The Christmas holidays are approaching fast.... so what do you have planned?
If you are like most lawyers or firm owners I know, you won’t be going anywhere without your smartphone, tablet or your laptop.
That’s because you’ll probably be working.
If you could change that would you? Well, you can—if you learn to delegate the things that others can do better and focus on your core competencies.
Robin, who runs a city centre 20 partner law firm said; "For many years, I allowed my business to control me and dictate my life. I was afraid to take holidays longer than a week because I was certain my business would implode without my physical presence. If things were good, I was flying high, but if we lost a client or didn’t land the “next big deal,” I was miserable to be around.
I am not going to lie to you and tell you that I’m now cured or that I never allow my business to affect my feelings. But the lows aren’t nearly as bad as they used to be and typically don’t last nearly as long. It’s taken several years and a lot of time, energy and hard work to get to where we are now.
We absolutely, positively could have never achieved these goals without two things:
(a) a strong, supportive team and
(b) written systems we have put into place to help us “run” the business."
A growing number of similar sized law firms and lawyers are recognising that to build a financially successful business, you must focus on your main core competencies and either delegate or outsource the rest of your business functions.
You didn’t go to university to get a law degree to learn how to process payroll or to handle employee issues or to deal with difficult clients or run a small business. You went to uni to learn how to practice law and become a technically skilled lawyer.
A similar parallel can be drawn to marketing—with some notable exceptions. Most of the time- and labour-intensive parts of marketing can be outsourced, for example: designing and developing a new website, writing content for your blog, running your social media marketing campaigns, improving your Google rankings with search engine optimisation (SEO), or sending out a monthly e-newsletter.
There are some things you cannot outsource or delegate, like going to lunch with a referral source to solidify the relationship or giving a presentation to a group of potential clients. But for every one marketing activity you cannot outsource, there are three or four that you can — giving you the time to focus on what’s really important: growing your law firm or your legal business.
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