Why is that some law firm owners can do this, while most struggle?
The problem
I used to think it was indecision and the chronic busy-ness mindset that was holding most lawyers back – this is where law firm owners convince themselves they’re so busy with client work that they don’t have the time to work on business strategy or make important business decisions.
I’ve come to realise this is a big part of what holds law firm owners back, but it’s not the #1 thing.
To scale your law firm you need to be innovative. Law firm owners love to claim how innovative they are, until it is time to hand over the MONEY. Being innovative requires spending money and investing in your business.
The #1 thing
So the #1 thing that holds you back from scaling your law firm is —> Fear of paying those invoices. Fear of spending money. Fear of investing in yourself. Fear of investing in your business.
This came as a big surprise to me when I started working with law firm owners – I had expected most would be willing to spend money to make money. I speak to law firm owners all the time who are afraid to invest the money to take them to the next level. It was even more of a surprise to learn it is often the medium sized firms who are more afraid to invest in their growth than small firms and solos.
Does any of this sound familiar:
- You know you need to spend money on a branding expert to help you refine their firm’s brand and message, but “now isn’t the right time”.
- You “can’t afford” a digital agency or a marketing person to take your firm’s marketing and demand generation to the next level, so you’re going to “play” with it yourself or get one of your staff members who has zero marketing expertise to do it.
- Getting a business coach to help you grow your business is “too expensive” and probably won’t be effective anyway.
- You’re not buying that new software product because you want to “wait and see”.
- You want more clients but for now you’ll just rely on the few that come from referrals because referrals “are free”.
- Getting a new website takes 12 months due to annoying delays (but if you’re really honest with yourself it is because you’re afraid to part with your $$$).
Look savvy lawyers, I’m calling your BS on all of this.
Yep, paying big scary invoices is, well, scary but it is necessary to scale your firm. The training you do, the mastermind group you join, the coach you hire, the marketing you pay for, the software you use, the extra staff and contractors you take on, your cleaner, your babysitter, your gardener – yes, paying for these things may freak you out. But this is what it takes to scale your law firm and redesign the way you work – you need to stop doing the work outside your zone of genius and delegate it to someone else.
You need to free yourself to do your best work. This will require you to pay the scary invoices.
Scarcity mindset is rife amongst law firm owners.
I get it: you’ve been trained and conditioned to be risk averse. You’re not used to leaving profits in your business to invest in it. I also realise that some firms are not well set up to make decisions quickly (or at all). You also don’t want to niche down on your practice and target client because you fear there won’t be enough clients for you to serve <— oh man, I’ve been through all this, I feel you.
So here is my challenge to you:
- What if you turn “I can’t afford that” into “I’m going to work out a way to pay for that”.
- What if you turn “not right now” into “why not right now”.
- What if you turn “I’ll wait and see” into “how can I make this happen”.
- What if you turn “I don’t get enough clients from referrals” into “I will invest in acquiring new clients online”.
- What if you turn “what if I spend money on something and I fail” into “what if I spend money on something and I succeed”.
You can’t expect your law firm to grow unless you spend the money. Do the work, make the money, make the investments, and scale your law firm.
Ready to scale your law firm? Join our Savvy Lawyers Group where you can hang with a group of inspiring, entrepreneurial lawyers to talk about leveraging your intellectual property to design and sell online legal solutions. So you can make money while you sleep.