As your law firm grows and flourishes, taking steps to properly manage your firm is essential to avoid being overworked, over exhausted, and burned out. Long hours in the office, too many clients to serve, and not enough hours in the day can be an indicator that it is time to evaluate how you manage your small law firm.
Taking the time to be strategic about how to manage your small law firm, can give you more time back in your day, allow you to do work more efficiently and effectively, and give you the freedom to be more nimble and truly build deep client relationships. Taking advantage of these opportunities is what separates the firms that fold and firms that thrive.
Here are four actions you can take to help propel your small estate planning firm forward:
1. Automate When Possible
Automate! Automate! Automate! Your time is valuable, but plenty of attorneys waste hours and hours each month on repetitive administrative tasks that they cannot bill for.
If that sounds like you, know that you aren’t alone. According to a 2020 survey of small law firms by Thomson Reuters, 76% of respondents said that lawyers spent too much time on admin tasks which provided moderate or significant challenges to the firm’s processes.
Instead of trying to squeeze more than 24 hours out of each day, look for opportunities to automate. One such solution is Accessio Docs. By automating the tedious task of document creation, you get hours back to attract and serve clients.
2. Build Client Relationships
When considering how to manage a small law firm, it is important to build client relationships. One of the big advantages of managing your own small law firm is the opportunity to connect with clients on a more individual level. Throughout the process, you really get to know them, their families, and so much more.
Whether it’s remembering the small details or taking a few extra minutes to do something small like sending a birthday card or celebrating your client’s one year anniversary with your firm, be sure to treat your clients with a personal touch they won’t receive at large firms.
After your firm decides to automate its document drafting processes, along with providing excellent service, you will have more time to build quality client relationships. These relationships have the potential to reward your firm with good quality referrals from friends and family. No amount of marketing can touch the impact of a heartfelt recommendation.
3. Grow Your Network
Referrals are an essential part of growing your business. But to get a steady flow, you have to grow your professional network.
Whether in person or online, there are numerous opportunities to connect with your fellow attorneys to earn referrals within your practice areas and to send them referrals outside of your scope of practice. Taking the time to think about how to best manage your firm, including saving time through automation of tasks and processes where possible, can give you the time you need to effectively grow your network.
4. Don’t Overcomplicate Marketing
Social media. SEO. Google Ads. Email marketing.
There are countless opportunities to advertise your firm. But remember that marketing is not an all or nothing proposition. Just because an opportunity exists, that doesn’t mean you need to devote time and money to it.
After all, you earned a degree in law, not marketing.
What’s essential to building a successful marketing planis the ability to track the success or failure of your marketing dollar. That means having KPIs (key performance indicators). Without such data points, a marketing plan may just be built on hope and luck
For more information on how to automate your small law firm processes, contact Accessio Docs today. We are here to serve you.