How to Grow Your Small Law Firm the Right Way
It’s not easy being the head of a law firm. It requires keeping a close eye on the competition and the ability to make quick and definitive decisions. Every law firm wants to grow, but there’s a right way to approach expansion and a wrong way.
Having the desire to earn customers and gain profit is not enough for your law firm to grow. You also have to implement strategies that enable your law firm to be different among the competition and ensure that you know what your customers want.
Ideally, you want to grow your small law firm in a way that is sustainable and profitable. How can you do this with your own firm? Where and how will you start? Read on and we’ll walk you through a few quick tips that should set you on the right path.
Network With Other Players In The Industry
Standing out in the legal industry can be tough. Since people from different parts of the world will require legal services at some point in their lives, expect that you will have to compete with various law firms. While some of these are small, others have been operating in the industry for decades and have made their brands a household name among clients. Fortunately, there are a lot of ways for small law firms to level out the playing field. One of which is by networking.
If you want your small law firm to grow, you should exert time and effort to learn how to network. As this allows you to connect with other players in the legal industry, networking is an essential skill that contributes to your business success. The people you will network with can provide opportunities for your law firm to expand its operations, engage with a new target audience, and learn important tips from the experts.
One of the easiest ways to network is to participate in corporate events around your area. Ideally, you should join events that are participated by other law firms and experts in the industry. During the event, initiate conversations with other people and get to know them better. Aside from gaining a friend, the people you will meet during these events can significantly affect the growth and success of your law firm.
Utilize Your Team
No one can do everything all on their own, and that’s certainly true when it comes to expanding the business of your law firm. If you want to succeed and be a strong leader, you need to know how to delegate.
This can be tough, especially if your law firm is your very first business endeavor since you’d like to keep track of all of its movements and progress. However, keep in mind that micromanaging can also do more harm than good, especially for a small or startup law firm.
If you’re handling all the interior work of your firm as well as the outward-looking business, you’ll likely combust before you hit your potential. Instead, it’s best to delegate administrative and financial tasks to certain individuals in your firm. Have only one person, whether it’s yourself or another employee, focused on expanding your reach.
When you spread the work out across many hands, it makes it easier for everyone. It also makes your goals more achievable.
Position Your Brand
One way to stand out from the competition in your area is to find a niche that you can target. One of the key elements of successful firm marketing is trying to reach a specific group of people as opposed to everyone at once.
Yes, you don’t want to pigeon-hole your business. But if there’s a specific area of law or type of case you want to highlight your firm as being experts in? It certainly can help attract a certain type of customer your way.
It’s worth looking into the 2020 marketing plan for law firms to see other ways that targeted marketing can advance your reach in the community.
Scale up When Needed
Running a successful law firm is all about finding the proper balance. You don’t want to be too overstaffed or understaffed at any given time.
Become talented in the art of hiring new employees just before you really need them. It can be stressful to figure out how to budget for another lawyer, but it can be even more stressful to go through the hiring process when you need another hand right away.
It’s better to be proactive in your hiring and bring new blood at the moment it looks like extra work is on the horizon. You can always try to go and drum up more business once you have the extra hand on staff.
Expanding Your Small Law Firm
You want to see your small law firm grow into a big one in the future. That means scaling up in the right way: sustainable and smart. The above tips can teach you how.
Need more advice for small businesses? Check out our blog for more information.
