Title: Finding Clarity as a Business Owner: How the Law Firm Growth Gameplan Gives You the Answers to Growing a Profitable Law Firm
Written by: Jon Cumberworth
Law firm owners have no choice but to grapple with an assortment of challenges. From ensuring the firm delivers great legal work to managing internal operations and generating new clients, every day presents a new hurdle. No successful firm owner can claim they did this without having clarity. Clarity in understanding what it is they want for their firm, but also how they want to get there in terms of the journey. If the owner and leader of the law firm doesn’t have a clear idea of where they want to go, how can they employ people and encourage others to follow them consistently and effectively? You might look at successful lawyers and think that they had it all figured out from the start, but you would be wrong. Discovering, curating, and confirming your vision takes time, focus, awareness, and dedication. Many business owners will say they are too busy to do the exercises needed to dig deep and truly discover why their company exists, but for those who put in the time, it’s an unbelievably liberating feeling to have a clear North Star. A leader must be clear on their long-term objective and purpose so they can inspire others to follow and dedicate time and effort to a cause. The tactical roads leading to the goal can remain hazy, but the ultimate purpose needs to be clear for it to be motivating.
The Dilemma of the Law Firm Owner
Being a law firm owner is no easy feat and most didn’t learn how to be both a lawyer and business owner. They’re constantly juggling between meeting client needs, overseeing business operations, managing employees, and seeking avenues for their own personal and professional growth. This balancing act can often lead to pitfalls – spreading oneself too thin or getting bogged down in day-to-day tasks, losing sight of the North Star and ultimately the reason for why they started the law firm in the first place. Starting out it’s all about doing great legal work on the initial cases and as they grow, the business needs start to get louder than those of the clients. An inflection point presents itself where the law firm owner almost needs to make a choice between being a lawyer or an entrepreneur. They must be clear and aware of what it is they want because they owe that to their employees, clients, but also to themselves. Entrepreneurs will take on the responsibility of developing the team, systems, processes, and revenue models of the business so if that isn’t exciting to someone who went to law school to be a lawyer, it’s best to recognize that and get someone in place to do that for them.
Creating Clarity with the Law Firm Growth Gameplan
All successful coaches in any sport went into their seasons or playoffs with clear strategies and a thought out gameplan. Phil Jackson, John Wooden and Bill Belichick were definitely clear on what they wanted to achieve and the overall strategy for how to achieve it. The big picture isn’t something that just pops up to you in a dream, so we’ve designed the Law Firm Growth Gameplan – a comprehensive blueprint designed to address the unique challenges faced by law firm owners generating over $1M in annual revenue. Our Growth Gameplan isn’t a generic, one-size-fits-all solution delivered to many people at once at a conference. It provides targeted strategies based on interviews, deep dives, and analysis performed on behalf of an individual firm.
What are the Sections of the Law Firm Growth Gameplan?
**Marketing**
Recognize and understand your ideal client profile so you and your team can target and connect with more potential clients. Identify the channels necessary for communicating your firm’s value to the potential clients you want. Learn proven methods and tactics that have helped other firms grow their dockets and client base.
**Intake (Sales)**
Increasing the opportunities for more PNC’s is only half of the game when it comes to getting more clients for a law firm. Responsiveness and consistency in the intake process is key to signing the right clients and improving the close rate. Easily implement scripting, workflows, and systems for tracking the performance of new client acquisition and intake for your law firm.
**Finance**
Lay down the pillars for a robust financial future. From budgeting to forecasting, establish protocols that ensure stability, cash flow, and consistent growth.
**Operations**
Identify and eliminate bottlenecks to ensure that your firm runs efficiently and effectively. Removing wasted action and streamlining systems and processes can lead to cost savings, capacity improvements, and increased morale. We live in a world full of opportunities to automate and outsource so lawyers can focus on serving clients and doing great legal work.
**Hiring**
The most important aspect of a business is hiring and retaining the right people. Many business owners hire quickly out of desperation, and it costs them more in the long run. Gain the knowledge to execute recruiting, hiring, and organizational strategies to bring on people who share your firm’s values and believe in the mission. Turn one of the most difficult parts of being a business owner into your greatest asset.
**IT (Tech)**
With the right tech stack a law firm can elevate productivity levels, bolster client communication, and develop an edge over the competition. The legal industry has traditionally been a laggard when it comes to technology, but that is because many lawyers don’t know what to use and how to implement it into their business. Establish a reliable and secure technology stack that will enhance innovation, communication, business development, and growth.
**Leadership Development**
Once a team is hired and onboarded, the job of career and leadership development begins. Employees want to know that they are doing a good job, but they also need to visualize and believe in future opportunity with a firm. Empower your leaders by employing proven management and development systems such as KPI’s, weekly one on ones, quarterly reviews, and succession planning.
**Vendor Analysis**
How can a law firm know if they are getting the best service from a vendor or if they are just another number? What are the best ways for a business to find, assess, hire, and manage third party companies and freelancers so they get the most return on their investment? This playbook will provide the best steps for not only ensuring the right company is hired, but then how to track and prove their effectiveness on a consistent basis.
Just the Gameplan…. No Long-Term Commitments
The beauty of the Law Firm Growth Gameplan lies in its flexibility. Law firms can implement suggestions at a pace that aligns with their comfort and capability. Knowledge is power, and with the Gameplan, law firm owners are empowered with insights that clarify the ‘why’ behind every recommended move. Get the answers to your questions about how to build and grow your law firm without having to commit to expensive conferences or mastermind groups.
Done With You in Your Office
Our team will travel to you instead of having your team come to us. This speaks to how customized your Growth Gameplan will be and that the Playbooks produced will be easier to implement and execute than the one-size-fits-all methods offered by other groups. Avoid disruptions to your business and save money on travel and conference costs, while getting the benefit of producing an effective Gameplan in less than 30 days.
Conclusion
Clarity is essential for law firm owners who want to build a growing and profitable business. If you want people to follow you, a clear vision and gameplan is a necessity. Many law firm or business owners are going through this for the first time and are unsure where to start and how to get it all done, so that is where our Law Firm Growth Gameplan can help. In a matter of days, establish a customized set of actionable playbooks for each division of your law firm so that you can focus on delivering great legal work for your clients. Get the answers to your questions and learn how to build a profitable and successful business.
Contact us today to learn more about the Law Firm Growth Gameplan and how it can work for your firm. Get the playbooks and answers you need to take your law firm to the next level in less than 30 days. And don’t forget to ask us about the Gameplan Guarantee.
