Starting a solo practice is a difficult and rewarding experience.
Keeping your lights on for a year is a monumental achievement. The only thing harder is duplicating and expanding on your success in year two.
Here are five ways to keep your solo practice running strong.
The financial aspects of running a law firm can be maddening. Most law schools provide no preparation for running a business.
As a default, many lawyers think the best way to run a business is to scrimp, scrounge, and save every possible penny to reduce overhead.
But there’s a big difference between spending smart and saving money just to save money.
After a year of learning the financial aspects of running a small business, solo attorneys should (deservedly) pat themselves on the back for a job well done.
In a perfect world, every new solo attorney will have been paying estimated taxes from the outset. Don’t worry, I didn’t know what that meant either until I did my taxes for the first time.
Then I got some outside help. Here’s why you should do the same thing.
One of the toughest parts of running a solo practice is that you are own worst critic.
Chances are, you are your only critic. Living in that bubble can de difficult and downright deceptive when analyzing the financial success of your solo practice.
When you find yourself wondering if your solo practice is successful, here are three things to remember.
For solo attorneys, the holidays can be a tough time of year. The phone stops ringing, cases grind to a halt, and you can complete all of your work by noon.
If you find yourself with lots of down time, here are some ways to invest your newfound free time.
One of toughest challenges of being a solo attorney is that you are also running a business—including maintaining and upgrading your technology.
If you are thinking about upgrading your technology, here are some tips to make the process easier.
See our Law Technology Buyer's Guide for our top technology recommendations.
Harvest is one of the online tools in my arsenal that I constantly rave about. I use Harvest in my business for estimates and invoices on a regular basis, and it helps keep my business systematic! This is an amazing all-in-one tool that can help you create professional invoices, keep track of your time, and detailed estimates in no time. The add-ons and bonus features that come with the package make it a top choice of users worldwide. With attractive layout, unlimited clients and wide accessibility, Harvest is a great solution for business management.
Running your own solo practice can be awesome, but it is not for everyone. My firm is relatively new, but plenty of solo attorneys have closed up shop since I opened mine.
If you are thinking about starting your own firm, here are five things to consider before going solo.
A few years ago, I wrote a post I titled Start a Solo Law Practice for Under $3,000. Boy, do I regret that title. Starting a law firm is a relatively inexpensive endeavor, but picking an arbitrary number and trying to stick to it is wrong-headed. I’ve met plenty of lawyers who have done just that, and many of them have struggled to keep their practices afloat — or failed — as a result.
Don’t let that happen to you.
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6comments
“How did you learn Quickbooks[?]“
by Sam Glover on July 6, 2012 in Legal Technology, Practice Management
In the comments, Drew asked how to go about learning to use QuickBooks.
I learned to keep my own books with the help of a very patient accountant and copies of Bookkeeping for Dummies and Accounting for Dummies. Unless you already know what you are doing, the world of debits, credits, and double-entry accounting is a bit complicated. And although QuickBooks makes it a lot easier, you probably should get an accountant’s help to set up your books and get you started.