Don’t play a numbers game when it comes to running your business.

You may think because you hire more lawyers to build your firm’s bench strength and dedicate resources to get business all will add up to winning more work. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

Playing the numbers game is like betting on the house: you never win.

Consider these two rash miscalculations.

To woo and service Client A, you quickly hire more lawyers in anticipation of netting additional lucrative work. The current work ends, no other work materializes from Client A, nor from other clients with similar business needs. As your other practice areas do not require additional lawyers, you now need to bear the cost of transitioning out redundant lawyers.

Partner B joins your firm and immediately requests two dedicated associates to work exclusively in servicing Partner B’s clients. Without consultation, and buoyed by the anticipation of new client work, you select two in high demand associates to work solely with Partner B. This sudden change surprises and angers partners with whom these associates work servicing other firm clients. Within two years, Partner B leaves your firm and takes one of the dedicated associates. Attempts to reintegrate the remaining associate fail. A previously desirable associate is now collateral damage and asked to leave the firm.

Neither of these illustrations are over-dramatized or far removed from your law firm reality.

Acting impulsively and reactively to your firm and client needs will bring havoc and uncertainty to your firm’s bottom line.

Resist the temptation to play a numbers game. Grow your firm through pragmatic, strategic, and economically-sound decisions that are anchored in your firm’s culture and well-thought out business plan.

Let it rain.