Law Firm Growth Secrets: A Lesson From The Burj Khalifa
The growth of your law firm depends on the density of your foundations.
Burj Khalifa is 2,716.5 feet tall... More than 160 stories.
Truly a monster of a tower.
I haven’t seen it in person yet, but I’ve studied it...
And one of the most fascinating parts about it to me is the elaborate amount of time, design and effort required to set its foundations.
It’s always been an interesting question to me...
“How does this thing (and other super skyscrapers) stand?”
Especially considering they live through natural disasters, constant traffic of people and commerce, and apparently wind speeds a the top that can reach 100mph on an average day.
And I learned that it’s the deep and dense foundations, and everything happening below the surface, that makes it possible.
Over 45,000 m3 (58,900 cu yd) of concrete, weighing more than 110,000 tonnes were used to construct the concrete and steel foundation, which features 192 piles buried more than 50 m (164 ft) deep.
That blows me away…
My dad is an architect / developer so it’s no surprise that I’ve always had a fascination with our ability to engineer and construct remarkable buildings.
But it’s only in recent years that I started to see the similarities between building physical structures and building law firms - and other businesses.
You see...
The “density” of your core foundations - marketing, sales, systems, teams, and technology - determine the level of growth you achieve.
Growth in terms of...
- How much money you make (and keep)…
- How many clients you help…
- How many people you hire…
- The size of your cases…
Everything.
Just like a skyscraper…
Your foundations must be solid to jumpstart your growth, and then the bigger your business grows, the stronger those foundations must be to support it effectively.
Because as a mentor once taught me...
Problems create opportunities and seizing them creates new problems... For every level there's a different devil.
The Burj Khalifa didn’t always have to contend with 100mph winds...
Only when it reached a certain height.
The same effect happens inside your practice.
The more growth you achieve, the more complexity and variables there are to account for... many things that don’t seem relevant in earlier stages and are easily overlooked.
Ex. More clients to service, more team members to manage, additional services to offer, more marketing dollars and systems to deploy... just to name a few.
(Not to mention all the new problems that inevitably come around as you advance toward your goals.)
After working with hundreds of business owners, and from personal experience, I can tell you most people learn this the hard way.
They only focus on providing great services and ignore the core foundations they need for stability and scale, until everything implodes and they end up in the business graveyard, victims of their blindspots.
This is one big reason why as owner and leader of a law firm you have to think in terms of being a "full stack" CEO and not just a lawyer.
Embrace the fact that you are an “Entrepreneur who practices law”.
Don’t only think about how to provide great service - that’s the easy part.
Also think in terms of... "How do we build the Burj Khalifa?"
How do we set the right foundations, attract more consumers, convert more consultations into clients, serve those client better, implement better systems, make more profitable decisions, strengthen our positioning…
So we can ultimately grow fast, predictably and sustainably... and become a respected beacon for our clients that endures in the industry.
Your approach determines what you create - both now and into the future.
So let me ask you two simple questions...
What are you building? And what's your plan to do it?
Be great,
Marc