created something I cannot even… I was like, wow, it's so cool, multi tab, everything's connected, everything is there. It's useful. It's really useful.

So, that's a system that was developed, that I'm sure is used for anyone when it comes to managing their social media and doing it in a way that really aligns with the voice and the brand and all of that.

I don't know what else you want to say that might help people understand, when it comes to systems that you have in place that really let you be great at what you guys do.

Bibi: She's going to want us to take that little snippet of this podcast to post on our social media.

Melissa: Yeah, you'll probably do that snippet on social, because she's in charge of that. That's amazing.

Bibi: So, here's what I will say about this. When I was in corporate, I went through Six Sigma training. Do you know Six Sigma? It's this certification program that they put you through to kind of be that person who can foresee what would fail, and how you put something in place in order for it to not fail.

For Buying Time, we've kind of unrolled that, in that something happened and now we've put systems in place. We've got 16 years of systems that have been put in place because of that.

We have a turnaround time. If you send an email in to our service email, we have a requirement that someone replies to you, even if it's just to say, “Melissa, I'm not your point person, but we have your email. We've got your email, and we'll make sure that you get the response that you need.” We have a timeframe in which quick requests are turned around.

We have an overall timeframe. People tell us all the time, “How can you say that you will turn something over in 24 hours?” And we, I think, are pretty good in meeting that requirement. It's when we run into a glitch or something like that, but we’ll tell you.

When a client is coming close to using all their hours for the month, they get a communication that says, “You're getting close to using up your hours. Do you approve overages?” Because we had too many instances where we would bill for overages afterwards, and we wouldn't receive payment for that. And those clients were 100% right, we should have gotten approval for that before.

And so, we put all of these systems in place. We talked a little bit about our intake process. That intake process is years in the making.

Melissa: I want to tell them about it.

Bibi: Go for it.

Melissa: When you get on boarded at Buying Time, I was like, “Whoa, what is happening?” Basically, you're invited to a Zoom call. I don't remember if I saw who was invited to the Zoom call or not. I get on the Zoom call, and there's five faces there. I was like, “Whoa, holy cow.” It's me, one of my team members, one of my employees, and then there were, I think, five of you all.

So, Bibi led that call. I don't know if you have other people do these sometimes or not. But you led that call and you introduced everybody, you explained what their role is, or their skill sets were. And, that was really cool.

It was like, “This is your team, based on the types of tasks that you've talked about delegating to us. These are probably the core people you will work with. This is your project manager.” What do you call a project manager?

Bibi: Yeah.

Melissa: Project manager, social, design... Oh, I'm falling short right now. But it was just incredible. So, each person got to share. They got to ask questions about the kind of work that might be coming their way. It really felt like, “Oh, they've got this. What we hand them, they have gotten. They all showed up to this call so that we're all on the same page about stuff, and we can get rolling as seamlessly as possible.”

And that was a different onboarding experience that I've ever had. So much so, which I shared with you before the call, we are changing up some things about private. Where we're going to be more than just me leading. I will be leading. There will be someone for ops and systems be leading, facilitating private clients, team dynamics, workflows.

We'll have different experts depending on the needs of the client. And we are all going to be on an onboarding call with those private clients, as we move forward. This will be shaping up in early 2024. Because of what a fantastic experience that was to meet everybody ahead of time, get on the same page, and feel like we're all going to run together in the same direction. That was cool. That was really cool.

Bibi: Oh, I love that. I love, love, love hearing that. I will be honest with you, I run very few of those intake calls. Jessica or Steph will run them, the project manager will run them. It just really depends on the degree of what needs to happen.

Sometimes we have clients… and we're talking about it because we were doing so many different things for you, we did that. Sometimes we have clients where they're just hiring us just to do their social media. And so, if that's the case, you're going to have one person, plus the project manager, or Jessica or Stephanie, whoever it is. But there's always going to be at least two people, usually, on an intake call.

Because my team are all employees, they're not contractors, they know that this is part of our process to make our lives easier. If you gave me an instruction for something, and I turned around and gave that instruction to someone else, just by verbal or by written notes, I don't know that it's still going to translate the same way. And, we learned that very early on.

We also learned that everybody kind of sees the client in a different way. Like, our social media person can usually pick out, “They are not going to want to create any content themselves. So, I'm going to tell you that right now. They're not going to want to create…” and they get that out of the intake call, right?

So they know that, “Hey, we've got to get the graphics person,” because they're going to be creating that visual content, “And we have to figure out what are the things that are going to make them tick.” They can't do that and talk about it, if they aren't seeing you say the same thing, at the same time.

Melissa: It’s super unique. You mentioned also, before the recording started, which I thought was worth mentioning here, that you have a point person, and their job is to check in along the way to ensure that the client is happy, essentially.

I loved what you said: If there is an issue… And this is something you learned over time. Because sometimes something would seem out of the blue to you guys, and you had to stop and ask yourself, “Is this a person thing? Is this a process thing? Or is this a perspective thing?” And try to identify the root cause of what is really going on here. Then you put some things in place.

Now, you have a point person, that it's their job to proactively check in with the client, make sure everything is going smoothly. But I love that person thing, process thing or perspective thing. That's an interesting way to segment out problems. I'm thinking for law firm owners, anything in your firm. But this is what Bibi's team does, also. Did you learn that from someone, or…?

Bibi: It's definitely something that came from my corporate background. Honestly, it was something I used to get into all the time because I was the only female manager. I used to get into all the time, where it was like, “Oh, so-and-so is this,” and I go, “Well, how do you know that so-and-so's this?”

I was lucky that I had some really great mentors, who were like, “Let's peel this apart a little bit.” The point person that you're referring to is Jessica, who is our QC supervisor. She manages all of these things. She's the one that's reaching out to clients.

And she's the one who's telling me something's wrong right now, when it's this small and we can fix it. Instead of it being this big, and being an issue.

This idea that, is it a person thing? When I look at, is it really the person that can’t do this? Is it really the person that's having an issue with the challenge of this task for this client? Or is the process just out of date?

I mean, we have a franchise that we work with; a lot of their different owners, with a lot of different franchise owners. They're all individual different clients of ours. And although the core of all of the things that they do are the same, each of them has a different process in which they want to do it.

And so, it's really important that you identify, is there a flaw in the process? Is there a flaw in the person? Or did we just all see things from a whole different perspective, right? I'm sure you have this with your team. There's lots of times where you guys can all be on the same call, and they'll go, “Wow, did you see when so-and-so did X-Y-Z?” And you'd go like, “Oh, I didn't take it that way.”

We have that all the time. It's knowing that there's a cultural issue. If we have a client that's from another country, is the way that they speak perceived as aggressive or rude, or is that just a cultural thing? And can we just get to that place?

So, I think that in anything in life, it's always the same thing. I think we can say that about our personal relationships. I think we can say it about business relationships. And I think that if we looked at support, in the way that we service clients, is it's got to be service based.

The reason why people come to us is because they're overwhelmed with something. And because they're overwhelmed with something, the only way that we get the business from them, that we get work from them, is to give them a sense of calm.

To give them a sense of relief that we can do what they need to get done, so that they can run their business or do the things in their business that they love doing. And not feel paralyzed by the things that they have to do and don't love.

Melissa: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for coming on the podcast to talk about this stuff. I really want all the listeners to know about you guys. Now watch, I wonder if we're going to overload you? I don't want to do that.

Bibi: No. I mean, that's another system that we have in place. Another process that we have in place, so we can onboard as needed and do it quickly.
Melissa: If people want to learn about the packages that you offer, and the ways that people can get started with you, where's the best place for them to go?

Bibi: Buying TimeLLC.com, that is our website. We have everything on there. We are unusual, in that we post our rates and our packages. Everything is on our website. We want everyone to know everything up front, before they even book consult call with us.

We always encourage everyone, because the consult call is free, do the consult call. Even if you think that we are out of your price range. One of the things that you will find, is that in the long term, it is that we likely aren't.

We're not charging you minimums, in the sense of, if you give us one task that we're taking off 15 minutes from all of your time. We're charging you for the minutes that that task incurred. Right? So, if it took us three minutes, then it's just three minutes that are coming off of your time.

The flip side to that, is that we do have a ‘use it or lose it’ policy because we have employees. And so, I've got to allocate hours to that. That's why every week our clients get their task reports, so that they know where they're at. We want them to use their hours. We do not want people to be in a situation where they're losing hours.

We are very, very clear on the fact that we can support pretty much any industry, and support any individual. We have solo entrepreneurs, to companies who use us that are multi-million dollar companies with hundreds of employees.

There are things, as you mentioned, the email situation with the attorney, that are sensitive. And sometimes they don't want individuals in-house handling them and dealing with them. We can run the gamut of what someone might need support with.

If they're an individual, if they're a law firm just starting out, and they want to become that law firm owner that has multiple attorneys working with them, I don't see why you can't use a service like ours, that then helps you take that stepping stone, and get to that place without having to hire a full time person.

When you're having to hire a full time person, it makes it really difficult because now you're dealing with HR, and now you're dealing with payroll, and now you're dealing with taxes, and now you're dealing with all of these things.

Whereas, you can do 10 hours a month with us, and you can say, “Hey, for the next two months, I'm going to be head down in a trial. Can we reduce to five hours a month, for the next two months?” We can manage that. Where a lot of other people can’t.

Melissa: Yeah, it's really unique. What you have set up is really unique. I'm saying, “Where can people find you?” But really, truly, everyone listening to this knows they need to delegate. If you're listening to my podcasts, this is certainly not the first time that you're hearing anything about delegation.
Even if you feel like you are delegating some, use this opportunity to consider what else, what else, what else, what else? Because your company is perfectly named, Buying Time. And as everybody's going nuts, as they should. It's an amazing book.

Buy Back Your Time is an amazing book. It lays out the perfect case for why someone should hire a company like yours; the perfect case. Because it's not one person that you have to plug their skill sets into what is needed, it's basically saying, just like you said, identify the things that you need to get off of your plate, that you want to get off of your plate, and just start the conversation.

Because Bibi's team will lead you to be able to delegate it really well. So, you can buy back your time and you can give time to the things that you should be spending your time on, the higher value things.

So, to me, it's like if you've been sitting on something, or if you're not really pumped about the current arrangement you have, with who you've been delegating to, I would 100% say give this a shot. Because, to me, this is a different way of working with people, that is needed and helpful. And yeah, it feels like a partnership. It doesn't feel like just an assistant that you're delegating to. Thank you.

Bibi: That’s our intention. Thank you. I love that, more important than even hearing all of the wonderful things and nice things that you have to say about my team, for me, I just love hearing that your wheels are turning. That you're thinking about, what else can I delegate? What else can I start to look at to give to them?

That's really what we want to create. Let's just start. Let's just start. Let's figure out the first thing, and then the second thing, and move on from there.

I so appreciate you having me on. I'm so excited to work with you, because the clients that we have in common I love and adore them, and I’ve got to imagine that if we're attracting the same type of people, that that's going to continue to be a good situation for both of us.

Melissa: Yeah, definitely. I'm so grateful. People who like this podcast and who end up working with me are, I mean, they're of like mind. I don't know how to explain it. They're just the coolest. I'm so grateful for that. I'm so grateful for that.

One other thing, this is just to plant seeds in people's minds. So, I had a conversation with you a few weeks ago, about what else we can hand over. In conversation… this is another reason just to start the conversation with Buying Time… as we started talking about certain things that I would like to improve, the solutions that came out of those conversations were not what I thought all. And that helped us identify how to deliver better client experience, especially for private, that I'd never even thought of before.

You guys could really have a helping hand in creating that deliverable for them. That doesn't happen when you're sitting alone, in your head, with your thoughts, trying to think about your own business. I am an example of that just within the last month. So, getting on the phone, having a conversation with you, solutions started coming.

It didn't come on my own. It came through conversation with you guys, because you really understand how to add value. So, that's another reason to start the conversation.

Bibi: I love it. I love it. Yes, start the conversation. I think that so many people wait until it's perfect. It's like cleaning the house before the house keeper comes.

Melissa: Well, I kind of do that too. But you know.

Bibi: You know what I mean.

Melissa: Oh, yeah, I do. I totally do.

Bibi: This idea that the more that you can start to look at, what don't I know? And what may somebody else know, that I don’t, right? Even the things that you do in your business, somebody else can learn from them but they may not have exposure to it.
We have exposure to all these different industries, and to all these different people doing things a different way. And my team will do that all the time. Where they may see you doing something a certain way and go,” Hey, Melissa, we have this other client who kind of has the same situation, but she uses X-Y-Z. Are you willing to look at this?” Because it may be something that saves you time, energy, and money.

Melissa: Oh, thanks, Bibi. This is great.

Bibi: Thank you, Melissa. I so appreciate you having me on. I can't tell you how much this goes both ways. The team loves working with you. They love working with your team. And I think that the love fest will just continue on for a while.

Melissa: Cool. Great. I'm all for it.

Bibi: Okay.

Hey, you may not know this, but there's a free guide for a process I teach called Monday Map/ Friday Wrap. If you go to VelocityWork.com, it's all yours. It's about how to plan your time and honor your plans. So, that week over week, more work that moves the needle is getting done in less time. Go to VelocityWork.com to get your free copy.

Thank you for listening to The Law Firm Owner Podcast. If you're ready to get clearer on your vision, data, and mindset, then head over to VelocityWork.com where you can plug in to Quarterly Strategic Planning, with accountability and coaching in between. This is the work that creates Velocity.