You’ve got limited resources (time and money). You can only focus on a few things if you’re going to keep moving forward. You’ve got to spend your resources wisely if you want to grow.

I’d suggest you focus primarily on external, not internal matters.

What’s external? External is anything facing the client. External is marketing, client experience, and sales. External is what people know about you, think about you, and feel about you.

What’s internal? Internal is the process, the politics, and the issues inside your firm. An internal focus will lead to shrinking revenues. An external focus will lead to greater revenues and profits.

Look at your day. Are you thinking and talking about getting documents delivered, wondering why a particular employee is lazy, and discussing the relative merits of various filing systems? That’s an internal focus. It might not be as awful as all that—you might be talking about improving the document assembly system, upgrading servers, and adding staff. It’s still an internal focus, and it’s not going to move you toward growth.

You’ve got to keep your focus facing outward. You’ve got to be attracting and retaining clients. You’ve got to be tweaking the sales funnel and improving the outreach to prospects. If you aren’t spending your days thinking about how to get more clients and better clients, you’re going to stay where you are or go backward. Keep your head outside the door when you’re spending time on improving the business of your law firm.

Again, you’ve got limited resources. You’re going to spend a fair amount of your time and money in the business doing the work. You need to spend what’s left working on the business, and your focus needs to be external if you’re seeking to grow.