SWOT Team Your Law Practice

Everything needs a check-up every few months: our bodies, our houses, our cars and yes, our law practice. Have you had a practice check-up lately? If not, this is a perfect time to do it.

Start by doing a SWOT analysis for your entire law office. What is a SWOT analysis? A SWOT analysis is an objective assessment of your current situation.

Take the time to identify your law office’s:

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

This will help you focus on your strengths, explore your opportunities, improve your challenges, and have a parachute to protect yourself. You can perform a SWOT analysis for every aspect of your practice, from marketing efforts and sales to finances and operation.

One area many law office lawyers may not SWOT is their team. If you are law office director or law office owner, create a form with the SWOT acronym and ask each person on your team to SWOT themselves. Then, chart a path with your team to help you elevate your success!

Let’s explore each letter of the acronym.

Strengths:

Every individual has strengths. It’s a matter of identifying them and making sure that we build on them. When someone focuses on what they are good at, they feel great about it and develop a passion for that particular strength. As a law office leader, do you know each team member’s strengths? Discover them and ensure that each team member plays the right role within your organization.

Weaknesses:

I prefer to call them challenges. What are your law office’s challenges? And what are your team’s challenges? Is everyone aware of them and are there programs or an action plan to improve them? How long do you tolerate unaddressed challenges from a team member before you take action? What training programs do you have in place to help your team improve their performance? Training is a key factor and an investment that is worth making. Often I hear law office leaders saying, “What if I invest in them and they leave?” My response to that is, “Imagine not training and them staying.” Invest in training; it pays off big!

Opportunities:

There are many untapped opportunities within the law office and the law office team that go unnoticed. The question should be, “How can we increase client satisfaction while increasing everyone’s revenue and profits?”

This is a great team exercise. Schedule a brainstorming session and come up with new opportunities to improve your overall practice. Maybe it is how calls are answered, the reception area, client offerings, client overall experience, intake process, etc. The opportunities are endless! Outline yours and begin maximizing them.

Threats:

You need to be prepared for threats. Threats can be new competition, a declining economy, your health, or team issues. Whatever they are, you must have your parachute ready. What is your back-up plan?

Conduct your SWOT and come up with an improvement plan.

Lisa Haster is an Attorney, 2X Author, Trusted Marketing Advisor, Host to the Podcast "I'll See You at the Bar" and Founder of JDpreneur Marketing. Lisa works with lawyers to show you the NEW way of marketing your law practice by attracting more clients, increasing revenue to your firm and creating notoriety without expensive advertising. To apply for a complimentary “Ultimate B.A.R. Breakthrough Strategy Session" email Lisa at [email protected] or for additional FREE marketing training, visit her Blog at www.JDpreneur.com and subscribe to her podcast "I'll See You at the Bar".