Tommy, that reply did seem a bit smart. As this is a discussion board where people are giving opinions I don't see how your post assists Vanilla. Vanilla I'm sure is capable of making their own decisions, just looking for different point of views from a cross section of people. Why knock this kind of query, and peoples answers, when nobody here is trying to deliberately ruin Vanilla's idea's. If you have positive suggestions/ideas then these should be posted.
I don't run a prof. practice so my opinion is only a general gut feel.. You do run a similar practice so please why not offer your idea's?
My logic:-
- I live in the small town. I require legal services on a fairly regular basis (I assume these are the backbone of a practice?, the rest being fairly infrequent clients where a large population catchment area would be an advantage?)
- I know at the moment I have to travel to the large town for my legal services. I'm fairly used to and comfortable with this. (I assume there is a fairly strong link between solicitor/client who have dealt with each other for a number of years?)
A) In my small town a new legal practice has been set up.
(A question just came to me. Vanilla, do you live here? know alot of potential clients here? established pillar of society and all that? I might change my thought path if these are affirmatively answered)
OK, so a new practice has set up here and it would be more convenient to do my regular legal business here, but, I don't know anybody who does business there who can recommend them... I don't like change and the bar-fly's reckon the practice is going to struggle(is this an Irish condition?) and I don't like change(another Irish condition?) - my current solicitor and me have worked together for a long time. They're not great all of the time but they are a well established practice making a living in this 'larger' town so they must be the norm..
B) I see there's a new practice in the larger town, I don't go in (see reasons above re scepticism/don't like change) but I've noticed a new entrant in a town that is not my locality, so I am just curious about how they get on and don't hear anybody trying to put them down(out of sight/out of mind in the smaller town, not good gossip?) So the new practice gets some business in the larger town because there is space in the market(for the irregular stuff?) so they can keep going. They now have a bit of space to put in place feeler's to reach their target market (the small town). A simple move but very astute. They place adds etc. around the smaller town welcoming anyone requiring any type of legal assistance (nothing too big or too small, that sort of thing), to pop along to the now to be regular once/twice a week sessions you will be holding in the town for the local populations convenience. This goes down well with local's who might have little legal issues they mightn't't have bothered going to the larger town with, but now somebody is reaching out to them that could assist. This visiting solicitor from the larger town gains a reputation, from their good business practice, and this leads to praise/recommendation via word of mouth (another Irish condition? word of mouth is worth its weight in gold, some threads on this site give example). The person(s) requiring regular legal assistance hears this back and decides the solicitor who is courting business in the small town should at least be tried out for their business.. And they all live happily ever after! Goodnight! The solicitor ends up with enough business in both towns to set up 2 office's and retires to the Bahama's as a local gets caught up in a tribunal and bring their own solicitor...