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Is Fear Slowing Down Growth in Your Legal Practice? Business growth goals are a funny thing. We know we should set goals for our law firm or legal practice. You've probably heard about studies that show if we set a specific goal and write it down we're much more likely to achieve it. But when we think about setting a specific goal, that’s often when the nagging thoughts creep in.
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MAKE THE DECISION TO LET GO OF YOUR FEAR OF FAILURE, AND AIM HIGH
income to conveyancing and £150,000 fee income to private client” rather than just “add £200,000 overall”). 2. Your target date for achieving this goal. 3. Any help or support (internal or external) that would increase the likelihood of achieving this goal by the target date. 4. The first step you’ll take towards this goal and the deadline for that step.
With this in mind, take action now by writing down your specific growth goal for the next 6-12 months. Use specific numbers, for example “increase fee income from £300,000 to £350,000”.
Even a long journey starts with just a single step. But for that first step to be in the right direction, you must first decide on the destination you want to reach. So your first step must actually be to set the goal (destination) you want to achieve.
"What if I set a specific goal and don't achieve it?" "Isn't it better just to try to generally 'get more clients' or 'increase profits' and see what happens?" These nagging thoughts are based on fear. Fear is not a topic we like to talk about very often. But the fear of failing (by not achieving a goal we’ve set) is a major reason why many of us don't set goals in the first place. At the end of one of my recent growth workshops for lawyers, one of the attendees said how much they'd appreciated a video I’d shared about why we should embrace failure, not fear it. The video featured Michael Jordan (the superstar basketball player) discussing how his many, many 'failures' enabled him to succeed. (If you search “Michael Jordan Fear of Failure” on YouTube you’ll be able to watch it for yourself).
Now cross it out and write down what that goal would be if you truly embraced the idea of failure rather than fearing it. (Maybe now your goal is to increase to £500,000.) By writing down your real goal, you've just taken the first step towards achieving it. You can make your growth goal more specific – and make it easier to plan out the steps to achieving it – by adding the following criteria to the goal you’ve just written down: 1. Which practice areas or work types does this goal apply to, and what’s your specific goal in each area (for example, “add £50,000 fee
If you want to discover the true growth potential of your firm (so you can set significant yet achievable goals) then my online workshop ‘Profitable Practice Growth Secrets For Small Law Firms’ will help you do just that. At this workshop you'll analyse the true growth potential for your firm or practice, set your goals for growth in the next 12 months, and create a specific plan to get you there. Plus you'll develop skills and strategies to attract and convert your ideal clients, and to maximise the profitability of the clients you already have, without working more hours. Find out more at www.thebusinessinstructor.com/workshop
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Michelle Peters (The Business Instructor) is a former
HOW TO STOP FEAR SLOWING YOU DOWN
practising solicitor and the creator of the Profitable
To stop the fear of failure holding you back, here’s what I recommend: make the decision to let go of your fear of failure, and aim high. Set yourself the growth goal you'd really love to achieve in the next 12 months, rather than the goal you think you can easily achieve.
profits without working more hours. In addition to working
Practice Programme for sole practitioners and small firm owners who want more clients and to increase their privately with lawyer clients, Michelle frequently runs webinars and workshops to help lawyers identify what is slowing them down from having more of their ideal clients and higher profits, and what to do about it. Michelle is also the author of the No.1 Best-Selling Book
Remember, if you aim for the stars, you might just hit the moon (not such a failure in my book). Whereas if you only aim for the moon, you might never get off the ground.
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‘The Client Magnet Strategy for Lawyers’ which is available on Amazon, or you can download the first four chapters FREE at: www.thebusinessinstructor.com/book
