How I built a multi 6 figure business in 2 years
I didn’t have aspirations when I was young to become a small business lawyer. I wanted to become a criminal defence lawyer and save the world one client at a time.
Fast forward to now, I’ve practiced in various areas of law, including criminal defence, and I have spent time teaching law, too. Long story short, criminal defence law wasn’t what I thought it would be (criminal law isn’t like what the American tv shows lead us to believe). Litigation and dispute resolution is intense beyond my wildest expectations.
With the life I have created for myself now, I can enrich more lives, every day, by supporting and empowering small business owners at every point in their business journey. The life of a small business lawyer has a richness to it that I hadn’t imagined and every day I feel grateful for where I am and what I am doing.
How did I get here?
After falling pregnant with my son in 2013, I saw things for the first time, through a completely different lens. This lens celebrated the fact that I was a woman in legal practice, and I was about to become a parent. I had been a practicing business disputes lawyer for more than 12 years at this point, and I was exhausted. The culture was tough, the expectations were ruthless, and the fulfilment minimal. Long story short, this is the point in time when I stepped away from the legal profession ready to take on my new role as a parent, vowing never to return to legal practice.
I took up a teaching position at ANU shortly after my son was born, and I was introduced to a life that respected the fact that I was a person as much as a lawyer; respected that I was a mum, and my supervisor (who was also a dear friend) supported me to learn about the balance between the workplace and personal life.
I spent 5 years lecturing law at ANU, and I loved it. I was able to take a step back and reflect on my purpose, my ‘Why’, what I wanted to achieve in my career and how I wanted to contribute to society more broadly. I relished the opportunity to reflect in this way, and to understand that balance was possible and being a mum and having a successful career was achievable.
Our family grew when my daughter arrived not quite 2 years later. It wasn’t until she was almost ready to start school that I considered a move back to legal practice. I was clear on my ‘Why’ at this point and that was to enrich lives. That has always been the essence behind my career, although that became lost along the way in traditional legal practice. I knew I never wanted to go back to that way of life, to that culture, that toxic environment, and I wasn’t prepared to consider a move back to traditional practice.
I decided in early 2019 that I would create a business model that worked for my family and I, whilst being able to serve clients in a way that I knew would add value.
I took inspired action and launched a new business which was a law practice designed differently - my business model was virtual, which meant I could work from home and raise my family, maintain the balance I had come to value so much from my time at ANU, and I was able to be accessible to clients all over the country.
Fast forward to now, almost 3 years on, and my business has experienced more rapid growth than I imagined was possible. The gratitude and fulfilment are consistently high, and every day fills my heart with joy.
Here are the key factors that I attribute to my business growth.
1. Being clear on my ‘Why’.
This is undoubtedly one of the main reasons why my business took off as quickly as it did – and saved me years of time, money and energy getting this part right.
2. Working with a Business Coach.
I knew early on what I needed to work with a business coach. There were things I just didn’t know, and I knew I needed to address them quickly. I had never contemplated marketing in business before; digital marketing was new to me and I didn’t know how to start working on a marketing strategy; spreadsheets and numbers were not something I enjoyed; having a website designed was new to me; how did I engage a copywriter; what was a client avatar, and the list went on.
I knew my skill set. I knew what I had to offer was valuable. And I knew that I didn’t, and couldn’t, do everything alone. Being able to recognise my value and my skills, and knowing I needed support catapulted my business forward in a serious way.
3. Niching.
As my business grew, I had to be brutal when it came to staying true to my ‘Why’ and focusing on who I wanted to help. That meant only taking on clients that were aligned with my business and my mission, and only taking on clients who I knew I could add value to. There were many times that I agonised over whether to take someone on because I could do with the cash flow, or because I felt bad, or because I didn’t know where to refer them. But I stood true to my ‘Why’ and my niche, and it’s paid off.
4. Self-Belief.
The journey of running this business hasn’t been easy. Like most business owners, the challenges, the hurdles, the self-doubt, and the imposter syndrome were real (and continue to be real). I had self-belief though, and that’s what kept me going.
My self-belief and crystal clear clarity around my ‘Why’ were the reason I was able to continue to move forward in my business. Being able to have the courage to push on (as hard as it was at times) no matter what the hurdle was meant that I was able to stay focused on what I was doing, and why, so this didn’t cost me 6 or 12 months of floundering and questioning my direction in business.
5. Outsourcing.
I started to outsource in my business after about a year. Outsourcing has been a real game-changer for me. I was incredibly nervous, but it was necessary for growth. A virtual assistant, a bookkeeper, a copywriter, a new junior lawyer. My business model worked. It was valued by my team, and by my clients. I’d been spot on with my thinking that clients didn’t want the inconvenience and sheer hassle of having to make time and arrangements to meet with their lawyer face to face. By this time, COVID had taught so many people that this was the new way of doing things. I was set up for it, and the model was thriving. More and more business owners were pivoting and adapting to new ways of doing things, and I was set up and positioned to be able to help in this space.
Outsourcing and growing my team at the right time were pivotal steps in my business growth. I had been involved in acting for business owners for long enough to know that this was the next step. And I took it. I was nervous, but I did it and I haven’t looked back.
6. Money Mindset.
The final area that I want to share in the context of building a multi 6 figure business within 2 years is money mindset. Initially, early on, not only did I not want to focus on the money, I resisted it so hard because lawyers traditionally have a poor wrap when it comes to money – you’ve all heard the stories, the jokes, the memes. I had become so appalled at the focus on money in traditional legal practice that I did everything I could to not be like that. But that meant I had put myself so far towards the opposite end of the spectrum that I wasn’t focusing on my numbers at all.
Early on in my business, I was working on the basis that I knew in my head what was due to come in, and what was going out in terms of revenue and expenses, but beyond that, I was sticking my head in the sand. It took a lot of work with my business coach to address this, and I have to say, I was not a willing participant. I was telling myself that so long as my business was allowing me to draw the sort of salary that I wanted to support our lifestyle, I wasn’t in it for the money beyond this, I just wanted to help people.
There was a lot of work undertaken in this space. Eventually, with the help and support of a coach who got it, who got me, and who knew damn well that the stories I was telling myself had to go, I worked through the stories, through the blocks, and got up close and personal with my numbers.
Working on money mindset was hard. It was confronting, triggering, challenging, and often had me in tears. To say it has been worth it is an understatement. Doing this work has allowed my business to up level, again.
There you have it. That’s my business journey in a nutshell and the approach that I took to build to a multiple of 6 figures in revenue, within 2 years.
I have written a tonne of blogs that are published on the resources page on my website. If you are keen to learn more about the legal frameworks that small business owners need, you might like to check out these resources:
Australian Law 101 for Small Business, Building Your Small Business | The Beginners Handbook and Legal Advice for Small Business | Ultimate Guide.
Book in for your free 20-minute chat with me here.
