What IT Takes To Move Your Practice Home

You are ready to leave “the firm” and move into the nest (your home) in search of a quieter life, a more peaceful life, and a more purposeful life?

The purpose of moving home is to cut expenses to the bone. You realize that despite your salary or draw the overwhelming amount you earn for the firm goes to OVERHEAD (ouch). First, you do not want to spend a lot of money. Second, you do not have a lot of money to spend.

What do you do?

1. Downsize it. Let’s face it; it is hard to get the big firm mentality out of your mind, wants and desires. We have been conditioned this way since starting law school. We do like the gadgets and the new stuff. You want to avoid the temptation because your perception of what you actually need is probably not right. You can start with almost nothing and then add what you need only when you are truly convinced that you need it. I started my first home office with less than $1,000.00. I found a couple of old cubicles to put in the game room of the house that I was renting. I needed a dedicated space and I could not change the walls or make structural changes. They were clean but not pretty. Costs-$0.00. I had a well used computer and printer. I needed a telephone line, and that is the biggest mistake I made, but my defense is that I did not have as many choices as I do now. I got a Siemens wireless phone that supported two lines, called SBC and AT&T (they were separate entities then), got $50.00 worth of office supplies, and I was in business. I made it a point not to spend any money I did not absolutely have to spend and not to go into debt to do this.

2. Niche it. Understand that it is only you and you cannot represent people in every avenue of law available. The learning curve is too great and in the long run it will actually keep you from making money. You will have to turn away business and this hurts. But, if you are spending time doing God knows what, you will not be effectively building your practice. You need to find a niche in your desired practice area. My wife and I had been practicing consumer bankruptcy law on a pretty large scale. We decided the overhead to maintain an office and to bring in an effective amount of business was too great. So we concentrated on referrals from other bankruptcy attorneys on automatic stay and discharge injunction violations. The problem for us was that nobody was making a living doing this at the time. The benefit was that bankruptcy attorneys were not aggressively defending their clients’ rights. My wife and I had to gamble that this was true because bankruptcy attorneys were so over worked they could not handle a litigation practice. So far that has turned out to be correct. The niche allowed us to control the litigation without maintaining direct client contact. Most matters could be handled over the telephone, fax, mail and email. When contact was necessary we could use the referring attorney’s office or the courthouse. This was beneficial because we could now cover the entire state of Texas. We have known lawyers that limited their practice to just representing men in family law, just representing gays in wills and trusts, just social security appeals from the district court, and many other variations. Somebody once figured out that oil changes were the easiest thing performed in a repair shop. There was a lot of repeat business, and it did not require a lot of overhead. So, quick oil change shops were created. The most profitable area was also the most neglected area. The same is true for every area of law. Find it.

3. Write it. If not an exact business plan, you need a road map. It can be brief; maybe just a few pages. But, even in a paperless office it needs to be printed off, kept on or near your work area and reviewed periodically. Ask yourself, “am I doing the things it says I should be doing to build my practice”. When asked I always told people that I never wrote a business plan, but as it turns out that was not true. Oh, it did not have projections and graphs and spreadsheets, but I had written down what I needed to earn and I knew I had to cut my expenses to the bone. I had listed the people, the organizations and the places I needed to reach my goal.

4. Join it. Join professional organizations and actually participate. It will give you a sense of purpose, but it will allow you to build contacts and business in a non-overt, inexpensive way. And here is an even better tip. Avoid those organizations (at least in the early days of your firm) that support the area of law in which you are practicing. You heard me. If you practice bankruptcy law do NOT participate in the bankruptcy lawyers group. These are competitors. Sure you and they can overlook this, but the business they refer you is going to be extremely difficult with little pay. Competitors rarely refer clients that have money. Join groups that, as you establish yourself, will send you business. If you practice bankruptcy or tax law, you need to attend and participate in groups for accountants, for example. If you practice family law joint the local bar associations, go to the personal injury lawyers group, or attend the local group for counselors. These are groups that run into family law matters. If you are a real estate attorney, make sure you not only join but actively participate in the Realtor organizations, the builder organizations, the contractor organization, the banking organizations. You can almost always join these groups as an auxiliary or affiliated member. The beautiful thing about doing this is you do not have to promote yourself. Just talk and listen. Members of these groups will ask you what you do. Tell them. Give them a card. Take a card. Try to answer their questions. You don’t have to be overt if you attend the events. You will become known.

5. Promote it. Forget about spending money on marketing. Do not be afraid to speak to groups about your field of work. Do you know how hard it is to get speakers? I used to speak a lot. I do it less now. Almost every time I spoke somewhere I would get some business or some referral. Think of an interesting topic. I know a lot of people say to do this, but it is interesting the number of people that do not do it. You might have to work to get your first couple of speaking engagements, but because speakers are in such short supply you will start getting requests. If you are a family attorney, for example, speak to church groups about the ravages of divorce. Speak to support groups. Speak to the battered women’s shelter board. Forget pamphlets and brochures. You need to generously hand out business cards afterwards (that promote your blog and website), but hand out a paper with at least key points with your name, address, phone number (and do not forget your website and email address on it). 

5. Blog it. Why a blog? First you need a website. It is where people go to get a feel for you. Because blogs are the easiest and most effective form of Internet marketing, you can get an impressive one up and going with very little money. It is easy to publish too, which makes its content current and leaves the views with the impression you are an expert in your chosen field. Blogs work best when they are narrowly focused. My law blog (or blawg as they are sometime called) is stayviolation.com. In the world of bankruptcy you cannot get much more narrow than that. The Bankruptcy Code is long and arduous. But, I practice under just one provision, 11 U.S.C. § 362. Depending on where it is published it takes up about 8 pages of print. Over time you can learn everything there is to know about 8 pages of law. Not so with the entire Bankruptcy Code. Grant Griffiths, a home-based lawyer, has a blog called grandparentsvisitationblog.com. That’s narrow marketing.

6. Broadcast it. Broadcasting used to be the province of big corporations and rich trial lawyers. But that is not true anymore. Now you can do it for nearly FREE with YouTube.Com. Let’s be true with each other, blogging is great but people are attracted to visual stimuli. Now with YouTube you can film an informational piece with your camcorder or the camera on your computer monitor. It does not have to be slick, just competent. You can add it to your blog so you can speak to your readers. You can have a broadcast channel with your blog so you can give your prospective clients a lot of information. You can email the broadcast to anybody you like or who might request information. They ask, “can you tell me how child custody works”? You answer, “sure I can”. Then refer them to your blog site or ask them if you can email the link to YouTube over to them. It is impressive, professional, it can be used to save you time, and it will bring you in good clients.

7. Charge for it. Do not undercut yourself. Market yourself as an expert and as a valuable asset. (Blogging and speaking engagements will do a lot for this image). Do not use that you work from home as an excuse to charge less. You will lose. Moving home will result in you accepting less business. Less work for less money will drive you to the poor house. I am not saying to never do pro bono work. Just do it because you want to do it and not because you think you have to do it. Turning away money is scary. But, the truth of the matter is that if you do not turn unprofitable business away you might not be available when a willing prospective client wants to retain you. You’ll be somewhere you do not need to be and you’ll miss the call.

If you are ready to follow these tips, you are ready to take your practice home.