Practice growth strategy answers one question: of all the work this firm could do, which work should it deliberately grow? We answer it from your own fee and time data, partner interviews and the realities of your market, then write the result down as a short set of choices every partner has seen and agreed.
What the engagement is
Most professional firms grow by accretion. A partner takes on a new type of matter, a client asks for an adjacent service, a referral source sends something unusual, and five years later the firm offers twelve things and is known for none of them. Strategy reverses that drift.
The engagement has three parts:
- Diagnostic. We analyse fees, recorded time and write-offs by practice area, client and partner. We look for concentration risk, realisation gaps and work that consumes senior time without paying for it.
- Market read. We look at how prospects in your region and specialty search for and choose advisers, what competitors claim, and where demand is shifting.
- Choices. In a facilitated partner session, the firm decides what to grow, what to hold and what to wind down, and who owns each priority.
Who it is for
This suits owner-led practices with roughly two to thirty partners or principals:
- A litigation boutique deciding whether to add employment work or deepen commercial disputes.
- A structural or civil engineering practice choosing between public-sector tenders and private developer clients.
- An accounting firm weighing advisory and succession work against compliance volume that keeps staff busy but margins thin.
It is less useful for sole practitioners with a full calendar; for them, referral programs or intake usually matter more.
What is included
- A data request and a cleaned dataset you keep.
- Confidential interviews with each partner and, where useful, two or three senior staff.
- A diagnostic summary: where the profit is, where time leaks, and which clients or sources carry too much weight.
- A short market read for your profession and region, with competitor positioning noted.
- A facilitated decision session.
- A one-page plan: three to five priorities, each with an owner, a first step and a review date.
Professional and regulatory questions, such as whether a new service line needs additional licensing or insurance, stay with your regulator and your own advisers. We flag them; we don't answer them.
A note on partner compensation
Growth choices often touch partner compensation: a practice area that is told to hold steady may belong to a partner whose income depends on its growth. We don't design compensation systems, but we flag where the plan and the current system pull in opposite directions so the partnership can address it openly.
Timeline
Firms with clean exports usually move through the diagnostic within a few weeks; firms whose data sits in several systems take longer. The decision session follows once the numbers are agreed. The proposal confirms the schedule for your firm before anything starts.
How results are measured
We agree a baseline at the start. Typical measures include:
| Measure | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Share of fees from the top five clients | Concentration risk |
| Realisation by practice area | Whether the work you price is the work you collect |
| Partner hours on non-billable growth activity | Whether the plan is being worked |
| New clients by source | Whether growth is coming from where you chose |
Reviews at three and six months compare each measure to its baseline. Strategy rarely shows its effect in a single month, so we judge it on direction over quarters.
Mistakes to avoid
- Choosing by enthusiasm. The work partners enjoy most is not always the work clients value most. Look at realisation before deciding.
- Keeping every option open. A strategy that wounds nobody's pet practice area usually changes nothing.
- Ignoring capacity. A growth priority that needs a second senior associate you haven't hired is a wish, not a plan.
- Skipping the follow-through. Without a review rhythm, the plan becomes a document in a drawer.
Once the choices are made, expertise visibility is usually the next step. See all options on the services page, or read our guide to budgeting partner business-development time.
Frequently asked questions
What data do you need from us?
Ideally twelve to twenty-four months of fees and recorded time by practice area, client and responsible partner, plus a list of where new clients came from. Rough exports are fine; we clean them as part of the work.
Will you see confidential client information?
We work from fee and time summaries, not client files. Where client names appear, we can work with codes instead, and confidentiality terms are set out in the proposal.
What if the partners disagree?
That is common and useful. We interview partners separately, show everyone the same numbers, and facilitate the decisions. The aim is a plan people will actually follow.
Is this a business plan for the bank?
No. It is an internal growth plan. If you also need lender-ready documents, we can discuss that separately.