When I started practicing, I took anything that showed up and what showed up was mostly small stuff. That was fine because I needed to settle cases quickly to pay my bills and smaller, less complicated cases made that possible.
Besides, I didn’t have the experience or resources to compete with bigger firms. So I didn’t try.
Focusing on smaller cases also meant that no one case or client was make or break. If I lost a case, if the client went away, I had plenty more where that came from.
For a long time, I was able to keep overhead to a minimum so my practice was profitable. Eventually, as I hired more staff and moved to bigger offices, overhead made a significant dent in the bottom line.
There is also psychic overhead. More clients mean more people to worry about, and more staff to manage.
So today, I would do things differently.
As soon as I could, I would move towards having fewer clients who pay higher fees.
Fewer clients mean lower overhead and fewer people to keep happy. Bigger clients mean bigger paydays.
To earn $300,000 with small clients you need a lot of them. To earn the same amount with bigger clients, you only need a handful.
One writer summed up the difference this way: “I’d rather have four quarters than 100 pennies”.
True, to compete with the big boys and gals you need to be one of them. You need a higher level of skill. That takes time to acquire.
And, with fewer clients, losing one could be costly so you need to work hard to keep them happy and have a way to replace them when they go away.
Both models work. High volume and high ticket are both viable ways to build a practice. And there’s nothing wrong with having a mix.
But while I could handle the tumult of a high volume practice when I was younger, today I like to keep things simple. And quiet.
Earn more. Work less. Here’s how
