Latest / Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love / 7 Growth Struggles of Women Law Firm Owners (Based on Conversations with 100s)

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7 Growth Struggles of Women Law Firm Owners (Based on Conversations with 100s) · Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love

• 0:02
  Davina Frederick: Hi, everyone. Its Divina Frederick, welcome
• 0:04
  back to wealthy woman lawyer, I am so glad that you are here.
• 0:08
  And today I want to talk about the seven struggles of women law
• 0:11
  firm owners. This topic came about because I've had so many
• 0:16
  conversations with you a lot of you lately, and obviously I've
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  had conversations with hundreds of women law firm owners over
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  the last 10 years as I've been coaching women law firm owners
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  to scale their businesses to and through a million dollars. And
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  lately, so many people are worried about inflation and the
• 0:35
  recession. And they're really stuck in negative thinking
• 0:38
  around their law firm business. So I wanted to help you get
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  clear on exactly what it is that you may be struggling with.
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  Because I think sometimes there's not a lot of clarity, we
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  can't really dial into what it is that we're doing wrong. When
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  we can't grow our law firm business, it feels like we're
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  stuck. And so I want to share with you some of the things that
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  I want you to to raise your hand to yourself silently make a
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  check list or whatever. If there is something on this list that
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  jumps out at you. And you go oh, yes, that I do that, or why have
• 1:15
  that fear. So I really want to help you get clarity on what
• 1:19
  you're struggling with. Because the things that I'm going to
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  share with you are things that we help women law firm owners
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  with in the wealthy woman, lawyer League, and in our one on
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  one coaching programs. So let's jump in and get started. Ski
• 1:36
  struggle. Number one is that many law firm owners that I with
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  whom I have conversations, do not have a basic understanding
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  of where they're starting. And based on where they're starting,
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  how long it will take them to get where they want to go. So
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  let's say you're, you know, I had a conversation yesterday
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  with someone, and I asked her what her gross annual revenue
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  was, and she could not tell me, she had to check with her
• 2:08
  bookkeeper. And that right there told me that she does not know
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  her numbers, she doesn't know where she's starting in her
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  business. So if you don't know where you're starting, if you're
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  trying to drive from, you know, Orlando, Florida, where I am to
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  Denver, Colorado, and you don't know where you're starting, you
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  don't know you're starting in Orlando, or Sanford or Lake
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  Mary, or maybe Miami or wherever it is right? Then you can
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  accurately calculate a roadmap to where you want to go. It's
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  the same thing if you're making $100,000 in your business, but
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  you're not really sure. What stage of growth you're in, am I
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  in stage one, stage two? Or stage three? And what are the
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  factors of each of those stages, then you're not gonna be able to
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  clearly identify where you are and the kind of help you should
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  ask for right. So that is the first thing that I see a lot of
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  women law firm owners struggle with, they don't even know what
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  they don't know, they don't know where they're starting. They
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  don't have a realistic expectation for how long it
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  takes to get to $3 million based on their starting point. And
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  they don't know exactly what's needed to get there. So number
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  two of the growth struggles that I hear women law firm owners
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  tell me about is fear of math. So this goes a lot in hand in
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  hand with what I said, number one fear math. But beyond fear
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  math, it's so you know, we're all we all know that it's the
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  joke among lawyers is that I hate math, which is why I became
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  a lawyer, right? But if you decided to open your own law
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  firm business, you've heard me say this over and over again,
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  you've got to get over that fear of math, you have to understand
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  business math, right. And you can't let embarrassment about
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  what you don't know stop you from seeking out that knowledge
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  and understanding and trying to understand what you need to
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  know, such as the key performance indicators, you need
• 3:57
  to be tracking in your business, how to track them. And how to
• 4:00
  read your financial reports what that information means what it
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  means. We were talking about gross annual revenue, what it
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  means we're talking about profit, what it means we're
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  talking about cash flow, right? So many women, law firm owners,
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  they could tell you their expenses, but they're focused on
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  that negative. They're focused on that expense, and they can't
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  tell you how they make their money. Where does this money
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  come from? Oh, referrals? Well, what referrals who, right? So
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  there's a lot of tracking and fear of math and fear of metrics
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  and fear of understanding how to how to actually measure your
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  growth, right? Number three is still trying to do all the
• 4:41
  things this is just so common among IOTV women, and even those
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  women who are say that they're delegating often really are not
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  delegating as much as they should be delegating because
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  they don't know the proper way to delegate. So they struggle
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  with delegating. They'll say I have a team But I still don't
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  delegate as much as I should, I still think it's faster and
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  easier to do it myself. And it's because they don't have a system
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  for delegating, that helps them delegate in a way that is easy
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  for them, right? Number four of the seven growth strategies is
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  not prioritizing your time. So you think you have a time
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  management problem. And you do not have a time management
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  problem, what you have is a priorities problem, you still
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  have too much on your plate, because you haven't gotten your
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  priorities straight, you don't know what's the most important
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  thing you should be doing in your business, you think it's
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  servicing the clients. But that may not be the case, there's if
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  you are a business owner, there are other things that are
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  equally important, or maybe even more important than that, right?
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  So you think you have a time management issue, but really,
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  you don't understand how to prioritize your time. Number
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  five is not willing to invest financially energetically
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  emotionally in your business to the degree that is required.
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  Right. So what
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  what business owners don't understand what law firm owners
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  don't understand until maybe they've been in business for a
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  while, is that you have to take risks, you have to take
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  calculated risks, if you want to get the returns, any investment
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  you make, let's say you invest in the stock market, the average
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  50 year, rate of return in the stock market is 10%. Right?
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  There's a certain amount of risk, the more you risk, the
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  more opportunity for higher returns. And people understand
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  that, but they don't understand that in business, it's the same
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  thing, your business is an investment in your future, you
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  must take risk for that to get good returns for you, you can't
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  play small, when you play small, you're not taking any risks,
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  you're not going to get the kind of wealth that you say you
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  desire. So you have to take risks, that risks could involve
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  investing in hiring a coach to help you the people who grow
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  fastest and most successfully have invested in coach. And the
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  reason they do that is because they, they don't need to make
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  the same mistakes and don't want to make the same mistakes that
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  other people who've already been there and done that have made.
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  So they hire people to help them create a shortcut. So again,
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  going back to kind of talking about getting from point A to
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  point B, if if from point A to point B, your plan is to get in
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  the car and drive from Orlando to Denver, and I say, you know,
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  Hey, you don't need to do that, you can get an airplane ticket,
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  and you can be there a lot faster. And you might not know
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  that you might think oh, I have to drive because I've been told
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  to to, you know, I have a roadmap, right? So but really
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  what the purpose of a coach is to help you with those
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  shortcuts, secrets, those things that you don't know, if you're
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  going to drive, that coach might tell you, you know, if you take
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  this route, then this route this route, you're gonna cut two
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  hours off of your trip. That's what you're that's what coaching
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  will do for you is to help you realize that they're the you
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  don't have to make the same mistakes other people may and
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  also to get out of your own head because we are our own worst
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  enemy to our progress self our self doubt is the thing that is
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  holding us back above anything else and doing more harm and and
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  a good coach will help you get out of your own head and and
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  stop doubting yourself enough that you can actually step out
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  and take some action instead of being paralyzed by analysis
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  paralysis, okay? I'm not I'm not making the you're making the
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  wrong decisions. Number six is making the wrong decisions.
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  Because you don't have the right plan. So you're making the wrong
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  decisions, you're on the road, you're on a path, but you don't
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  have the right roadmap. You don't have the right plan, you
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  don't know what it takes to get from A to B. And instead of
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  asking, instead of hiring someone to help you figure that
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  out, you're sitting there trying to figure out on your own and
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  then you're caught in this web of confusion. Because you don't
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  you're afraid to make a mistake, right? So you get a plan. That
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  is the right plan for you. You need to work with somebody to
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  help you figure that out if that is the thing that is keeping you
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  stuck, okay. And also learning to make your plan the right plan
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  once you have made decisions learning how to make decisions
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  quickly and move forward and make your plan the right plan no
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  matter what is a is a real key factor in successful
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  entrepreneurship and building a business. And number seven last
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  on my list for today. Bro struggles of women law firm
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  owners is you're still taking advice from well meaning loved
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  ones who are broke to you're taking advice from people who
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  are where you are now, not where you want to go. So you're
• 9:41
  surrounding yourself with those people who are broke and they're
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  they're telling you don't do this do this because they are
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  placing their fears in your head and you are blocking out access
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  to people who are where you want to go or are further ahead in
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  the journey than where you are, because you, you are scared of
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  reaching out and forming those relationships and making those
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  investments. And so you listen to people who are not where you
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  want to go, but who may want to go where you want to go, but
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  they're not there yet, and they don't know what they're doing.
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  And they're well, they're usually well meaning loved ones
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  are usually family, close friends that have that are
• 10:24
  scared for you. And so, you know, they, they tell you to be
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  cautious at times when you probably should be taking a risk
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  and, and making something happen, right. So those are the
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  seven growth struggles of women, law firm owners, these are the
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  kinds of things that I hear all the time from women, law firm
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  owners who are struggling to grow their law firm business,
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  and really holding back and playing small for year after
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  year after year after year, instead of stepping forward,
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  stepping out on faith, taking risks, investing in their
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  business, surrounding themselves with people who are, are where
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  they want to go, or are ahead of them in the journey. And just
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  not taking not not investing in learning how to fill that
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  knowledge gap, right. So I hope that this you have found this
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  helpful, I hope that you have had a chance to sit and think
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  about this and write down kind of where you think you may be
• 11:25
  stuck. If you want to reach out to me and have a conversation
• 11:28
  about whether or not you think wealthy woman lawyer is somebody
• 11:33
  who can help you, we can have a call, you can hop on a call with
• 11:36
  me if you go to wealthy woman lawyer.com to private coaching,
• 11:41
  you can hit the Apply button, or you can go to wealthy woman
• 11:43
  lawyer.ly. And you can see what it's like to enroll in our group
• 11:47
  coaching program. But schedule an appointment with me, reach
• 11:51
  out to me check out our resources, we have a lot of
• 11:54
  resources available, no matter where you are in your growth
• 11:57
  journey. If you're at stage one, stage two or stage three, on
• 12:00
  your way to a million dollars. We have a lot of resources for
• 12:04
  you. So I encourage you to reach out. If this is your struggle.
• 12:08
  If 2022 has not lived up to your expectations, and you want 2023
• 12:13
  to be better, then you can do it. I want to tell you that you
• 12:19
  can do it. You have to get out of your own way though. All
• 12:23
  right. So this has been another episode of the wealthy woman
• 12:26
  lawyer podcast. I appreciate you being here. I hope you've
• 12:28
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• 12:38
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• 12:49
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• 12:51
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