My friend, a divorce lawyer in a large city, had four clients. That’s it. That’s all he had.

But he didn’t worry about it. He was content. He went to bed every night without a care in the world.

He had everything he needed, and he took good care of his family.

He was a solo practitioner with two staff members. His four clients were happy, and so was he.

You see, his four clients paid, on average, $250,000 each in total fees.

My friend had a very high-end practice and only accepted a new client every three or four months. His revenues hovered in the million-dollar range and his expenses ran at less than $250,000. He had a good income.

My point is that the number of clients is irrelevant. What matters to the success of your business is the bottom line. What’s left after expenses for you to take home? Is it enough to take care of you and your family and to reinvest in the practice?

There are as many business models as there are lawyers. High volume, low prices—low volume, high prices, bundled, unbundled, and on and on. It’s important for you to consciously decide what model you’re pursuing and stick with it.

You confuse the marketplace and you confuse yourself when you lack clarity around your model. You need to know where you’re going so you can accept the right clients and reject the rest.

If my friend with the four clients had accepted clients beyond the four at a time without making other substantial changes, he would have lost the original four and destroyed a successful model.

Do you have a model? Do you have a plan? Are you sticking to it?