She Did What?! with Becky Torres

Uncategorized Jun 23, 2022

As business owners, there will be times when we’ll be ruled by self-doubt when taking risks. We need as much support as we can get and joining coaching programs can help in making us accountable and confident about our decisions. We don’t have enough hours in the day — if we want to increase revenue, we need to learn how to maximize our time.

In this episode, Becky Torres joins us to share how to increase revenue by hiring and charging more. She also talks about how being part of Moshe’s Elite Lawyers Group helped her become accountable, overcome her fears, and even achieve a 40% profit increase in her business.

If you want to know how to increase revenue by maximizing your time by hiring staff and pricing your services better, then this episode is for you.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode:

Discover why hiring more people will increase revenue — even if your expenses increase.
Learn why and how to charge more for your services.
Get to know how Becky experienced over 40% growth in her law firm business within one year.

Resources

Join the Elite Lawyers Group by signing up for a FREE Law Firm Expansion coaching call at profitwithlaw.com/freecoaching.
Get a bookkeeper and accountant through DreamBuilder Financial by emailing [email protected].
Law Firm Growth Summit Recordings
Binge over the 300 episodes of the Profit with Law podcast
Connect with Becky through the Torres Law Firm for real estate and water rights legal services by visiting her website or calling her at (505) 221-6709
Hire more staff and get a $750 discount using our link at Get Staffed Up
Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork by Dan Sullivan

Episode Highlights

Importance of Hiring Staff

When Becky hired her first associate, she knew it wasn't a good fit, but she couldn't bring herself to end the relationship early, leading to her firm suffering financially.
Becky reflects that the mistake in hiring happened because she lacked direction and didn’t have a clear vision for her firm.
Becky started setting goals and forming a vision for her practice through the mentorship she got from the Elite Lawyers Program.

Becky: “I've learned to better appreciate those failures and the lessons that I learned from them, because everybody that's been here, whether they are an attorney or another staff member, every person that comes and goes, I learned from that experience.”

Being a solo lawyer is profitable but if you have goals outside your career, knowing how to hire the right people goes a long way.
During COVID, Becky took the risk to hire staff remotely, which she would have never considered if not for the pandemic.

Becky’s Results from the Elite Lawyers Program

The first quarter of 2022 is where Becky saw the most rapid growth in her firm.
Being at the Elite Lawyers Program and having access to resources and group coaching calls helped her understand how to grow a profitable law firm.
Through the Elite Lawyers Program, Becky found it very helpful to share her experience and hear the experiences of other solo law firm owners.
The Elite Lawyers Program helped Becky because the group meets quarterly to review the past quarter and to set their goals and projects for the next few quarters.
The Elite Lawyers Program helped its members keep each other accountable throughout the quarter.

Increase Revenue by Hiring Staff

Becky experienced a 40% gross profit margin in this year’s first quarter, compared to last year’s first quarter when her firm was in negative profit.
The profit increase happened because Becky took the risk of hiring staff instead of doing all the work herself.

Becky: “I have to be able to maximize my time in order to bring in that revenue, and having staff was a huge part of that.”

Becky's business doesn't come from marketing and sales because she has so many clients. She had to turn some away because she didn't have the time to help them.

Becky: “It's not that I was going out and marketing and bringing in more clients. It's just that: kind of revamping my time so that I could maximize my time.”

As a business owner, delegate the things that are not important so you can open up the capacity for high-level tasks.

Difficulties in Hiring Staff

Becky finds it challenging to delegate tasks to her staff because she can't let go of control and has difficulty asking people to do things for her.

Becky: “You need to be maximizing your time, and really understanding where your value is [and] as an attorney my value is doing legal work for my business and getting people through the door.”

No matter what stage of your journey, you're always going to have self-doubt when taking the next step; when the level of doubt changes, so does the level of risk.

Pricing Your Services

Becky realized the low-profit last year was due to her underpricing her services.
Don’t focus too much on how everyone else in the market is pricing their services.

Becky: “My clients [are] coming to me because they know or have heard of me and not because I'm the lowest price in town or whatever that may be. [I've] sort of worked in a [niche] based on my collection of practice areas [and] they're seeking me out for [my] bundle of practice areas.”

Becky: “I increased my prices significantly, and I have not had people balk at it. I mean, I still have clients coming through the door. I still have people that are willing to pay.”

Becky raised her prices, especially for water rights, a practice area that’s not common in New Mexico.

Moshe: “It's pretty powerful what you can do by simply [deciding] to change what you're charging somebody, right? Crazy, because it's the one lever you can pull as a business owner that doesn't require you to invest more.”

Price Better to Increase Revenue

Raising your prices raises the quality level of your clients as well.
You don't need a business education to be successful in business. You need to be willing to take risks.

Why Becky Needed Coaching

After attending the Law Firm Growth Summit, Becky was glad to join the 90-Day Law Firm Turnaround Group Coaching Program.
Becky remembers feeling so lost at the time and getting discouraged by issues with her personal life.
Moshe moved away from the 90-Day Law Coaching Program because it only covers setting up the plan.
Moshe felt he was doing a disservice to his clients by not getting them to commit to the entire process, so he turned it into a one-year program — the Elite Coaching Program.

90-Day Law Firm Turnaround Group Coaching Program

Becky was skeptical about the group setting at first.
At the end of the 90 days, Becky still felt she needed more guidance, so she was grateful to continue through the Elite Coaching Program.
Even if Becky had already done many of the exercises with a previous coach, she found them effective because they linked to an overarching purpose.

Becky’s Reflection on Her Journey

Becky thinks her biggest mistakes were not being willing to take risks and just being stagnant.
Comparing her previous self, she can now move on quickly instead of feeling regret when she hires somebody who's not a good fit.
She now feels optimistic about moving forward and looking for somebody new.
We always look for wins to celebrate who we've become or what we've accomplished because these are the things that will get us to success.

Becky’s Advice and Practice Areas

Becky: “You can't really have the confidence in yourself that you can do it unless you actually do it, and you got to jump in.”

Becky focuses on real estate and can also do estate planning.
Becky also has a specialty in water rights, which is not a common practice area in New Mexico.
Becky has two client demographics: (1) commercial real estate developers and (2) farmers and ranchers.

About Becky

Becky Torres is the Founding Attorney of the Torres Law Firm. She practices in real estate, water rights, and estate planning, specializing in serving commercial developers and farm and ranch owners.

Becky provides clients representation and advice in business formation, transactions, estate planning, and probate. She is also an avid triathlon racer.

If you wish to get in touch with Becky, you may visit her website or call her at (505) 221-6709.

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She Did What?! with Becky Torres

Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode:

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