Fix your legal mistakes with profitable, preventive legal support

To Make More Money, Fix These Mistakes

At ExecutiveLP®, our experience has taught us that, for small businesses, prioritizing legal profitability is the best way to obtain maximum value, minimal stress, and an optimal risk profile. Unfortunately, small business decision-makers often make mistakes that keep them from having profitable, preventive legal support. I’m going to tell you what those mistakes are and how to fix them.

Most small businesses are making, at least, three or four of the following mistakes:

(1) Not correctly measuring your ROI from legal;

(2) Only engaging legal support for risk management;

(3) Not regularly, frequently checking in with legal support;

(4) Only engaging legal support to produce documents;

(5) Not integrating legal support into workflows & processes.

Diving Deeper

Small businesses tend to view legal support as a cost center. To be fair, that’s probably because the wrong kind of legal support, or legal support used improperly is likely to be a cost center. Like any tool in your toolbox, if you’re using it badly, you’re not going to get the most out of it. When you know how to profit from legal, however, legal support can be a vital, high-value operational asset that makes a business more profitable.

When they think of legal support, small businesses tend to think in terms of risk and protection. This perspective is too narrow and limited. With such a narrow focus, one will likely ignore many, if not most, of the benefits legal support can provide. Legal support does more than just risk management. Lawyers are essential to asset-building and relationship management processes and workflows.

Your general counsel should be consulted early and often. Ask them about the work you’re doing, the projects you’re planning, and things on the horizon. Think of your lawyer as someone who can help you forecast and prevent risk, not just a crisis manager. Legal support activities go far beyond just producing documents, and includes strategic and tactical thinking and action.

To be most effective, legal support must be embedded in your regular workflows and processes.

Steps to Fix these Mistakes

The first step to fixing these mistakes is connecting with the right business lawyer. Once you have the right attorney on your team, talk to them about your business’s regular needs. Work with them to come up with a legal support strategy for your company. Don’t forget you, should regularly check in with your lawyer. Setting up a recurring meeting is a great idea!

Integrate preventive, proactive, profitable legal support into your operational workflows. The law affects every aspect of your business. So, your lawyer should work with you to manage the impact of those touch points.

Don’t Get In Your Own Way

Those who have avoided lawyers, for various reasons, often have a litany of objections. We’ve heard them all: cost, time, their business is “too small,” they don’t perceive the need, or their business doesn’t have enough risk to justify hiring a lawyer, and more. Here’s the bottom line, though: the right legal support will make your business more profitable, less stressful to run, and less prone to disruption.

Legal support is never too expensive or time consuming when it is profitable and makes your life easier. Proactive, preventive, profitable legal support will generate a net positive when it comes to resources, such as money, time, and focus. No business is too small to be marginally more profitable, more valuable, less stressed, etc.

Legal support isn’t just about risk–it’s about supporting you as you build your ideal business. The right legal support pays for itself, and then some.