Price Rise: Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Law firms don’t do price rises nearly enough.  Law firm pricing barely keep up with inflation, as it is.  And, with the current rate of inflation, law firm pricing is likely being lapped.  That means that, even if your gross law firm revenue is rising year over year, the purchasing power you accrue from that revenue is declining. 

 

In case you’re having trouble reading between the lines here, it probably makes sense to at least consider a law firm price rise right now, like following Labor Day, or at the start of the new year. 



Now, if you’re like most law firm owners, you probably haven’t raised your rates for quite some time.  And, let’s be clear: the goal is not to make up for lost time, but just to execute a successful price rise, for perhaps the first time ever.  So, what you’re not looking to do is to double your rates, or to try to sell a massive increase into your clientbase.  Aim lower; and, there may still be a significant benefit to your practice.  Even if you execute on a 5% price rise, assuming the same level of work for the next 12 months of your practice (and you’re likely to take on more work, year over year), that would mean a 5% gross revenue increase, without you having done anything more than readjusting your pricing model.  This is perhaps the quickest and easiest of the quick and easy wins you can acquire in a law practice. 

 

Even if you grandfather in your existing clients, and make the change prospective, you’ll still make more money moving forward.  In a wholly transactional practice, where there aren’t a lot of retroactive billings, this is even easier. 

 

And, if you need any inspiration for what you’re about to do, go buy a bottle of milk, or a gallon gas.  There’s not a better time to generate more revenue than right now, especially since your rate increase will look extremely reasonable, by comparison. 

 

. . . 

 

If you need to get a fresh pair of eyes on your pricing model, we can help. 

Through a unique partnership between the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar and Jared Correia’s Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, Maine attorneys have access to experienced law practice management consultants at a special discounted rate. 

To get started, visit Red Cave’s landing page for Maine attorneys, and start running your law practice like a business.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pay It Forward: How to Incentivize Attorneys and Staff Beyond Salary

Image
Many law firm owners are comfortable just paying out a salary .  And, that can work, for sure .  But, if you want to drive revenue within your law firm, it makes sense to look at bonusing attorneys and staff in ways that will incentivize your employees to generate or close more cases for the firm, which will lead to additional revenue. Obviously, this is a bit easier for attorney staff, since lawyers can share fees with each other, which makes it easier to create a direct incentive plan .  But, for staff , you can bonus them without sharing fees, including for converting clients from leads, for example, by doing things like offering a $50 bonus for each lead closed, potentially in a certain time frame .   This is the same method that lead generation services use to get paid by law firms, without sharing fees.     But, the place that law firm owners can really make money here is by using origination fees to bonus their attorney staff .  Law firms ...
Read more

Perfect Timing: New Calendaring Tools Make It Easy to Connect with Leads and Clients

Image
Lawyers tend to be inefficient, and have difficulty engaging both leads and clients.  These hurdles are apparent when it comes to the scheduling process.  Attorneys and staff onboard leads for meetings, and schedule appointments with existing clients, via strings of emails -- and, delayed response s only extend the conversation, and the time frame.  And, while this is detrimental for client s (who demand speed and convenience), it’s even worse for leads, who may never convert, if they’re not onboarded simply, and easily.   The good news is that modern technology tools allow for scheduling without the intervention of humans, including you and your staff.  That means that you can say goodbye to all those extra emails, and wasted time.  Programs like Calendly and Acuity allow clients to book appointments directly onto a law firm or lawyer’s calendar, and include buffers and controls, so users aren’t overwhelmed.  LawTap offers a similar tool focu...
Read more

Close Sesame: Three Things You Can Do To Improve Your System Security Right Know

Image
It’s 202 4 , and everybody is still kind of bad with passwords.  Many passwords, in fact, still contain the word . . . password .  That can’t be good.     However, there are three simple moves that you can make to ensure that your passwords are more impressive, and difficult to hack .  That will, in turn, better secure the systems that you are using passwords to protect – which, at this juncture , are pretty much all your systems.   Step one, is to generate stronger passwords .  You can try passphrases .  You can use a password management tool, that will generate more secure passwords for you, so you don’t have to .  And, you can ensure that you’re not using the same password across multiple programs, which is dangerous, because if one gets hacked – they all get hacked.     Step two, is to lean into password managers .  Not only can those systems generate strong passwords for you, you can also use these tools to mana...
Read more