How to Start a Law Firm | Great Entreprenuership Book and One Page Business Plan

A couple of days ago I was out getting my hair cut and stopped by the bookstore to see what they had to offer. I'm a voracious reader and love to get my hands on a new book whenever I can. Because I am now constantly in the entrepreneurial mood, I thought I'd check out the business section, peruse the starting a business section, and see if I could find anything worth reading. I'm glad I did, because I ended up stumbling upon a great book, not only for information and advice on starting a law firm, but encouragement that it can be done (something we all need to hear from time to time).

The title of the book is "Young Guns," and it is authored by Robert Tuchman. However, contrary to the title, it is not geared specifically toward those of a youthful age. The subtitle is "The Fearless Entrepreneur's Guide to Chasing Your Dreams and Breaking Out on Your Own." As the title suggests, it is a book, told in the first person, about starting your own business, what to expect, and how to deal with some of the fear and anxiety that comes with starting and building your own business (in this case a law firm). It also has a great idea for a one page law firm business plan starter that I'll share with you in a bit (including my own results).

The premise of the book is this: don't let fear paralyze you. When you begin to become anxious with fear, not because of something that is presenting itself that you don't know how to deal with, but because of the unknown, or the thought of failure, ask yourself, Why not me? This quote from the book explains it perfectly.

You must get into the habit of asking yourself: Why not me? You must answer this question daily, and probably hourly, and you must answer it in the right way if you hope to use the ideas in this book to your advantage. You must use those answers to overcome every fear of failure and every ridicule, every doubt, every adversity that enters your mind. Your own answer to this question will be the single most important factor in your personal campaign - your mission - to start a great business from scratch.

Throughout this book there is a lot of motivational advice, as well as practical advice, regarding things such as: the time and effort you must expect to put in at least the first couple of years (a lot); the amount of money you need to get started (not a lot); and the amount of dedication you must have to succeed (100%). Basically the idea is to jump in, give it your best shot, and see what happens. If you don't succeed, who cares? Pick yourself up off the ground and get back in the game doing something else.

Besides the motivation and helpful tips (based on his own experience starting a business), he offers one great practical piece of information I've already used to help me focus on what I really want to accomplish by starting my solo law firm - a one page business plan. This plan calls for a few simple elements that can be completed in a short amount of time (I did it in less than 30 minutes, although I've been thinking about what I want to do and need to do for some time now). The elements of his basic business plan are this:

1. Your best idea so far for a name for your law firm.

2. Your best description of the group of people your business will be helping.

3. Your vision of what the company will look like five years from now. For example, how many employees will it have, how much money will it be pulling in, what your personal salary will be.

4. Your main goal to accomplish in the first year of your business. It should be specific, measurable, attainable but a stretch, realistic, and tied to a specific date.

5. The three most important immediate goals you see for your business to achieve in the next thirty, sixty, and ninety days that will support the big goal you just identified.

That's it. Pretty easy right? But it makes identify several key important concepts that can then be worked into your more detailed business plan: long term goals of the company; target market; and immediate to-dos that need to be accomplished to continue moving forward. To give you an idea, here is what I came up with for my one page law firm business plan (and remember, this plan can and should change over time as your goals become more well defined and through trial and error your business begins to take shape).

Name of law firm - Law Office of _______________________ (I don't want to tell you my name until I'm open - I'm superstitious!)

People my law firm will help - (1) Landowners whose property is taken by eminent domain; (2) individuals charged with crimes (DUI primary; drugs secondary); (3) people who want peace of mind of attorney available 24/7.

Law firm vision in five years - three attorneys, two support staff, one office assistant; grossing $1,000,000 a year; personal salary of $100,000; employees that are excited to come to work; so much demand for work from our firm that we have to turn people away and can be selective about the cases we take.

Main goals to accomplish in 1st year - gross average of $10,000/month; reach the first page of google rankings for Seattle DUI lawyer and Washington eminent domain lawyer; 2 jury trials. Date to be accomplished by - June 1, 2010.

Three most immediate goals for next 30, 60, and 90 days -
30 days - read and learn as much as possible about Washington state DUI laws and procedures and eminent domain law; determine office software structure; price and decide on insurance/legal research; and get blogs indexed in Google (this means my blogs are "on" google and can be found by people searching on google).

60 days - Website set-up; office forms complete; business cards/stationary decided on; sign up for services; locate office space; be able to take credit card payments.

90 days - market practice to other attorneys for referral and "table scrap" work; get signed up as a court appointed Seattle criminal defense lawyer; finalize inter-office procedures; sign up for bar/practice associations and local chamber of commerces and find out how to get in front of members with speaking engagements.

Why not me? (this isn't on the business plan, but about halfway through the book I thought it might help to write this down so I could come back to it in the future) I am a very good attorney, experienced in my practice areas, and people need my help. And, the people I help face significant obstacles against people/organizations with a vast amount of resources, experience, and knowledge. I am here to level the playing field, to help the underdog, so at the very least my clients are treated fairly throughout the eminent domain and criminal justice process.

Feel free to use this outline to help you, whether you are just starting your journey to open a law firm or if you are well down the path. And write it down. Not only does it help solidify what you are doing and push you toward your goal, it in a way makes it more real, more attainable. If you can write it and think it you can accomplish it, right?

So good luck moving forward, and remember to ask "Why not me?" when you start to feel a little discouraged or anxious.

And remember, if you want, leave a comment, ask a question, or tell a little of your own story. There is nothing more helpful to us all than to hear what others are doing to start their own law firm.