Social Security attorneys face a difficult decision: how best to invest their time and resources in cases that often don’t offer an immediate return. Not knowing when a case will be settled, or the outcome of a case, can make it difficult to forecast cash flows and budget properly. There is always a degree of risk involved in expanding any business to create potential revenue growth and hopefully a fruitful return in the future.
As an attorney, you must weigh the pros and cons of any decision that could affect current or future business. A decision that many attorneys debate is whether or not to expand a practice to additional geographic areas. Expanding your firm comes with numerous favorable aspects and potential pitfalls.
Potential Benefits of Expanding Your Firm
The main value in expanding where you take Social Security disability cases is the increased cash inflow generated by these cases. The inflated caseload will allow you to create a more continuous flow of expected returns, as cases will be maturing at different rates.
As you reinvest the capital in new cases, you will find it easier to grow, as you will eventually have a steady flow of cases in your pipeline. Lawyers and advocates should evaluate their practices like entrepreneurs do their business ventures. The eventual goal when growing your firm is of course to expand your business to the point where you are oversee attorneys who work for you instead of doing all of the legwork yourself.
Another great aspect of expanding is the opportunity to target more favorable ODARs. Your return on investment from an area with an approval rating over 60% should be very high. Utilizing a favorable ODAR will also allow you to be less selective with the cases you take. With a higher chance of approval, you can be more liberal with the cases you decide to pursue.
Risks Involved in Expanding Your Practice
There are some potential issues with expanding your practice, which, if not handled correctly, can lead to problems. The number one issue associated with geographic expansion is improper time management. As an attorney, time is money, and the opportunity cost of travelling over handling local cases at hand could cost you clients. Your success rate with cases could also drop. Therefore, effective time management and weighing the cost-benefit of every potential case is essential.
Obviously, adding another attorney or advocate would create an added expense, in both salary and travel cost. Thus, it’s imperative that your firm has enough cases in its pipeline to ensure that adding another attorney is not simply cannibalizing it’s own potential cases. There is also the added expense of launching a farther-reaching marketing campaign. Establishing your name in a new area can be tough. There are already attorneys who are well known to the claimants who reside there. One of the most effective ways to expand into new areas is by purchasing quality Social Security disability leads. Buying leads is a great way to get in contact with claimants and focus in on certain ODARs as well.
The Takeaway
As with any business decision the pros and cons must be weighed according to your firm’s circumstances and your proclivity to take risk. When strategically planned and performed correctly, expanding your business can offer a great return on investment and the opportunity to leverage the time and effort of a team of attorneys and advocates for your benefit.