This post is written for folks starting a firm on a tight budget. That’s more folks. If you have a trust fund, a massive existing client base, or like to light money on fire – please stop reading this post.
We live in the age of Uber and Amazon delivering goods within one hour. The web has transformed life.
Think getting a piece of this pie is essential to your new firm? As of right now it’s not.
Web advertising can be very expensive. It has to be to either get in front of the audience you want to be in front of or for market saturation. There are lawyers out there in whatever area who can and will outspend you. Money talks.
My advice is to build your web presence over time. It is very important. I’ve done a lot online. I rely on the internet for roughly 15% of my new business. Perhaps I’m doing it wrong but I don’t think so – I’ll get into this in another post.
The first thing you should do is learn WordPress. Head over to WordPress.com, buy your domain, some hosting, and pick out a theme. The total cost for a professional theme, a year of hosting, and domain registration will run you approximately $250.
From there, get to work. WordPress is fairly easy to use but be prepared for a lot of trial and error. Every six months or so I spend a full day tweaking my sites. Sometimes the improvements are small and other times they are substantial.
In addition to this site, I have created www.mckeenlawfirm.com and more recently www.ctrealestatelawfirm.com. Both sites were done by me without technical or graphical assistance.
The first rule of starting a practice is to: Keep. Overhead. Low.
Don’t be a voice in the crowd. Don’t dump thousands of dollars into online marketing and a website. Focus on networking, building client base, doing good work, and generating revenue. As you grow, re-invest in infrastructure including an expanded web presence.