7 Law Firm Growth Myths BUSTED!
…Hi everyone
Welcome back to the wealth woman lawyer podcast I'm your host to being a Frederick.
And I'm so glad you're here with me today because today
I am going to bust some myths.
These are seven law firm growth, myths that just drive me my drive me nuts So today
I am going to share with you these myths these beliefs that I
hear people have and I'm going to bust these myths for you.
So. You get a pen and paper get ready to
write this down or listen up and see if this resonates with you.
Myth Number one is you must conform to other people's idea of.
Being a lawyer. I when I started out in my career I have had so many,
uh, in my case all men I say things to me
about how I wanted to run my law firm business telling me that it would not work.
That it was not a. idea. And I want to tell you
that I have had not one but two law firms that I have.
Created and run my way and they work just fine.
So number one you must confirm to other people's idea of being a lawyer.
I had, um, a, um, man say to me that
when I when I opened my second law firm in 2011 it was a virtual law firm.
And I had a man say to me and other lawyer colleague.
That. My clients would not like that.
That that virtual would not work. He had a hidden
agenda His agenda leads me to myth Number two.
Myth number two his hidden agenda was he wanted me to rent.
Office space in his building that he had a.
I overhead on and he had this spare office space and that's why he was telling me.
What he was telling me So myth number one you must conform to other people's ideas of.
What it means to be a lawyer and how to run a law practice? No.
can't do it your way. You uh, You are as smart intelligent woman.
And…are there times that you may fail Yes You may fail along the way As a matter of fact, if
you have a long career as an entrepreneur you're probably going to fail a lot
but that doesn't mean that your way does not work And it's not a good idea.
So stick to your guns Myth Number two is you must rent an expensive office with a receptionist out front.
Someone said to me when I rented my first office space.
It was just a one room office in a in a historical landmark building.
So it was not fancy. Um, it was just me
in my office and that's where I met up with clients And at that time I did not have a receptionist.
And someone close to me said…who would want
to hire an attorney with a shabby little office?
I would expect to see a very nice expensive office with a receptionist out front.
Myth busted. Many many many many many lawyers start out.
In a small one room office nowadays we're living in a
virtual world There's a lot of them who are starting them at their dining room tables.
One of my mentors who was a very very successful adoption law attorney started
her adoption law business at her dining room table probably 30 years ago.
With her new adopted baby on her lap while she was working.
So do not buy into that You can work from your laptop anywhere if you choose.
People have been doing it How do you think, how do you think solos start out when they're bootstrapping.
And they don't have a lot of funding They don't have venture capital Right.
They have to start out, um the way they want to start out And these days with virtual.
Practice more and more people are just opting out of the expensive office altogether.
I have one client who has six attorneys. Three staff people uh three
paralegals and one staff person And they are all for.
and she makes multiple million dollars So you don't need to rent an expensive office if that's
not what you want to do I have other clients who love having a an office that they go to and all
their team is there I have some who want to buy office buildings and they do.
You remember we go back to number one, you do not have to conform to other people's ideas of
being a lawyer being a law firm owner You can do it the way you want to…Myth number three we're going to bust.
You must work Hundred hour weeks If you want to be a successful lawyer.
I'm going to bust that myth for you right now And just tell you it's unreasonable and it is not sustainable.
Yes There are people who have worked as lawyers working a hundred hour weeks billing.
Uh, big at big law firms billing billing billing.
There are solos who probably put in a hundred hour weeks along the way.
But it is not necessary for you to put in a hundred hour weeks If you find yourself doing that.
Then you need to take a good, hard look at your priorities
and, and also at your systems right?
And you need to ask for help You do not need to work a hundred hours.
A week to grow a successful multimillion dollar law firm business.
In fact my new mantra now is the less I do The more I make I got that from a mentor of mine.
Steve Gordon. Uh the less I do the more I make has become my new mantra.
So YouTube can do the same thing. Number four, you must learn to set up.
Your law firms technology. You must love technology and be able to use all
kinds of technology to be able to run your law firm.
I'm going to bust this myth. You do not need to be.
Great a technology I am not great at technology Fortunately I am married to someone who is
really good at technology managing technology and setting up automation for me.
And also I hire a lot of people too do.
Different types of automation for me. You can hire people to…work.
It work in areas that are your weakness Technology is a weakness of mine Automation is a
weakness of mine I don't have the patience to sit and try to figure out different automation
tools I do use automation all throughout my business My
clients use automation throughout their businesses, but they're not sitting there.
Uh, Doing Zapier and and connecting all their different automation tools together.
They hire people to help them do that. If you are a bit of a technophobe And I know a lot of
younger people really love technology but there are limited even younger people are limited in
their technology ability They only know how to use their favorite things.
Learning uh being able to, you know create Instagram reels on
your phone is one type of technology but being able to set up.
An intake system with all your automation and tech tools is a different type of technology.
And so you can hire people to help you do that.
Number five you must do your own billing and books People stop it If you're doing your own books.
You hire a bookkeeper immediately If you need a recommendation for
one reach out to me I'll be happy to give you a couple of recommendations.
You must realize that you are not the best person for every job in your business Even if you
have the skill and ability, I actually worked a lot of people don't know this about me, but
when I was in college and undergrad studying and getting my journalism degree, I took a year
off and I worked to make money to be able to help me to pay my way through college.
I worked as a bookkeeper for a.
Uh industrial park company that had several industrial parks and I managed the books for
multiple industrial parks you know where they go in and people rent storage units.
That's we had to keep track of all of that And I was the bookkeeper for this and they own
multiple industrial parks with storage facilities.
I hated bookkeeping This was the thing that got me back into
college, because this was not my wheelhouse, but I did it.
So I have the skills and ability to do. The bookkeeping but is bookkeeping the best thing for
me to do is that the highest and best use of my time in my business Absolutely not.
Let's talk about your billing. The salt that you must do your own billing.
The reason you're doing your own billing I'll bet you is because
you're not…putting your time in contemporaneously.
So you were sitting there once a month, once a once every once a quarter.
Trying to remember and recreate all the things that you did throughout the month.
And you're by doing so you're leaving money on the table and it's the reason you can't outsource
your billing to somebody else because you have to go back and recreate it You have all that
information in your head instead of billing contemporaneously tracking your time contemporaneously.
Even if you charge flat rates, track your time contemporaneously.
To see where you may be leaving money on the table and let someone else get a part-time billing clerk.
Get your bookkeeper to, to prepare pre-bills for you to review before they go out, you can cut
your billing time down from several hours a month to.
One hour a month for even a half an hour For some people as your billing clerk is trained.
If you think people. If you think partners in big law.
Are sitting there printing out their own bills You are mistaken.
They have helped to do their billing. Okay.
Number six myth number six you must practice law To own a law firm.
What you must practice law to own a law for myth busted If you don't like to practice law, you
can hire other attorneys and paralegals to do that part.
And you could focus on running your own business.
That's right. You do not have to go to court every day.
You do not have to do the consultations for, to say.
up new clients. There are all kinds of things that you can excuse
yourself from, by hiring the right team and filling in for you.
You have to be a lawyer in most states although
that is changing I think Arizona is one of those states that changed but.
You must be a lawyer to own a law firm in most states I know
that is the case in Florida but you do not need to practice law.
To own a law firm. There are many many many lawyers out there who do not practice law on a daily basis.
Um, And I won't name names here but I could, let me just tell you
that Number seven myth number seven This is my last myth for the day.
You must give up practicing law to run a law firm business.
All right So there's a flip side to that. If you love to practice law.
But you feel like you need to you spending all your time running the business and you never get to practice law.
You can change that Remember myth number one you do not have to conform to other people's ideas You can do it your way.
Myth busted You can pick and choose.
The exact cases you want to take…If you own your own law for business, and if you have
it set up to run properly, you can still practice law If that's what you wanted to you don't have to stop practicing.
Just to run the business you get to choose. All right I hope you've
enjoyed today's episode of the seven law firm growth myths.
Um the miss that people buy into
who have a solo law firm and they're trying to grow it and scale it.
These are kind of the myths that I find that hold people back.
From scaling is they hold onto these beliefs that no longer serve them.
Instead of thinking to yourself is this belief that I have.
Serving me. Or is something else possible?
If you want to discuss what else is possible for your law firm business?
Then I want you to go down to my website www wealthy woman lawyer.com.
And I want you to click on. One-on-one coaching.
Private coaching and go to that page and schedule an appointment with me to talk about your law firm business.
And how we can begin to turn things around for you and really cut out those limiting beliefs and
helped open up your eyes and your world to the possibility.
That you can run a multi-million dollar law firm business.
Without working yourself to death in the process.
All right. I hope you've enjoyed it If you have leave me a review you know I love those reviews.
We like to read them We like to make sure the algorithm is getting…this podcast out there so
it can help more and more women law firm owners just like you.
Grow and scale their law firm business. Thank you for being here and I'll see you soon.
