10 Tips to Avoid Mistakes When Starting
Your Own Law Practice

STOP! Before you do anything, I really want you to think about this. If you are starting your own law practice, be aware. Be aware that when starting your own law practice, it will be harder, more expensive, and tougher than you can imagine. It is not for the faint of heart.

Sure, there are great benefits, but there are also some pretty strong negatives. Consider these negatives and after having considered them, if you still want to start your own law practice, I say go for it!

VIDEO: 10 mistakes when starting a law practice

Starting your own law practice
The potential risks

If you are the type of person, who likes to float along through life without putting your blood, sweat and tears into anything then starting your own law practice might not be for you:

• If you are risk averse, starting your own law practice might not be for you. Automatic success is no guarantee. 
• If you have an employee mindset, that is, you expect to be paid directly for every hour you work, starting your own law practice might not be for you. 
• If you are terrified of financial risk, building your own law firm might not be for you. Building your own law firm can be expensive, especially at first. 
• If you are resistant to “putting yourself out there,” that is, marketing to attract clients, then starting your own law practice might not be for you. 
• If you are only prepared to ever work a 20 to 40-hour work week, that is, you are not willing to put in any extra hours when building your law firm, then starting your own law practice might not be for you.
• If you have limited resources, such as no access to funds, limited time, or limited energy, then starting your own law practice might not be for you.

Is starting your own law practice for you?
The questions to ask yourself  

As I said, building your own law firm is probably a lot harder than you think. 

So, if you are reading this and wondering if building your own law firm is for you, I suggest you ask yourself these questions:

Phew, now that we've gotten all those tough questions out of the way, let’s dive into the steps it takes to Starting your Own Law Practice.

Starting your own law practice using these 10 strategies so you don’t make huge, expensive, time-consuming, and disastrous mistakes

Beware of these mistakes when starting your own law practice

1. Make sure you niche, niche, niche, niche when you start your own law practice. Decide on the kind of law you want to practice and the clients you want to represent. Don’t do all things for all people. That doesn’t work, and it doesn’t attract great clients. Plus, you will get spread way too thin. (Marketing).
2. Do marketing that stands out. Don’t look like everyone else. Most lawyers hugely make this mistake and waste a ton of resources (Marketing).
3. When starting your own law practice, create systems and checklists for everything you do. Start with your client journey. From the time someone reaches out to you to do an initial consultation, what does the workflow look like? What are the steps? Document those steps so that you and/or your support staff (once you hire them) can follow the steps so that important steps are not missed each and every time. At my law firm, we have checklists and workflows for everything from opening a file to closing a file and everything in between. We even have a checklist for office parties (Being Efficient).
4. Get the best and most efficient software. When you starting your own law practice, you want to get the most up-to-date cloud-based software. Think about your client’s information and security also. We use Clio because it is cloud-based and encrypted for client security (Being Efficient, Taking Charge of Your Time and Client Service). 
5. Once you decide upon which software to use, make sure the software you do use is utilized properly. When we first started using Clio at my law firm, we missed many of its important features because we did not take enough time to learn the software. Finally, we all know how to utilize the software and how much it can do for us (Being Efficient, Taking Charge of Your Time and Client Service). 
6. Find a website platform. You can get a fast, professional looking and bug-free website using Solo Build It (yes, they are so good, I am an affiliate). Nowadays, your website is the front door to your law practice. If you decide to build your own firm, you need a great website (Marketing). 
7. Get your website built and use a professional website builder person to do it. At Solo Build It. They have excellent folks who can get you a nice-looking and straightforward website for less than $2,000. Well worth the investment. Don’t think you are going to get around to building it yourself. It is not going to happen (Marketing). 
8. When starting your own law practice, one of the best ways to attract client business without spending a dime on advertising is by utilizing Google My Business. Set up your page, optimize it, and keep it optimized. There is a reason why my firm comes top of the list in my area on all organic searches for divorce lawyers. It is well worth the time and effort (Marketing).
9. When starting your own law practice if you invest in paid advertising, do not do that at the expense of organic growth and marketing. This is because if you turn off your ads, your source of new clients/revenue will dry up. Google my Business is powerful for your success.
10. Don’t go it all alone. When starting your own law practice, there will be many challenges and hiccups. Do not expect to know everything or have it all figured out. Rely on mentors, consultants, or programs that will help you. Learn from other people’s mistakes and wisdom so you don’t have to make the same ones.

Summary of starting your own law practice

Starting your own law practice is no small feat. And now you know how to start your own law practice by avoiding the potential risks, asking yourself the right questions before taking the plunge, and following the 10 tips so you can avoid making huge, expensive, painful, embarrassing, time-consuming, and disastrous mistakes.

It is with my honour and gratitude that I live, work, and play on the traditional territory of the Coast Salish peoples–Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.