Barry Seidel, who started his own practice upon graduation from law school in 1982, had a great guest blog post today on How Starting a Solo Practice Has Changed at the Solo Practice University blog. Anyone who is a solo practitioner or is thinking of becoming one needs to read this post.
It was heartening for me to read this post since it aligns perfectly with so much of what we teach our clients at the Rainmaker Institute about how to have a successful solo practice. In fact, I almost felt I could have written this myself! But it wouldn’t come with the same authority as someone who has been in the trenches for more than 30 years as a solo practitioner.
Here are some of the salient points from Barry’s post that kept hitting the nail on the head for me:
In 1982, you could make a living from a general practice but today, no one would recommend this path. Clients want – and will pay for — a specialist, and the Internet makes it even more possible for them to find one.
Back in the day, you could build a good practice by word of mouth and networking, along with a little advertising. Today, lawyers can be found by having a decent website, being on social media and by blogging and use these tools to build and grow a contact list, then market to it. Solos setting sail today need to define their ideal client, use the terms that prospects are using to search on the Internet and do the necessary marketing to make sure those searching online find them first.
When Barry started his practice, there was no FedEx, no faxes, no email, no cell phones and even computers were scarce. Today, many older established attorneys are still behind the times when it comes to technology, so there is a huge advantage to be gained by those who utilize current technologies to prospect for and serve clients.
And Barry’s final – and most compelling – point is this: lawyers have always had student loans to pay off and the job market has not always been great. But the law is, in his words, “a field where entrepreneurial opportunities abound, and has never been a profession where lawyers as employees did particularly well.”
What a great way to look at the law — as a field where entrepreneurial opportunities abound! I couldn’t agree more! The Internet and social media has blown the old legal marketing model to bits, and those with the entrepreneurial mindset and vision to harness the incredible power of these modern marketing tools create their own opportunities for revenue and growth beyond their wildest dreams.
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