There are 3 myths about growing your law practice that might be keeping you stuck and working too hard for too little money.

If you don’t know what these myths are, and you don’t know how to avoid the problems they cause, you could end up putting in a lot of time and effort to grow your practice but not getting the results you want.

Myth no. 1

The 1st myth is about the method of trying to grow your practice.

All the time we hear ‘experts’ say “You should do more marketing!”, or colleagues say “we need more enquiries!”. So we’re encouraged to believe the myth that growing a practice is all about doing more marketing.

But enquiries aren’t the only way to grow your practice. In fact, they might not be the thing that you need at all……

Maybe you actually need to get better at turning the enquiries you are getting into clients?

Or maybe you need to get better at turning the clients you’re getting into actual profits for your business?

So if you believe what everyone else says and focus too much on getting more enquiries, you could end up spending time, money and effort and still not get the results that you want.

Myth no. 2

The 2nd myth is about the level of Mastery that you need in your practice.

If you spend all your time focusing on being a great lawyer, providing great service to clients, that’s great for your level of professional expertise. But it may not be the expertise you need to help you grow your practice.

Maybe what you really need is to upgrade your skills around business development or marketing, so you can attract enquiries from more of your ideal clients?

Maybe you need to get better at converting leads into clients (at the right level of fees)?

Or perhaps the most important thing you need to do is to be more skilled in analysing the numbers in your business and really getting familiar with what’s making you money and what’s just costing you time and effort?

Don’t fall into the trap of believing that being an expert in your field is enough to be successful in your practice.

Myth no. 3

The 3rd myth is about the Model used by most professional practices.

If you’re a small practice, and you’re using the ‘time for money’ model, that means you rely on the units of time you (or your team) put in, in order to get money out. This model puts limits on your ability to grow your profits – eventually you’re going to hit a ceiling in your practice where you’re just not able to put in any more units of time without significantly expanding your team and management (and therefore costs).

Instead of believing that a law practice model is always about “time for money”, look again at your model….How can you get more results from the time you’re putting in and how can you leverage your time and your team to increase your profits without working more hours? Your profits and results don’t have to be restricted by the amount of time you can put in.

Next Steps

Perhaps it’s time to think differently about your Method, Mastery or Model, and your approach to growing your practice?

Have a look at your existing business plan and ask yourself “Is it going to help me get the results I want in the most time and cost-efficient way?”

If the answer is “No” or “I’m not sure”, then maybe it’s time for a new plan.