Paying Yourself Sooner Than Later As A Solo Lawyer Should Be A Discipline, Not A Luxury

Paying yourself as soon as you can as a sole practitioner is a discipline, not a luxury.

I am a fan of solo lawyers drawing a regular small salary of sorts at least 3-6 months into the establishment of a practice.

It does not have to be large and can start small and escalate weekly.

I’ll be honest I was petrified in the early days of my practice to pay myself a small let alone decent salary.

What happens if things slow down?

What if something goes wrong?

What if the work dries up?

What if someone doesn’t pay?

I need money to reinvest in the business.

These were mostly issues to do with confidence and systems on my part that I needed to address.

It took time and I did but I wish I had a sounding board then to help me with what were essentially micro issues that I needed nuts and bolts help with.

But if a year in, or indeed years in, you are not paying yourself a decent salary out of your solo firm well then something’s off.

We do a lot of work with our sole practitioner clients, especially in our initial session, to make sure the financial pipeline is flowing and if not, where the blockages are.

A lot of solos just accept an ongoing low salary when really, with the better monitoring and review of a few key indicators, they could be paying themselves more within a matter of months.

I find a lot of them are not willing to step up to deal with uncomfortable issues (I was the same) and would rather accept the status quo instead.

It doesn’t have to be like that.

Unfortunately, we all become blind to things like bloated and unnecessary overheads, amongst a whole heap of other things that impact the financial viability of a solo law firm.

Paying yourself regularly should be non-negotiable.

Reach out to me Paul Ippolito here now for a free initial consultation to work out how you can start paying yourself more.

Paul Ippolito, Principal of Ippolito Advisory, is a coach for lawyers helping sole practitioners set up, launch, and grow their practices. He is available for media enquiries, speaking and consulting. You can contact him here.