These guides are written for partners and managing principals who want practical methods, not theory. Each one covers a single problem common to law, engineering and accounting firms, gives a step-by-step approach, and works through an illustrative example you can replace with your own figures.
They are deliberately honest about what is outside our lane. Wherever a topic touches professional rules, such as advertising, referral arrangements or confidentiality, the guides point you to your regulator rather than summarising its rules.
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How to measure consultation conversion in a professional firm
Most professional firms can't say what share of enquiries become clients. This guide shows how to log enquiries, calculate conversion at four stages, find the weakest one and put a dollar value on fixing it, using a worked example you can adapt.
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Budgeting partner business-development time that survives busy season
Partner business development fails less from lack of ideas than lack of protected hours. This guide shows how to size a realistic weekly budget, spend it on the activities most likely to produce work, and keep it alive through trial prep, project deadlines and tax season.
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How to plan practice-area pages clients actually read
A practice-area page should help a specific kind of client decide whether your firm handles their situation and what happens next. This guide shows how to choose which pages to write, what each should contain, how to divide the work between partners and editors, and how to review pages against your regulator's rules.
Measuring consultation conversion
How to measure consultation conversion in a professional firm shows how to log every enquiry, define a fit prospect in writing, and calculate four stage ratios: response, consultation, proposal and signing. A worked example for an engineering practice finds the weakest stage and puts a dollar value on fixing it.
Read it if: you can't say how many enquiries the firm received last month, or what share became clients.
What you'll take away: an enquiry log template, the four ratios, and a way to decide whether your problem is too few enquiries or too few conversions.
Budgeting partner business-development time
Budgeting partner business-development time that survives busy season is about the real constraint in most firms: partner hours. It shows how to find the number of hours each partner can genuinely protect, rank activities by where work actually comes from, assign relationships to named owners, and keep the habit alive through trial preparation, project deadlines and tax season.
Read it if: business development happens in bursts when work is slow and stops when it picks up.
What you'll take away: a weekly template in short blocks, a contact rhythm by relationship tier, and a worked example that values partner development hours against fees.
Planning practice-area pages
How to plan practice-area pages clients actually read explains how to choose which specialties deserve a page, structure each one around real client questions, divide the writing so partners spend as little time as possible, and review every page against your regulator's rules.
Read it if: your website lists practice areas as one-paragraph headings, or referred prospects say they couldn't learn much about you online.
What you'll take away: a scoring table for choosing pages, an eight-part page structure, a writing workflow and a realistic first-quarter plan.
How the guides fit together
The three guides follow the same order as a sensible growth programme:
- Measure first. The conversion guide tells you whether you have an enquiry problem or an intake problem.
- Protect the hours. The business-development guide makes sure partners have time to act on what you find.
- Build visibility deliberately. The practice-area guide makes the firm's chosen specialties findable once intake can handle the enquiries.
That order mirrors our engagements: client intake and conversion, referral and relationship programs and expertise visibility. The services overview explains how they combine.
How to use a guide in a partners' meeting
The guides work best when partners read them together rather than individually. A simple format that fits into a regular partners' meeting:
- Circulate one guide a week ahead.
- Ask each partner to bring one number from the firm's records that the guide suggests is important.
- Spend twenty minutes comparing those numbers and agreeing one small change to try for a quarter.
- Review the change at the next quarterly meeting.
That turns reading into a decision, which is the point.
A note on the numbers
The worked examples use round, hypothetical figures so the arithmetic is easy to follow. They are not benchmarks and not results from any client. Our only published results are from our HVAC work, which you can review on the results page. The point of each example is the method; your own numbers are what matter.
If working through a guide raises questions about your firm, a complimentary, confidential consultation with a senior partner is available through the contact page.
Frequently asked questions
Are these guides specific to one profession?
No. Each applies to law, engineering and accounting practices, with examples from all three. Where professions differ, the guides say so and send you to your regulator.
Can we use the templates in our firm?
Yes. The tables, logs and weekly templates are meant to be adapted. Adjust them to your firm's policies and professional obligations.
Do the guides give legal or regulatory advice?
No. They cover business practice only. For rules on advertising, referrals or confidentiality, consult your own regulator, linked from our areas page.