Many solo and small firm practitioners encounter the same problem: how to generate sufficient revenue to pay the bills. If initial capital is unlimited, this can be easily done through hired services. However, not everyone has that luxury when starting a practice. This article does not provide a quick fix by any means, but it provides a basic framework that, when followed, should help attorneys develop a steady word-of-mouth referral stream within 6 months or less.

Principle 1: Master Your Niche

Too many young attorneys make the mistake of opening a practice and taking any work that comes their way. While this may seem appealing at first, it can quickly dilute your practice area and your skills to a point where you are unable to differentiate yourself from other legal professionals in your area. Developing a niche practice is a much more sustainable business model, especially for new attorneys.

Identify Your Niche: Why are you practicing law? What interests you? What cause can you identify with? While your practice may have one or two general practice areas, choose a niche that you can promote. This niche needs to be something that you can master and in which you can become an authority within 6 months. For example, while it’s doubtful you will become the preeminent personal injury attorney in your area within that timeframe, maybe you can become the local dog bite expert in that period. For intellectual property practices, develop a niche in expedited service mark filings. For criminal law, become the local authority on THC-positive impaired-driving charges. Whatever your practice area, identify a niche that you care about, that is needed, and that you can master in a short period.

Develop Your Niche: Know your niche inside and out. For every common issue you encounter in your niche, you should know exactly where you stand with the code and case law. Get to a point where you know exactly what needs to be done without needing to do research on each element. Instead, you should only need to research when you need to: 1) check your gut; or 2) look into a rare and unique aspect of that type of case. If you haven’t reached that point, dig deeper. This will help you serve your clients and to boost your confidence in your ability to represent them.

Maintain Your Mastery: Keep apprised of updates in the law. Be humble enough to accept advice, correction, and input from other professionals. Expand your mastery into other niches within that practice area. Read and write about your niche on a weekly basis. Always question your methods and practices in light of every client’s fact pattern, and be willing to adjust.

Principle 2: Broadcast Your Niche

Once you have developed a skill through which you are uniquely equipped to help clients, you need to let them know about it through any and all appropriate channels.

Avoid a “Gimme” Attitude: Too often, new business owners in any industry will open a business, panic when clients don’t come knocking right away, and respond by asking everyone they meet for referrals. Not only is this bad taste, but it often backfires as a turn-off to those who could be great referral sources. There is nothing wrong with self-promotion, but only ask for referrals from close friends and family, or in the context of a networking group or community where asking for referrals is encouraged.

Meet with Your Referral Sources: Instead of asking for referrals, a more effective method of finding new referral sources is to: 1) identify professionals in complementary industries, including other attorneys occupying a different niche; 2) ask them about themselves and about their services; 3) ask them about their niche or something that sets them apart, specifically how they are equipped to service your clients; and 4) add value to them in some way. I have found that educational materials about your niche can be particularly effective in adding value to other professionals and in promoting your expertise. In this approach, you can build a relationship with other professionals without even asking for referrals. Through this relationship, referrals flow naturally as needs arise.

Beware of Exclusive Alliances: While there is nothing wrong with referral relationships, it’s a good idea to be wary of other professionals seeking exclusive referral arrangements. For example, estate planning attorneys are constantly approached by investment and insurance salespeople promising a steady stream of clients referred in exchange for an exclusive referral arrangement. Ethics concerns aside, aligning exclusively with someone in a field whose representatives outnumber you 30-to-1 is rarely a sound business model, even if aligning with a top producer. Instead, find ways to identify unique strengths of different providers to be able to refer your clients to the best service provider for their need.

Get Out of the Office: You need to constantly make new relationships outside of the office or your day-to-day routine. You can do this on your own or through community and networking organizations. Some effective facilitators include music and arts organizations, chambers of commerce, BNI, Toastmasters, Rotary Club, Lions Club, and Corporate Alliance. It is critical that you be involved with these organizations because you want to, and not because you must. Know the culture of each organization and adopt it through your involvement. Do not actively promote your services during community involvement. Instead, participate and make a point of learning as much as you can about others. In doing so, you will naturally have others want to learn about you. You will find that, without treating each person as someone at which you can throw a sales pitch, referrals will start to come in because people like you and trust you.

Publish Content: Whether through print media, radio waves, handouts, lectures, or the Internet, develop a library of content through which prospective clients can find out more about your niche before committing to a meeting. However and wherever you publish content, its creation costs nothing more than your time. You can pay for others to adapt, optimize, or advertise the content if you want, but as a minimum, create it and publish it in some way. As you do so, your writing skills will improve and you will be forced to think about your niche in ever-increasing contexts.

Summary

While not a guaranteed way to generate revenue within a week or two, this method will help solo and small firm attorneys cultivate meaningful relationships leading to a steady word-of-mouth referral stream within 6 months or less. The trick is to identify, develop, and master a niche that you care about, is needed, and that is narrow enough to master within 6 months. Then, get the word out through meaningful contacts with other professionals and members of the community.