You want to know what industry I think teaches me the most about my law firm?
Feel free to take a guess.
Ready for it?
The restaurant industry, and here’s why.
As much as we might want to be fancy, white-collar, ivory tower types, that’s not really where we sit.
No one is going in to do their own brain surgery, but plenty of people do their own divorce.
Heck, I’d bet a higher percentage of people are more afraid of doing their own taxes than representing themselves in a low-level criminal case. Plus, they might get a public defender for free or at a reduced rate.
The restaurant industry competes not just with other restaurants, but also with people cooking at home.
They are also concerned not just with major chains coming to town, but with companies disrupting the industry through technology. UberEats is the LegalZoom in this analogy.
So every time I go out to eat, I think about my companies and what pricing, service, etc. I can learn from it. And to be fair, usually it’s nothing.
But last week, my family went to an Outback Steakhouse during our road trip. Go ahead and judge me all you want. Normally I don’t eat at chain restaurants on vacation, but after seven months on the road and being in Redding, California, please allow me a damn Bloomin’ Onion.
I have this thing about food where it has to beat a certain benchmark. For example:
A burger has to be noticeably better than a Wendy’s Baconator. Tough in Orlando to find one that isn’t overcooked.
A sandwich has to beat a Publix sub. Doable, but not often unless it’s a fancy Italian or something totally different.
For steak, it’s Outback. Your super fancy, grass-fed, 40-day aged steak better be medium rare and make an Outback steak taste like chicken that fell on the floor. Usually an easy bar to clear.
And we had a great meal. The server was incredible, even during the lunch rush and being the only one there. The food hit exactly the spot I expected. Cheap, fried, but not fast food.
Then I got the bill. With tip, it was $100 for a Bloomin’ Onion, a kids’ meal, one Coke, an entree salad, and my steak.
Was it worth it?
So I went back to my go-to line. Whenever anyone asks how much something should cost, I always say this:
“Less than you want to charge, but more than the client wants to pay.”
While that’s true, and hopefully funny, it’s not terribly helpful. So let’s talk about seven ways to price things out.
HOW TO PRICE YOUR SERVICES
1) Just bill by the hour
I hate this one. It means you either raise prices or work more to make more money. I won’t belabor the point. You’ve heard my thoughts on this in much longer form elsewhere.
2) Value your time at a specific rate and multiply it by how long you expect something to take
Example: Let’s say $200 an hour is about average. You’re above average, so you charge $250. A case takes about 10 hours. You charge $2,500. Done.
3) Price based on hard costs plus profit margin
If a contractor charges $400 for a bankruptcy filing, it costs you $200 to open the file, and you want a 40 percent profit margin, you charge $1,000.
4) Look at the value you provide and charge accordingly
If you keep a client out of jail for 20 years and they earn $50,000 a year, you preserved $1,000,000 in earning potential. Is that worth a $25,000 fee? And can you actually collect what they sign for?
For lawyers, this often shows up as contingency. You get a percentage of the value you create.
5) Ask someone with similar experience, knowledge, training, and clients what they charge
Just make sure you ask the right person. The lawyer down the street who works 80 hours a week and can never retire is probably not the best model.
Also, be careful here. At some point this can drift into illegal price fixing.
6) Ask your clients afterward what they thought it should have cost
Some clients will tell you they would have paid more. Most will say the price was fine. What you really want to learn is what additional value they wish they had received.
That could lead to upsells later, like monitoring trademarks, updating estate plans, or handling early termination of probation. Eventually, you may decide to bundle that value into your service and raise your prices.
7) Throw out a number and hope they say yes
Probably not the best strategy, but absolutely one I have used from time to time.
You can always change the price later. You can edit the offering later. You can add more value later.
There are a lot of ways to approach pricing, but none of it matters unless you actually do it. Unless you create the offering, charge for it, sell it, and serve clients, obsessing over price is just another limiting belief.
When I was a criminal defense attorney, I always felt $250 an hour was fair. I charged flat fees, essentially using option two. My problem was that I worked hard to become efficient, so cases took less time. Instead of raising my rates, I kept them the same or lowered them.
That’s probably why I was never terribly successful as a criminal defense lawyer.
As a PI lawyer now, pricing is much simpler. We charge the statutory maximum and focus on maximizing value, both in results and in service. That makes it easy to continue adding value through better communication, doctor referrals, follow-ups, and even client events.
FOR LEGAL EASE, IT’S MORE COMPLICATED
We currently have three common entry-level offers: $2,000, $3,000, and $5,000.
The $2,000 option includes an audit of your CRM and intake systems, or a plan to build one.
The $3,000 option covers all tech systems, not just intake.
The $5,000 option includes the $3,000 audit plus a full marketing plan that centers your brand around your ideal client and identifies the best channels and campaigns.
We credit half of those amounts toward implementation. Think of it like a doctor diagnosing the issue before prescribing treatment, instead of selling you something you don’t need.
From there, we create a customized plan. For example:
If you need more video content but don’t want scripted material, a weekly live-streamed show might make sense at $3,500 per month.
If you need more written and visual content like articles, videos, or carousels, weekly batched content would be closer to $4,000 per month.
When you’re ready to scale, we offer advertising management with a scalable fee structure.
These prices are based on hard costs, salaries, and profit margin. The entry offers are really tripwires to get people set up with the right long-term plan.
The running joke slogan is: you pay us a lot, we make you a lot.
BUT WHAT ABOUT YOUR FIRM?
I’m seeing more and more lawyers hesitate to change pricing models or raise rates. Meanwhile, everything just got more expensive.
Earlier this week, I spoke with a lawyer in Houston who is paying over $4 a gallon for gas. When I was there in November, it was $2.30. That’s a massive swing in seven months.
At the end of the day, you can’t control everything. You can only control your response.
Now is the time to focus on maximizing value. That might mean building your personal brand, expanding your firm, opening a second business, or simply raising your hourly rate by $25.
I don’t know the answer for you. That part is on you. But I know that’s the right question.
The more you put who you want to serve, who you want to help, and who you want to work with ahead of your own selfish needs, the easier this becomes. For most of us, money is just a tool.
For me, I love working with growth-minded law firm owners doing $500,000 or more in annual gross revenue. I believe firm owners are uniquely positioned to build strong lifestyles and legacies while still staying connected to real people and delivering massive value.
That’s why this work excites me. What I do and who I get to do it with.
Like you all. Or y’all.
So what questions do you have about pricing?