A Complete 360? Try 90 Instead

A Complete 360? Try 90 Instead

Is it wise to completely change your business tactics—to do a complete 360—after you've established yourself? In other words, is it wise for a lawyer to suddenly concentrate on a different segment of people as potential clients after already growing his business?

I have a philosophical approach to the business of law: you shouldn't throw out the baby with the bathwater. In other words, stay with the clientele you have now, but you can expand it and take on the new clientele that you want if it's a different kind of clientele. The strategy here is to make sure that the clientele you currently have is satisfied that their needs are being met, and then you can go out and deal with addressing the needs of the new client base.

I'm currently working with a lawyer in northern California who is interested in expanding his base to include a new type of clientele. I told him that he should hire new lawyers to take on current work so that he can market to new clients. Thus, he's hired three new lawyers to finish all of the work that's on his desk right now that he's having trouble finishing because he's got so much to do. Meanwhile, he is going out and marketing to the new clientele based on his expertise, his wisdom, and his longevity, coupled with the fact that the legal community is addressing those particular issues. He's a great rainmaker because of all of that, and I foresee that he will hire a fourth lawyer and a fifth lawyer and so forth so that he can continue to grow his practice if he does it right.

So, if you want new bathwater, keep the baby you already have. There's always room in the bathtub for one or two more.

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