Staying Focused and Reviving Your Business Vision for 2014!

Staying Focused and reviving your Vision when business and profession seems at a standstill. The other day when an attorney told me "I'm only as good as my last case", it rang true for me. His practice area is criminal defense law, an area where in many cases a defendant has "no choice in the matter but to hire an attorney". As what is going on in the wider economy, so it goes if you are working independently doing contract work, running your own book of business and or running case files for other attorneys; if your clients cannot afford your services, you have to run a volume based business with an 80/20 rule model. The pressure and necessity to stay focused is ever increasing and critical. We are entering six years since the commencement of the dive of the financial markets and the beginning of the 2008 recession. The legal business is an unpredictable business on the civil side. If your client cannot afford your services and or if settlements are not reached and trials prolong, sustainability for attorneys and paralegals who work solo outside of a structured large client, corporate "revenue generating" legal business model, life can be filled with financial ups and downs. Sustaining one's practice in this regard therefore takes extreme focus, business savvy and yes luck. The first quarter of the year has been a whirlwind, living in the New York area and the East coast in general, the battle against the snow was futile, business slowed. Heading into the second quarter in a still very challenging economic market, retooling and revamping your legal business model may be a good idea in order to achieve desired results for 2014. Small law firms that don't run numbers and proactively and aggressively obtain cases, may find themselves in deeper waters, wondering why they cannot get ahead. As a paralegal that runs her own book of cases and business in business and commercial law, I know very well that a dependable, diligent and honest attorney team is an integral part of my business success. Diligently assessing cases, case viability, interviewing clients and assessing feasibility of outcomes and potential "collectability of claims" is also very important. Fortunately, with due diligence, a focused and smart marketing effort may yield the volume of business that is needed to weather the storm of the current economic climate. Stay focused, eliminate distractions, believe in yourself, every case is not a good case and every client is not a good client, build networks with people with like minds, professional work ethic, knowledge of the law and accountability. HAPPY HUNTING!