How Independent Attorneys Grow Their Law Firm

Being an independent attorney has a lot of perks. You get to keep the full amount of your fees. You get to be your own boss. Plus, your success is only limited by how big you dare to dream. With law firm revenue being expected in to increase 2.2% annually over the next five years, now is a great time to grow your independent firm.

That said, going solo can be a big jump. Especially when you’ve had the security of working in an established law firm. When you become an independent attorney, you’re responsible for the business side as well as the client side of things. That includes finance, marketing, admin, and everything in between.

To help you navigate the waters of becoming an independent attorney, here are our three top tips to help you grow your law firm:

Tip one: get help early

While you’re busy meeting clients and attending court, you’ll need people to take care of all the administrative duties that you don’t have time for. These are essential to running your independent law firm but are tasks that you don’t have to do yourself. Tasks like answering phone calls, sorting mail, sending invoices. These can all eat into your valuable time.

Without taking on some help, there are limits to how many clients you can take on. Most solo attorneys can only handle 6-8 clients per month when working more than 40 hours per week.

If you’re on a strict budget, you can look into a Virtual Assistant who can pick up tasks remotely. Many Virtual Assistants can also help with tasks like marketing and social media. This means you can use your valuable time doing what you do the best, safe in the knowledge that you’re attracting new clients.

Of course, a virtual assistant can’t sort your mail. However, using a PO box or virtual office services means that your mail is always safely stored for you until you’re ready to sort it. It also means that if you’re normally based from home, you can still have a professional address with a virtual office at a high-end co-working space, like Office Evolution Hackensack, for your website and for clients to contact you.

Tip two: location matters

You need your offices to give a good impression. Your clients want to hire a successful lawyer, and offices in a prime business location help you present the right image. However, investing in nice offices too early can be a budgeting mistake. Besides the lease costs, there’s also office furniture, supplies, utility, internet, and cleaning costs to factor in.

A great solution is to use a co-working space. This way, you can keep your overhead costs low with a flat monthly rate. Even better, everything you need is provided for you. At Office Evolution Hackensack, there’s even a complimentary beverage bar so that you don’t have to factor in the cost of refreshments.

A co-working space in a prestigious business location provides the credibility you need along with convenient parking and proximity to all amenities. You can also rent meeting rooms so that you can meet your clients in a professional, impressive space without it costing a fortune.

As you grow, most co-working spaces can also provide affordable private office space, complete with modern office furniture and all the other conveniences that you’d expect without the headaches of setting up and running an office. At Office Evolution Hackensack, we have various options to support your growing firm.

Tip three: expand your network

Marketing is great, but getting referrals is one of the most effective ways to gain new clients. Reach out to your existing contacts and let them know about your solo law firm. Other attorneys are a great resource, but so are realtors, business owners, and accountants. Make sure that everyone you know is aware that you’re open for business as an independent attorney with your own law firm.

This is another area where co-working spaces can be a real asset. Because there are various independent professionals working together in one space, it’s the perfect opportunity for networking, expanding the number of people who both know what you do as well as like and trust you—leading to valuable referrals.

Growing your independent law firm isn’t easy, but it’s incredibly rewarding both financially and from a personal perspective. If you’re an independent attorney in the New Jersey area, why not arrange a tour of our coworking space to see how we can help you grow your firm?

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At Office Evolution Hackensack, we provide virtual office, coworking, and private office solutions at our shared office center. We offer meeting rooms, offices, hot desking in a shared workspace coworking lounge, a shared reception, a business address, and virtual receptionist services. We have many options and price points, and all terms are flexible. Plus, you become part of a community of like-minded professionals.

Whether you live in Teaneck, Bergenfield, Maywood, Teterboro, Hasbrouck Heights, Moonachie, Little Ferry, Rochelle Park, Dumont, Bogota, River Edge, New Milford, Hackensack, Englewood, Paramus, Tenafly, Fort Lee, and other communities nearby in Bergen and Essex counties, choosing Office Evolution Hackensack in New Jersey will help you be more professional, productive, and profitable.