If you’re doing things right, your practice grows primarily by attracting new clients, that is, clients find you, you don’t find them.

They find you online, respond to an ad, someone refers them, or they’ve hired you before and come back when they need you again.

Clients show up and are “pulled” into your legal machine, with very little effort on your part. Once there, you deliver high-quality services (and high-quality service) to keep them happy and ensure they return and refer, and generally speaking, they do.

Sure, you have to do maintenance, making sure your systems are working well, your content is fresh, and you have sufficient resources to do your job. But other than that, you don’t have to do much else to keep your practice running and profitable.

On the other hand, you can’t rely on this dynamic forever. You can’t expect to always be able to attract clients and pull them in, you must also do some pushing.

Clients die or no longer need you. Businesses fold or get bought out. People move away. Clients can no longer afford you or find another attorney who charges less. No matter how well you do your job, there will always be attrition and you need to do something affirmative to keep your funnel (and your bank account) full.

And let’s not ignore the fact that there is a continual wave of competition. New lawyers, better-financed lawyers, and more aggressive lawyers eager to eat your lunch.

Bottom line: you can’t rely on pulling in new business, you have to do some pushing.

Pushing means reaching out to prospective clients and referral sources and centers of influence in your niche market or community. It means trying new strategies, networking with different people, and creating new types of content.

Pushing means expanding on what’s working and eliminating or changing what isn’t. It means continually upgrading your client base, replacing good clients with even better clients. It means never getting complacent and assuming that what was will always be.

The world changes. Make sure you keep up with it.

Give your practice a little push with this

Looking for a great investment? One that has the potential to bring you big returns?

I’m talking returns of 50%, 100%, or more. Perhaps a lot more. Over time, you might earn ten or twenty times your initial investment.

What’s that? You put your money in savings, not investments. You don’t like to “gamble”? Well, you might want to re-think that position in this case because the investment I’m talking about is “you”.

Your practice. Your career. Your future.

I know you make a substantial investment each month run your practice. Money to keep the doors open, money to protect yourself from liability, money to help you serve your clients. And money on marketing, to make sure you continue to bring in new clients.

I’m suggesting you consider spending more.

Add another $1,000 per month to your budget, to invest in your practice. If that’s too much, start with less, but start with something because if you invest wisely, that $1,000 or $5,000 or $100, will result in a handsome profit.

What should you invest in? Well, what do you need? What’s working now that might work better? What can you expand?

What could you invest in to attract more clients? What could you invest in that might help you meet new referral sources? Where might you put some dollars to improve your skills or help you deliver a better client experience?

Here’s a list to help you brainstorm the possibilities:

• Advertising
• New employees, virtual assistants; incentives
• Outside services
• Second office/better location
• Signage
• Furniture and equipment
• Personal and professional development
• Software
• Consultants
• Networking
• Websites/content
• Accounting/financial planning
• Training courses

As you ponder this list, also consider areas where you might spend less. Where could you eliminate waste? What could you do to free up cash to invest in things that bring you a better return?

What’s that? You don’t have any cash to invest in your practice right now? That’s why you need to take this seriously.

Find the money. Borrow it. Get a line of credit. Sell something.

Remember, you’re not increasing your overhead, you’re investing in your business.

Let me guess, you’re thinking, “What if I do this and it doesn’t work?”

My answer: “What if it does work?” What if you invest $1000 and it brings in an additional $1500? You would want to do it again, right? You’d want to increase your investment so you can increase your profit, yes?

Look, don’t throw money at anything that moves. Be judicious. Reasonable. Careful. Smart.

Sure, there’s risk. You might lose money on the path to earning more. But there’s an even greater risk in doing nothing.

Truth.

You really do have to spend money to make money. Go figure out how you can spend more.

Improve your website 

I remember a client I considered one of my favorites. He brought me a lot of business. He never made any trouble. And he was easy to get along with.

Mike wore a lot of gold jewelry, had expensive clothes, wore strong smelling cologne, talked fast and was always in a hurry. He gambled on sports. And he always had a cold, if you know what I mean.

But that was his business. When the phone rang and Mike was on the line, it made my day.

Soon, things began to change.

I never had any problems with his cases. No accusations of anything funny. But he was either the most accident-prone guy on Earth or something shady was going on.

He called me with another case. I turned it down. There wasn’t anything wrong with it that I could see but when you smell trouble, you’ve got to go with what your gut tells you and my gut was yelling and screaming that Mike was up to no good.

Mike stopped calling. Did he find another attorney? Did the law catch up with him? A drug dealer? A bookie? Did he wrap himself around a telephone pole?

I never found out. He was gone and I was glad.

For awhile, Mike was my favorite client. But he was hardly an ideal client. It was early in my practice and I needed the money but I would never want more “Mikes”. An ideal client is someone who touches all the bases and Mike didn’t make the cut.

As you create a profile for your ideal client, don’t forget to check your gut. Even if your bank account says not to.

Need help creating a profile of your ideal client? Here it is