There is a lot to do when running your own law firm. If you do not keep your finger on the pulse, there is always someone who is willing to bump you right out of your place.
With that being said, every single one of you who has ever thought to take the plunge into the deep end of the pool without a life preserver should just do it.
However, do not jump in without a strategic business plan. It is a map or a footprint of where you want to go when you go out on your own and how you plan to get there.
If your ambition is to open your own law firm and survive, here are a few important steps that you must take that will help you achieve that goal. Write them down, and you will have a strategic business plan.
1.) Determine in what area of law you will specialize. Decide who your target client market is.
2.) Choose a mentor.
3.) Decide what kind of fee structure you will use. Choose an office in a prime, yet affordable, location.
4.) Prepare a budget.
5.) Above all else, remember to manage the firm, do not let the firm manage you. If you keep control of the things that matter most—marketing, attracting and retaining new clients, generating revenues, and paying the bills—while it will not be without its peaks and valleys, it will all come together.
Remember that you cannot do everything yourself, and you don’t know everything. Steve Jobs once said, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” The smartest people we know are smart enough to recognize that they don’t know everything, and they hire people who know how to do what they can’t. Luckily for us, we live in an age when creative, out-of-the-box solutions are commonplace. Just because someone else did not think of it first, does not mean it won’t work.
Hanging your shingle can be scary and stressful. But once you become a success, it is far more rewarding than working for someone else. There is no better time than the present to begin living your dream!
