When it’s time to retire, you have three options:
The option you choose (or that chooses you) is determined by the answer to one question.
Did you create sellable equity, or did you create an annoying job that nobody wants because you didn’t set up your practice the right way?
Most attorneys never think twice about building value and making their firm sellable until it’s too late.
Like any business, a primary goal of your practice should be to create equity.You could be bringing in cash today, but that doesn’t mean someone will want to buy your firm from you tomorrow.
If you want to be able to sell your practice as part of your exit strategy, your practice needs to be a sellable product.
It can’t just be you. Your practice needs to be a product outside of yourself.
Why would any person with half a brain ever want to buy your practice if it can’t exist without you?
Click here to get access to my free Law Practice Growth Guide that shows you how to grow your law firm predictably and create freedom for yourself.
Most attorneys don’t view their firms as a business, and they don’t think about their firm as a business independent of themselves. But - AND THIS IS IMPORTANT - even if you do almost everything yourself, you can still separate yourself from the business.
Think about the most basic things your firm must do in order to exist. You have to attract prospects, convert prospects into clients, and service those clients.
If you want to hand over your firm to someone else, how would these things get done?
You need to have systems in place. Systems for attracting, converting and servicing clients.
If you show up to work, figure everything out on the fly, show up the next day, and figure it out all over again, you have no systems in place.
More importantly, the value of your firm is squat.
Lawyers who constantly make things up as they go end up completely exhausted. Physically, mentally, and emotionally spent.
It’s one of the biggest causes of lawyer burnout.
It’s actually a pretty simple formula. You know you’re creating value if:
A lot of attorneys think having systems and processes stifles creativity and crimps their freedom.
Actually, it does the opposite.
When you have systems in place, you know what’s important and what’s not important. It’s easy to prioritize and delegate. Nothing creates freedom and enables creativity like knowing exactly what you have to do each day to be successful.
If you have to reinvent the wheel every day, it’s impossible to succeed. And you’ll never create sellable equity for your firm.
Each time you write a contract or a brief, would you rather work from a form file or create a new contract from scratch?
It’s no different for business. Set your firm up the right way to build equity and value.