Despite the development of modern technologies and the presence of a variety of bots, which take on some of the functions of lawyers, the popularity of high-quality legal services that citizens need has not diminished. And therefore, opening your own law firm is a visionary decision that will allow you to take your practice to a new level.
At the same time, starting a business from scratch is not an easy task; it requires, first of all, competent planning, investment of resources: material, human, time, and so on. Where to start? What to take care of in the first place? What difficulties and risks await? Answers to questions in this article.
Market analysis and determination of specialization
The choice of a practice profile, that is, the choice of specialization, is a question that can be decided on best at the preliminary planning stage. The specificity of the professional services business is that only narrow specialists are valued here, and the “general profile” causes less confidence among the potential client. This also applies to the legal business. Based on this, at the beginning of your practice, you should decide on specialization.
Business plan for a law firm
The creation of a law firm is, first and foremost, a business idea that requires comprehensive processing. We need to evaluate its scale, efficiency, return on investment, find out the supply and demand ratio, think through and visualize the services that you are going to sell to customers – in a word, you need to understand how the idea is suitable for implementation. To do this, you will need to draw up a detailed business plan.
Law Firm Staff
The budget was more than enough for all the previous items and you want to immediately meet the expansion of the staff? Then you can hire a secretary, accountant, personal assistant and technical staff, of course. But wait. And why do you need them if you are just standing on the threshold of starting your own business and are not sure about tomorrow? A law firm needs staff with specialized education, at least a minimum of practical experience and the status of a lawyer, if criminal law is planned as the main or one of the specializations. Everything else – as development and needs.
Law Firm Marketing
Marketing is a system of attracting new and retaining existing clients of your professional services business. It is a competent marketing strategy that will allow the law firm to develop quickly and in a positive dynamics. To be honest, it is difficult to attract customers to the professional services business.
It is difficult because it is impossible to objectively evaluate the quality of the service, as well as give it a 100% guarantee. And good marketing, which, by the way, does not even require any major investments, will convince a potential client that he needs your service, that you will solve his problem.
Beginner Marketing Plan
- Legal site selling. Internet space is a promising platform for the development of the legal services business. A personal website is a tool that simultaneously serves both to directly attract customers and as a word of mouth. It is also worth starting blogging for lawyers.
- Traffic generation. An effective website tool makes a steady stream of targeted visitors. Various marketing tools will help attract these visitors: for example, contextual and targeted advertising.
- Mass media. Media publications do not lose their relevance. Having become interested in the material read and seeing personal issues in it, the reader (or rather your potential client already) will definitely try to get in touch with the author. In addition, media publications confirm your competence in the eyes of customers.
- Speeches. Public speeches allow you to clearly demonstrate the expertise and qualifications, earn yourself the name and status of a specialist.