Making the decision to expand your firm is exciting, but knowing what to add is not an easy decision. Here are a few ways to approach that choice:

Create Lifetime Clients

One way to expand is to see what aligns most closely with your current offerings. This can be done by thinking about your current client base. When a client comes to you, is there an additional area of law that they might need help with?

For example, if you help a client through a divorce, they might also need help creating a new estate plan. If you are able to offer that service, you now likely have a lifetime client that will turn to you first when they have a legal matter.

Capitalize on Confusion

Another way that your current clients can help is with their confusion. For example, the line between personal injury and workers’ compensation claims can be confusing for someone that does not know about the law. If someone was hurt at work, they still might end up in your personal injury office because they were looking for an “injury lawyer”.

In that situation, without putting in any marketing effort you are already generating potential workers compensation clients. It is also possible that someone seeking a workers’ compensation attorney actually needs a personal injury attorney. By noticing what people are most often confused about, you can create a synergy between your practice areas that keeps all of that business in house as opposed to referring it out.

Focus On The Basics

Expanding based on your clients’ needs is one way that you can find new areas of law. Another is to expand based on the skills that your firm has. If your firm excels in litigation, you will want to look for areas of law that put you in the court room.

If your firm puts an emphasis on your relationship with the client, you want to make sure that you expand into an area where you are meeting with clients face to face.

Another skill that you might have is your ability to handle a high volume of process-based cases. Helping someone apply for Social Security benefits and helping someone incorporate a business might not have much overlap. However, the way that you would go about handling these would require the creation of a process that allows you to handle a high volume of cases.

Take a minute to think about what really makes your firm work and look for an area of law that would allow you to capitalize on those skills.

Do Your Own Research and Networking

Expanding your business can be a big decision on your own. Luckily, there are many resources available to you. It is likely that there are groups and associates for each of the areas of law that you are looking to expand into. One example is NOSSCR which is the National Organization Of Social Security Claimant Representatives. There are over 3,000 members that have experience in the field of Social Security. Consider joining an or connecting with someone in an organization to discuss what it is like handling this area of law.

You might not find one that big for the area that you are looking for, but a quick Google search and you can begin building a network of people that have experience in that field.

Consider Lead Generation

When expanding into a new area of law, building a case load can be difficult because you have not had a chance to establish your reputation and get referrals from past clients. One way to jumpstart your caseload is through lead generation. Lead generation can help provide a consistent stream of potential clients each month.

If you are expanding your firm and want to learn more about how lead generation can help you build your client base, give us a call now.