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In today’s episode, I’ll be discussing the 7 struggles that keep women law firm owners from successfully growing their law firm businesses. I was able to pinpoint these 7 based on conversations I’ve had over the last decade with 100s of you.
What if you could hang out with successful women lawyers, ask them about growing their firms, managing resources like time, team and systems, mastering money issues, and more; then take an insight or two to help you build a wealth-generating law firm? That’s what we do each week on the Wealthy Woman Lawyer podcast. Hosted by Davina Frederick, founder and CEO of Wealthy Woman Lawyer –– every episode is an in-depth look at how to think like a CEO, attract clients who you love to serve (and will pay you on time), and create a profitable, sustainable firm you love. The goal is to give you the information you need to scale your law firm business from 6 to 7 figures in gross annual revenue so you can fully fund, and still have time to enjoy, the lifestyle of your dreams.
Davina Frederick: Hi, everyone.
Its Divina Frederick, welcome
back to wealthy woman lawyer, I
am so glad that you are here.
And today I want to talk about
the seven struggles of women law
firm owners. This topic came
about because I've had so many
conversations with you a lot of
you lately, and obviously I've
had conversations with hundreds
of women law firm owners over
the last 10 years as I've been
coaching women law firm owners
to scale their businesses to and
through a million dollars. And
lately, so many people are
worried about inflation and the
recession. And they're really
stuck in negative thinking
around their law firm business.
So I wanted to help you get
clear on exactly what it is that
you may be struggling with.
Because I think sometimes
there's not a lot of clarity, we
can't really dial into what it
is that we're doing wrong. When
we can't grow our law firm
business, it feels like we're
stuck. And so I want to share
with you some of the things that
I want you to to raise your hand
to yourself silently make a
check list or whatever. If there
is something on this list that
jumps out at you. And you go oh,
yes, that I do that, or why have
that fear. So I really want to
help you get clarity on what
you're struggling with. Because
the things that I'm going to
share with you are things that
we help women law firm owners
with in the wealthy woman,
lawyer League, and in our one on
one coaching programs. So let's
jump in and get started. Ski
struggle. Number one is that
many law firm owners that I with
whom I have conversations, do
not have a basic understanding
of where they're starting. And
based on where they're starting,
how long it will take them to
get where they want to go. So
let's say you're, you know, I
had a conversation yesterday
with someone, and I asked her
what her gross annual revenue
was, and she could not tell me,
she had to check with her
bookkeeper. And that right there
told me that she does not know
her numbers, she doesn't know
where she's starting in her
business. So if you don't know
where you're starting, if you're
trying to drive from, you know,
Orlando, Florida, where I am to
Denver, Colorado, and you don't
know where you're starting, you
don't know you're starting in
Orlando, or Sanford or Lake
Mary, or maybe Miami or wherever
it is right? Then you can
accurately calculate a roadmap
to where you want to go. It's
the same thing if you're making
$100,000 in your business, but
you're not really sure. What
stage of growth you're in, am I
in stage one, stage two? Or
stage three? And what are the
factors of each of those stages,
then you're not gonna be able to
clearly identify where you are
and the kind of help you should
ask for right. So that is the
first thing that I see a lot of
women law firm owners struggle
with, they don't even know what
they don't know, they don't know
where they're starting. They
don't have a realistic
expectation for how long it
takes to get to $3 million based
on their starting point. And
they don't know exactly what's
needed to get there. So number
two of the growth struggles that
I hear women law firm owners
tell me about is fear of math.
So this goes a lot in hand in
hand with what I said, number
one fear math. But beyond fear
math, it's so you know, we're
all we all know that it's the
joke among lawyers is that I
hate math, which is why I became
a lawyer, right? But if you
decided to open your own law
firm business, you've heard me
say this over and over again,
you've got to get over that fear
of math, you have to understand
business math, right. And you
can't let embarrassment about
what you don't know stop you
from seeking out that knowledge
and understanding and trying to
understand what you need to
know, such as the key
performance indicators, you need
to be tracking in your business,
how to track them. And how to
read your financial reports what
that information means what it
means. We were talking about
gross annual revenue, what it
means we're talking about
profit, what it means we're
talking about cash flow, right?
So many women, law firm owners,
they could tell you their
expenses, but they're focused on
that negative. They're focused
on that expense, and they can't
tell you how they make their
money. Where does this money
come from? Oh, referrals? Well,
what referrals who, right? So
there's a lot of tracking and
fear of math and fear of metrics
and fear of understanding how to
how to actually measure your
growth, right? Number three is
still trying to do all the
things this is just so common
among IOTV women, and even those
women who are say that they're
delegating often really are not
delegating as much as they
should be delegating because
they don't know the proper way
to delegate. So they struggle
with delegating. They'll say I
have a team But I still don't
delegate as much as I should, I
still think it's faster and
easier to do it myself. And it's
because they don't have a system
for delegating, that helps them
delegate in a way that is easy
for them, right? Number four of
the seven growth strategies is
not prioritizing your time. So
you think you have a time
management problem. And you do
not have a time management
problem, what you have is a
priorities problem, you still
have too much on your plate,
because you haven't gotten your
priorities straight, you don't
know what's the most important
thing you should be doing in
your business, you think it's
servicing the clients. But that
may not be the case, there's if
you are a business owner, there
are other things that are
equally important, or maybe even
more important than that, right?
So you think you have a time
management issue, but really,
you don't understand how to
prioritize your time. Number
five is not willing to invest
financially energetically
emotionally in your business to
the degree that is required.
Right. So what
what business owners don't
understand what law firm owners
don't understand until maybe
they've been in business for a
while, is that you have to take
risks, you have to take
calculated risks, if you want to
get the returns, any investment
you make, let's say you invest
in the stock market, the average
50 year, rate of return in the
stock market is 10%. Right?
There's a certain amount of
risk, the more you risk, the
more opportunity for higher
returns. And people understand
that, but they don't understand
that in business, it's the same
thing, your business is an
investment in your future, you
must take risk for that to get
good returns for you, you can't
play small, when you play small,
you're not taking any risks,
you're not going to get the kind
of wealth that you say you
desire. So you have to take
risks, that risks could involve
investing in hiring a coach to
help you the people who grow
fastest and most successfully
have invested in coach. And the
reason they do that is because
they, they don't need to make
the same mistakes and don't want
to make the same mistakes that
other people who've already been
there and done that have made.
So they hire people to help them
create a shortcut. So again,
going back to kind of talking
about getting from point A to
point B, if if from point A to
point B, your plan is to get in
the car and drive from Orlando
to Denver, and I say, you know,
Hey, you don't need to do that,
you can get an airplane ticket,
and you can be there a lot
faster. And you might not know
that you might think oh, I have
to drive because I've been told
to to, you know, I have a
roadmap, right? So but really
what the purpose of a coach is
to help you with those
shortcuts, secrets, those things
that you don't know, if you're
going to drive, that coach might
tell you, you know, if you take
this route, then this route this
route, you're gonna cut two
hours off of your trip. That's
what you're that's what coaching
will do for you is to help you
realize that they're the you
don't have to make the same
mistakes other people may and
also to get out of your own head
because we are our own worst
enemy to our progress self our
self doubt is the thing that is
holding us back above anything
else and doing more harm and and
a good coach will help you get
out of your own head and and
stop doubting yourself enough
that you can actually step out
and take some action instead of
being paralyzed by analysis
paralysis, okay? I'm not I'm not
making the you're making the
wrong decisions. Number six is
making the wrong decisions.
Because you don't have the right
plan. So you're making the wrong
decisions, you're on the road,
you're on a path, but you don't
have the right roadmap. You
don't have the right plan, you
don't know what it takes to get
from A to B. And instead of
asking, instead of hiring
someone to help you figure that
out, you're sitting there trying
to figure out on your own and
then you're caught in this web
of confusion. Because you don't
you're afraid to make a mistake,
right? So you get a plan. That
is the right plan for you. You
need to work with somebody to
help you figure that out if that
is the thing that is keeping you
stuck, okay. And also learning
to make your plan the right plan
once you have made decisions
learning how to make decisions
quickly and move forward and
make your plan the right plan no
matter what is a is a real key
factor in successful
entrepreneurship and building a
business. And number seven last
on my list for today. Bro
struggles of women law firm
owners is you're still taking
advice from well meaning loved
ones who are broke to you're
taking advice from people who
are where you are now, not where
you want to go. So you're
surrounding yourself with those
people who are broke and they're
they're telling you don't do
this do this because they are
placing their fears in your head
and you are blocking out access
to people who are where you want
to go or are further ahead in
the journey than where you are,
because you, you are scared of
reaching out and forming those
relationships and making those
investments. And so you listen
to people who are not where you
want to go, but who may want to
go where you want to go, but
they're not there yet, and they
don't know what they're doing.
And they're well, they're
usually well meaning loved ones
are usually family, close
friends that have that are
scared for you. And so, you
know, they, they tell you to be
cautious at times when you
probably should be taking a risk
and, and making something
happen, right. So those are the
seven growth struggles of women,
law firm owners, these are the
kinds of things that I hear all
the time from women, law firm
owners who are struggling to
grow their law firm business,
and really holding back and
playing small for year after
year after year after year,
instead of stepping forward,
stepping out on faith, taking
risks, investing in their
business, surrounding themselves
with people who are, are where
they want to go, or are ahead of
them in the journey. And just
not taking not not investing in
learning how to fill that
knowledge gap, right. So I hope
that this you have found this
helpful, I hope that you have
had a chance to sit and think
about this and write down kind
of where you think you may be
stuck. If you want to reach out
to me and have a conversation
about whether or not you think
wealthy woman lawyer is somebody
who can help you, we can have a
call, you can hop on a call with
me if you go to wealthy woman
lawyer.com to private coaching,
you can hit the Apply button, or
you can go to wealthy woman
lawyer.ly. And you can see what
it's like to enroll in our group
coaching program. But schedule
an appointment with me, reach
out to me check out our
resources, we have a lot of
resources available, no matter
where you are in your growth
journey. If you're at stage one,
stage two or stage three, on
your way to a million dollars.
We have a lot of resources for
you. So I encourage you to reach
out. If this is your struggle.
If 2022 has not lived up to your
expectations, and you want 2023
to be better, then you can do
it. I want to tell you that you
can do it. You have to get out
of your own way though. All
right. So this has been another
episode of the wealthy woman
lawyer podcast. I appreciate you
being here. I hope you've
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