I have spoken here at Construction Law Musings on several occasions about how I market my solo practice. However, its been a while and the last time I posted on this topic, I was still at my old firm and did not have over six months of solo practice under my belt. I felt I should share a few more thoughts on how I market my practice as a solo practitioner. In short, not much differently than I did while at a firm.
When I first started out in solo practice I was certain that I would not have the time or the energy to keep up with my Associated General Contractors of Virginia and the other personal, face to face marketing that I found so valuable. I thought I’d be able to keep up with the Web 2.0 (or is it some other number now?) efforts. This worried me at first as I was busy setting up billing and time keeping procedures, business licenses, and all of the other things that I did not have to worry with while working for someone else.
Happily, I need not have worried. I’ve realized that the face to face marketing that I enjoy is still not only possible, but necessary. My target audience of friends and clients (namely construction contractors, subcontractors and other construction professionals) has not changed. I still greatly enjoy socializing with my clients and other friends in the construction world and find that they all prefer a handshake and a cup of coffee to a tweet or e-mail when it comes to getting to know a potential service provider (in my case a lawyer).
I still find that a personal referral goes much farther than a cold call. We lawyers have to market and in many ways “sell” ourselves, but we can’t lose track of the fact that our clients put their businesses in our hands and therefore need the assurance of knowing who they are hiring. This is especially true with contractors as I have stated in the past.
While I firmly believe in the power of the web (I am writing this at my blog after all) to provide information and build relationships (particularly where a potential client is outside of my geographic area), I still believe that it is the personal touch that best serves both me and my clients.
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