A decade of running a small law firm teaches lessons no business plan can anticipate. These are the ones worth carrying into any small business, regardless of industry.
1. A business plan helps, but it needs updating
Initial plans rarely survive contact with reality. That doesn’t make the exercise pointless, it focuses your attention on what actually needs to happen. Update the plan regularly rather than treating it as a document you write once and shelve.
2. Relationships with stakeholders matter more than you expect
Genuine relationships with clients, suppliers and partners consistently make the difference when problems arise. Building them before you need them, not during a crisis, is what makes them useful.
3. Adapt to what clients actually need
Assuming you already understand a client’s needs is a common, costly mistake. Tailoring your service to a specific client’s actual requirements retains business that would otherwise quietly move elsewhere.
4. Focus on service, and the income follows
Chasing only the highest-margin work in the short term tends to erode service quality over time. Prioritising the work properly, and doing it well, has consistently proven to bring the income anyway.
5. Cash is king, profit is secondary
A business without cash in the bank is in real trouble, regardless of what its books say. Manage your debtors’ book religiously from day one, since the discipline is far easier to build when monthly income is small than after bad habits set in at scale.
6. Save deliberately for the future
Setting aside cash you don’t need immediately earns better returns and builds the reserve needed for eventual expansion, rather than leaving growth capital to chance.
7. Growth requires spending, not just earning
Investing in equipment, premises or staff is unavoidable if you actually want to grow. Standing still while competitors invest simply means falling behind over time.
8. Know your numbers well enough to know when to hold firm
Requests for discounts, salary increases or better terms are constant. Understanding your budget in detail is what lets you judge the real impact of any single request before agreeing to it.
9. Think lean at every stage
Regardless of how established the business becomes, continuously look for waste. Money wasted is simply your own money lost, at any size of business.
10. Live by your stated values, and hire for them too
Write down your business’s actual values, then check whether your team lives by them day to day. When hiring, screen explicitly for alignment with those values, not just skill.
Frequently asked questions
Is a detailed business plan still worth writing if it’s likely to change?
Yes. Its value isn’t in predicting the future accurately, it’s in focusing your attention on what genuinely needs to happen to succeed.
Why does cash flow discipline matter more early in a business’s life?
Because the habits are far easier to build when monthly income is small. Waiting until revenue scales up to introduce discipline usually means undoing bad habits first.
Should a small business chase only its highest-paying work?
Not exclusively. Prioritising genuine service quality across all client work has, in practice, proven to bring in the income anyway, while chasing only high-margin work erodes service over time.
Lessons that outlast the specific business
None of these lessons are unique to running a law firm. They apply just as directly to any small business built and sustained over a decade or more.
Further reading: 10 Lessons From 15+ Years Running a Marketing Agency | South African Revenue Service for official tax and cash flow compliance requirements
Originally published in August 2019. Updated September 2026 to refresh this decade-of-business-lessons piece. The underlying lessons are durable and not tied to any specific business or period.
