In their own words
Law firm owners describe what working with How To Manage A Small Law Firm has meant for their families, their time, their money, and their practices. 26 experiences, sorted by the concern you might be weighing right now.
Concern 013 member experiences
Discussing it with a spouse or partner
I flew myself and my family across the country to go to Discovery Day, or whatever it was called back then, and my biggest objection was I was worried about what my husband would say, and so he was fortunately with me in the day long session, and we found out how much it cost, and he just looked at me and he's like, do you think we can do this? And of course, he meant me because it was my firm and he wasn't working in it. I'm like, Yeah, I think we can.
Unfortunately, it took a while for my husband to be excited about the law firm. Like I can't say that he was in 2018. You know when we were making $50,000 a year. And he was really subsidizing a lot of it. I don't think there was a ton of excitement, but he really grew into it, and he's you know 100% there. He's been 100% there for a long Time and he was down for it. We were making the right choices, and he saw what we were bringing to the community.
It's not her thing, and I support her decision to go do the things that she enjoys, and she supports my decision to go. And that's been the biggest thing that she said about my involvement with HDM was that you seem to enjoy it more. You seem to like running the office and having the challenge of trying to grow and bring in more money and do things better and figure out better ways of addressing things as opposed to just dreading it every day.
Concern 023 member experiences
Finding the time
My biggest objection is, how do I find time for yet another thing I'm so busy with my cases, employees running the firm, how do I find time to do something that doesn't relate to my caseload, I felt like I didn't have that time because there were fires, non stop fires, arbitrary deadlines and things that were happening that were frankly, I believed were outside of my control. […] That I would tell past Ilya that you prioritize finding the time to be a better business owner, to learn how to be a business owner, because if you are an effective business owner, You will have more time, less stress and higher revenue.
Now, I travel for work. I travel for vacation. If I have a kid that's sick, if I have something at a kid's school today, I had to leave in the middle of the day to go take my dog to the vet. It's not a big whoop, right? Because my firm keeps running and it keeps making money even when I'm not here. So that's that for me, is the biggest lifestyle change that I've experienced, aside from the increase in income, aside from the nicer things, aside from being able to afford, actually afford vacations. Now it the biggest thing for me is that it runs and makes money when I'm not here, and I don't have to worry about it because I've built the firm so that it runs without me.
I remember being in Crash Course and this is too much. This a lot of information. Who's gonna do all this? Where do I find the time to do all even half of this? So I just kind of paced myself and started mapping out what was a priority for me then, and then seeing where I needed to make my focus that quarter or that year to get to the next step of what I had prioritized.
Concern 033 member experiences
Considering the cost
Just so much money. I like my monthly expenses. I never had spent that on one particular thing, and so I was very concerned that I would be able to pay for it every month. And then my objection also was I wasn't taking home enough money to live myself. And so I was like, how am I going to be able to pay HTM and live. It took probably three or four months, maybe five. And then I figured out that whenever it came to the HTM Bill time, I had money in my account and it was never a problem.
Honestly, when we joined HTM, the firm was going through a struggle. We weren't profitable at all. We had lost money two years in a row. I didn't know where the revenue was going to come from. So I didn't really know how to commit to an expense like that, and what I was going to get back for it. We have we've been part of HTM for three years, we've renewed twice early just to get ahead of it because of how much it's worth. It's incredible. So the idea that I would tell my past self, do it in a heartbeat, do it twice if you can there is no hesitation. There was just it was totally worth the time and the money.
Oh, so my objection was money, because I was not making a lot by that time. I was just starting, and my income was my revenue was very low, so I was very concerned about not being able to honor my commitment, so that's what my biggest and but after I joined my I've learned that it's more about value, and the value that being in how to manage it to me is five times what I pay right now, or more. So I think it's more as an investment in growing my business and getting to the goal that I want. That is like growing that business and getting everything that I want. So I think it's very valuable being here. I figured that it was a good decision joining, how to manage six months after I joined, when I saw the results that I was getting in my business, and when I saw that in six months, I have grown twice. I have grown like 2x more than I have grown in all of my years of my career. So I figured that it was a great investment.
Concern 043 member experiences
Running a smaller firm
When I started with HTM, I had a remote assistant working with me part time, and now I have a team of five. So we've grown considerably, and part of that is just understanding like I can't do it all, and being empowered to understand my numbers enough to know when I could hire and what is best to outsource or replace myself doing, and what to keep myself doing. So we've grown in terms of definitely our revenue and our ability to hire and onboard some staff. Yeah.
So I didn't have any employees. I had no one working full time, and it was a really scary thing to do that. And I think I hired my first full time position was an attorney that I hired, I think, towards the end of 2016 but I wish I'd started sooner.
The community has done a lot. I've had, I didn't have a virtual assistant before, but I've realized that's a good way to have some help and bring down costs. But it was saying that you just don't know, because when you're a lawyer, especially when you're a solo attorney or in a small firm, you're just so busy. You're with your own people, you're with your own, your friends, and then you're not, getting the knowledge that it could be to have a full bubble. It could reach out to and say, hey, guys from all over the country, how do you do this? And let's hear in all those different opinions to assist you.
Concern 052 member experiences
Running a larger firm
The second reason is I really I learned so much at every lqm, and you don't know what the topic is before you come but I've never been disappointed, and the workshops have been fantastic. Up until this point, I've run my firm based on thoughts and feelings, and we got to a level where it just doesn't work. With 45 employees, you can't run a firm like that. So again, I'm learning what I don't know, and I'm learning how to get people that know what I don't know to do that thing.
So this is really funny. When I first joined HTM, I did a list of all my financial goals, and I reviewed that list a few months ago, and every single one of my financial goals I have surpassed everything. Everything on the list, I was like, I want to make this much per month. I want to drive this kind of car. I want to have a house that I own, and everything has come true. So my definition of success has been met from my past self, but now I'm redefining what that's going to look for in the future. That's a great question. So when I did my tax projection, I was like, wow, I'd never thought I would make as much as I did last year. And so now, so we had 5 million last year. We're doing seven and a half million this year, and I want to get to 35 million.
Concern 063 member experiences
Choosing how to grow
You know do I really need a $5 million law firm? Or am I gonna be okay with a $2 million law firm that gives me 40% TOB. Like you get to choose, right? And the beauty of it is, you get to choose what's enough for you, and $5 million law firm versus $2 million law firm do I want to manage 100 people, or do I want to manage 20 people? Right? You, just gotta be in a place you're intentional. What is that gonna look for me?
That's another shift that happened because as I've learned more about how to run a business, I've realized that I can actually engineer this law firm to work without me, where I don't have to show up for work every week, and maybe I can even get it to the point where I don't have to show up for work every month, and maybe even further than that. And as you grow your revenue level, the options for how to accomplish that only open further. You have a lot more options at a million and a half than you have at 500,000. So if I'm able to get things to the point where I'm only doing things that I enjoy, and I'm not doing any things I don't enjoy, I don't need to retire anytime soon.
I'm not going to make a million with the same level of work that it took to make 100,000. Okay, but I don't have to do it all by myself. If you utilize certain tools and strategies, and if you're tracking things properly, like you can get there, and still have a good life, and still find time for your family, and still find time for your church, your nonprofit, whatever matters to you, and that's the difference. It's just being here has shown me that it's possible without sacrificing everything else that I believe in. That's. Right. It's more work for sure, but I don't have to be the one doing it by myself.
Concern 073 member experiences
Having a different kind of practice
There are personal injury firms, there are estate planning firms, there are criminal defense firms, and there are firms like mine that practice solely helping benefits, helping veterans get the benefits out of the VA system, which is extremely unique, extremely small, esoteric type of area, but it's also one that HTM has been able to help me become a multi million dollar law firm in that small, esoteric area of practice where your unique practice may not be all that unique. […] Your practice may be unique to you, but the principles and the foundational things that we do in HTM, that we learn HTM, are of general applicability.
That's a good question, because I tend to think that HTM has a heavier focus towards civil lawyers. I think a lot of what they teach probably does work better I do criminal. And I think there are some things that don't work for civil or that do work for civil, that do not work for criminal. But HTM is also very good about tailoring what we need to do, and it kind of makes sense, because civil is going to be just, there's a much broader field of civil practice as opposed to criminal, but they're definitely let you know hey, we can, work with you on this. We can tailor to your criminal like, how a criminal law firm is going to run itself.
I think my practice is kind of the smaller group in HTM. I practice business for corporate and international. So there are not many people, but whatever you do, it's all the same. So there are business practices, like business practices that you have to implement, and processes and kind of way of thinking about the business, regardless of your legal experience and your practice, it's all the same.
Concern 083 member experiences
Finding support for your practice area
I'm a personal injury attorney, and a lot of the HTM members were the flat retainer kind of criminal defense, family law attorneys, bankruptcy estate planning, somewhat do I fit? Because we're contingency, we're a little different. And even throughout the first few months, the pipeline report, the AR are a little different for a personal injury attorney. But once you learn about the seven business areas, and you know that other PI attorneys are going through the same training and coaching that you're going through, it's been fabulous. This LQMs in San Diego, the exercise we just did, I was sitting with two other PI attorneys that did a PI workshop with RJon. It's just incredibly rewarding.
That's a good question, because I tend to think that HTM has a heavier focus towards civil lawyers. I think a lot of what they teach probably does work better I do criminal. And I think there are some things that don't work for civil or that do work for civil, that do not work for criminal. But HTM is also very good about tailoring what we need to do, and it kind of makes sense, because civil is going to be just, there's a much broader field of civil practice as opposed to criminal, but they're definitely let you know hey, we can, work with you on this. We can tailor to your criminal like, how a criminal law firm is going to run itself.
There are personal injury firms, there are estate planning firms, there are criminal defense firms, and there are firms like mine that practice solely helping benefits, helping veterans get the benefits out of the VA system, which is extremely unique, extremely small, esoteric type of area, but it's also one that HTM has been able to help me become a multi million dollar law firm in that small, esoteric area of practice where your unique practice may not be all that unique.
Concern 093 member experiences
Considering possible results
Oh my god. So our first year, we increased revenue by 70% and increased profit by like 500% our first year, our second year, we increased revenue again over the prior year, over that 70% year, we increased revenue by 40 something percent, and then our third year, we increased revenue again by 30 something percent, and each year we've leveled up. So it's been incredible. Two big things, systems that HTM tells us to put in place. We played all in. I have a dedicated partner who also played all in, a business partner. And then the second is the mindset lessons that HTM teaches a lot of what was holding us back was my mindset, and so getting over those things, which I'm still working on, helped tremendously.
The commitment. There was a financial commitment. There was a time commitment. There was a lot of things that I didn't know, So I was just fearful of what kind of 18 month contract am I signing for this amount of money? But it turned out to be the best thing I've ever done for my not only professional business development, but also personal development and growth. […] And that was my fear of this is great, because I heard a lot of people say great things about it and how it's been rewarding for them, but it may not be for me, and it turned out to be very, rewarding for me.
I desperately needed to begin tracking my leads. One thing we've done is set up a lead tracker HTM, provided this amazing spreadsheet. I have been taking the spreadsheet and tinkered with it and made it my own, because there were some things that were on it that just didn't flow with the way we run our own law my law firm, so I sort of made it my own. But that lead tracker has done amazing wonders, and being able to track where our leads are coming from, whether they come from Google. I had one from chat GPT, where they're coming from. It also kind of lets me know who we need to follow up with, what clients need follow up. It also lets me know how my sales girls are doing, and it's sort of an interesting way to help me manage, literally, the law firm.
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