New lawyers are often eager to grow their legal practice as quickly and as much as possible. The motivation makes perfect sense. Growing your legal firm means you’ll have access to more clients, you’ll generate more revenue, and you’ll reap bigger profits. It also means you’ll build your reputation and your prestige faster.

But growing a small law firm presents several challenges. If you want to grow your firm consistently and without sabotaging your reputation or wiping out your resources in the process, you’ll need to plan this process intelligently and deliberately.

Start With a Plan

Before you do anything with your business, start with a plan. How are you going to grow and when are you going to do it?

• Understand your motivations. Start by listing your core motivations. What are you hoping to achieve, specifically? Are you trying to generate a certain level of revenue? Are you more interested in getting access to bigger and more prominent cases?
• Set specific goals. Set some specific goals that you can realistically achieve. For example, do you want to achieve a certain number of monthly visitors to your website? Do you want your law firm to have a specific number of active clients?
• Scale gradually. Growing quickly can be beneficial, but it can also work against you. If you grow too fast, you’ll end up expending far more resources than necessary, and you may end up growing in an inefficient or undesirable direction. Take your time and build your business one phase at a time.

Build Client Reviews and Referrals

One of the best ways to grow a law firm is by cultivating better client reviews and referrals. People are far more likely to trust a friend or family member over a gimmicky billboard or a website advertisement; if you can make sure all your customers walk away happy, they’ll be much more likely to refer you to other people and spread word about what great services you provide. Over time, this can lead to a steady stream of new clients and a better overall reputation.

Here’s how to do it:

• Provide exceptional service. Give all your clients exceptional service. Answer their questions as clearly as possible. Respond to them as quickly as possible. Help them feel comfortable. Get them the best possible results for their case. Most of this goes without saying, but you need to understand that this is going to form the foundation of the rest of your business growth strategy.
• Offer additional resources and connections. If you can, consider offering additional resources and connections to your clients. For example, if you have a victim of a personal injury struggling to make ends meet because they’re not able to work any longer, consider recommending them consumer legal funding. It’s a bonus that can help them stay afloat and give them more confidence in your abilities.
• Follow up. After the case is over, follow up with your clients. Ask them how they’re doing, collect feedback, and be genuine with them. It shows that you care about your clients and leaves a lasting impression. It’s also likely to increase your chances of getting a positive review from them.
• Ask for reviews and referrals. Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews and referrals directly. Many people don’t think about taking this step until it’s mentioned to them. If you want people to leave you more reviews and send referrals your way, reach out and ask.

Focus on Your Website

You can also grow your business by focusing on your website.

• Polish your design and writing. Take the time to fine tune your website design and copywriting. Even minor tweaks, like swapping out a photo or changing the wording of a headline, can make a big difference in how people behave on your site and whether or not they convert.
• Differentiate yourself. Throughout your website and all your marketing materials to come, find a way to differentiate yourself. There are probably many lawyers like you in your chosen area, but what makes you different? What makes you stand out? Put this at the center of all your promotional material and appeal to your audience specifically.
• Utilize marketing and advertising strategies. There are dozens of different marketing and advertising strategies that can help you build more traffic to your website. Search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, paper click ads, and email marketing are just some examples. Invest in quality, and you’ll likely see a positive return on investment (ROI).

Growing a law firm from the ground up can be intimidatingly hard, especially if you have no entrepreneurial experience. However, you likely already have all the tools and knowledge you need to get started with the basics of improving client experiences and cultivating more referrals. With the right techniques, it’s only a matter of time before you start seeing greater revenue generation.