Growing Your Law Firm so you experience more cases and more profits- that’s the desire of most lawyers, isn’t it? I dare say it’s one of the reasons you joined PILMMA in the first place. If you are motivated and serious about growth, you probably want to know how you can Scale up your law firm and do it as quickly, effectively, and efficiently as possible.
Many lawyers dream of going BIG, but fewer lawyers make their dreams materialize. Why do only a fraction of law firms successfully Scale UP while a majority fail to scale?
The truth is, Scaling is complex and those that do so successfully have conquered the complexity of Scaling. It’s like many things in life: If it were easy to Scale, everyone would do it! Scaling up inevitably creates complexity. For example, expanding from just three to four key employees can give your team a 33 per-cent increase in growth, but complexity may increase by 300 percent! More employees and staff mean more administrative headaches, more cases mean more work for everyone, and dominating a market means more aggressive marketing tactics.
Claim your Free Law Firm Growth Strategy Session
Claim your Free Law Firm Growth Strategy Session
After working with many lawyers across the country, I have seen first-hand what works and what doesn’t. Basically, there are three main Barriers that impede Scaling up growth: 1) Lack of Leadership, 2) Lack of Scalable Infrastructure, and 3) Lack of Big-game Marketing. Let’s look at each of these three areas in more detail:
1) Lack of Leadership:
Studies have shown that you need a Leader for every seven to nine people in your law firm. Law firm growth requires hiring more employees. Increasing your number of employees means increasing the number of leaders to manage these employees. Finding these people can be difficult and can take some time, but a failure to have strong leadership in place can derail scaling growth.
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Claim your Free Law Firm Strategy Session
Some lawyers become inpatient and hire the first available person that even remotely looks like they can handle the position. Don’t do it! Fire fast but Hire slow. Take the time to find the right people – those that have the aptitude, attitude, and working knowledge that you need for the respective position. Make sure you understand your firm’s culture; Not what you want your firm’s culture to be, but a realistic assessment of the actual culture that exists in your firm right now. You should hire employees who buy into your culture, and who can embrace your firm’s values. Even highly competent and talented candidates can fail if they don’t have the ability to mesh with your culture.
Although skills and attitude are important, when I hire, I never fret over a lack of prior law firm experience. If I find candidates who exhibit leadership potential, share my core values, are team players, and who exhibit an aptitude to learn, they will typically succeed even in new contexts.
Don’t hesitate to Delegate: As you grow, you must leverage your strengths and delegate your weaknesses. You should also delegate those tasks others can do “almost” as well. Be willing to hire others to do things you are perfectly capable of doing yourself, but which can also be performed by someone else, even if their performance merits an A- when you’d like to think you are an A +.
Successful growth cannot occur without bringing in employees to shoulder additional responsibilities and key leaders that can manage them.
2) Lack of Scalable Infrastructure:
I often speak on the importance of every law firm having infrastructure, policies, and procedures for each task and every position in the firm. Although it is important for all firms to have these measures in place, the need becomes imperative for Scaling up success. There is no way on earth that you can scale your law firm, or any business, unless you are prepared.
You must have the infrastructure in place that includes processes and procedures for all tasks and responsibilities so they can be duplicated and streamlined. To move for-ward without these measures is a recipe for disaster. Everyone needs to operate on the “same page,” and you can’t ensure this congruence and consistency without clearly defined responsibilities and operations.
Before you start spending more money on marketing your practice to grow, do the strategic work FIRST. Spend time and money creating the scalable infrastructure that will facilitate effective growth. Far too many firms crash and burn by ramping up their marketing efforts before they are fully prepared to handle the increased calls and workload. Be Strategic. Be Intentional. Be Proactive.
3) Lack of Strategic Big Game Marketing:
One of the most significant Barriers to Effective Scaling up is the failure to create effective marketing to attract new clients and cope with the increased competitive pressures (and lower margins) which occur as you grow.
As you move into other or larger markets, the competition becomes significantly more intense; It’s like going from the Minor leagues to the Major leagues. Your competitors have their A-game on, and you will need to do the same. Expect to feel some heat. Competitors will do things to upset your apple cart. They might do things you consider unethical, like giving you bad online reviews or performing click fraud on your pay per click ads or using your name in their pay per ad words.
Staying abreast of the latest Marketing techniques and analytics becomes more important than ever. You will need to craft a strong and strategic marketing plan that incorporates what you’ve learned thus far, and branches into new and more aggressive or innovative methods across a variety of mediums. A/B split testing should be a part of your ongoing push to reach more potential clients. Knowing your numbers and routinely leveraging this on-going data is essential. Resting on your laurels won’t cut it.
The complexities of Scaling Up are inevitable, and you can meet these challenges head-on if you have a Strategic mindset. Understanding the pitfalls and challenges and being prepared to meet them in the areas of Leadership, Infrastructure, and Marketing will ensure your Scaling Up succeeds.
To really build, grow, and scale your law firm, you must learn how to hire the right people whose strengths complement your weaknesses. You must learn how to delegate. You must learn to have a focused strategy, thinking strategically rather than tactically. You need a scalable infrastructure. If you want a winning culture that leads to success, you need disciplined execution. You must create habits and routines within your law firm that lays the foundation for success.
Scaling up requires cutting edge marketing. You must always stay one step ahead of your competition. PILMMA is the place where cutting edge marketing and management strategies are shared on a monthly basis. It is also why we have created our Strategic Attorney Coach program, to help lawyers recognize and overcome the common barriers and be able to scale and grow their firms to higher levels. Knowledge is power, and PILMMA is here to help you Grow and Scale Up intentionally and Strategically. We are here to give you the tools and knowledge you need so you can create the firm you envision in 2020. ◆
