Ten Ways to Improve Your Solo Practice This Year

Running a legal practice on your own is no easy task, whether you’ve just started your own firm or have been doing it for years.

You are responsible for all billing, accounting, marketing, and administration tasks that come with running a law firm, in addition to meeting your clients’ legal needs.

Prioritizing changes or additions to improve your business can be difficult with day-to-day pressures. However, there are some small investments you can make right now that will have a big impact on the future of your law firm—and your legal career.

Here are ten practical ways to invest in the future of your law firm.

1 Reading a Book

As a solo attorney, you may not be able to go off the grid for a week-long reading binge like Bill Gates, but reading books is an underappreciated way to get inspiration and new ideas to help improve your law firm.

We recommend beginning with a single book, such as the #1 best-seller The Client-Centered Law Firm. Set a daily reading goal for yourself (or week). Even if you only read a few pages per day, you’ll have finished a few books before you know it, and you never know what ideas you’ll come across.

2 Test a New App

Even if you’re a busy lawyer, you probably spend more time on your phone than you realize. Consumers in Africa spend 5 hours per day on mobile devices, and British researchers discovered that a group of UK university students used their smartphones roughly twice as much as they thought.

What does this mean for your solo practice and legal career’s success? Instead of wasting time on social media, consider investing some of that time in business apps. There’s Google Keep or Apple Notes for organizing your notes, Wakilis for managing your practice on the go, and a slew of other apps that can meet the unique needs of your business model and practice area.

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