Times are tough. Clients are having trouble paying their attorneys. And that’s exactly why you should consider increasing your fees.

When times are tough for your clients, you also feel the pinch. But your overhead keeps increasing, doesn’t it? At some point, some of the services you offer will no longer be profitable. “We lose money on every client but we make it up in volume,” is an old joke. But some attorneys don’t understand, the joke is on them.

What would happen if you raised the price on those services? You may lose a percentage of your clients, but the increased revenue from your remaining clients would provide a profit on every “sale”. And if you lose more clients than you expect, you will have more time to do more (higher paying) work for other clients.

True, you may not have other clients to fill the gap right now, but you will have more free time for marketing so you can bring in new clients, something you may not have time to do right now.

And you may find that you don’t lose many clients when you increase fees. Prices for everything are going up these days, so to some extent, your clients expect you to follow suit.

When an airplane loses cabin pressure we’re told to put the oxygen mask on our mouth first. Once we’re out of trouble, we can help the people next to us. It’s the same thing in a law practice. If your practice is in trouble, you won’t be around long to help your clients with their troubles.