By Stephen Fairley , CEO Rainmaker Institute

At The Rainmaker Institute ®, we have personally trained over 18,000 lawyers on how to manage and market their law firms more efficiently and effectively . We have probably helped more attorneys break the 7-figure barrier in revenues than anyone else . I ’ m not sharing this to impress you , but to impress upon you that there are specific strategies and compelling keys they are using to break the 7-figure barrier .

1 . Run your law firm like a business .

You studied the law as a noble profession , but to break the seven figure barrier , you must run your law firm like a business . As a solo practitioner or the owner of a small law firm , your primary focus -- after gaining competency as an attorney -- is to understand the key principles of business development , operations , finances , management , and law firm marketing and to apply them every single day . There are ten major parts every successful law firm owner must focus on — in this order :

Marketing — the purpose of marketing is to generate leads . There are a wide variety of ways to get more leads . Almost all of them work , but not all of them work all the time or for all practice areas or for every attorney . We have attorneys who do really well with SEO , Google PPC , pay per lead , direct mail , giving webinars or live seminars , and TV and radio ads . We also have clients that have failed at all of those methods . There is no silver bullet or magic strategy that works every time for everyone . Experiment , test and find 3-5 different ways that work for you and use those methods over and over again . Not every attorney will be a top Rainmaker , but everyone in the firm can do something to grow and market his or her practice .

Sales — the purpose of sales is to close the deal or sign up the client . Once you start generating leads you must become better at getting prospects to sign up for your services . Far too many attorneys have never learned how to overcome pricing objections and close the deal . Perhaps they feel uncomfortable or believe it ’ s unprofessional to ask people to “ sign on the dotted line ” before they leave the office , but if you want to build a million dollar law firm you need to be trained on how to sell your services .

Services — once you have become proficient at generating leads and closing the deal , now you must perform the actual services for the client . When you fix your marketing , then you have a sales problem . When you fix your sales problem , then you have a services problem . See how this works ?

Staff — when you become successful at marketing and sales , eventually you will also need more staff to do the work . You cannot hire just any staff , they must be the right staff for you . What kind of culture do you want your firm to have ? Who will best fit that culture ? Develop a list of qualities and characteristics you need your team members to have . I really like the book Top Grading by Brad Smart for best practices in hiring .

Systems — policies , procedures and systems allow you to scale to the next level . Without written systems you cannot scale your business . You will hit a breaking point . It may be at half a million or more , but eventually you will experience a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering because you didn ’ t invest in creating written policies , procedures , and systems for your law firm . You need written systems for every major part of your business ; from marketing and intake , to money and metrics , it all must be logically written down so even a brand new team member who knows nothing about your business can follow it .

Space — after you start hiring the right staff because you have more clients to serve , eventually you will need more office space to house them . Far too many attorneys get caught up in renting a much bigger or nicer space than they can afford in an attempt to “ keep up with the Joneses ” or give off the appearance of being more successful than they are . The pleasure you may gain from having a fancy office is nothing compared with the worry of making those big monthly payments . Don ’ t strap yourself with too many financial obligations and be

26 CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY JOURNAL Summer 2016 National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys