330. From Struggle to Sale with Mike Chastaine

Aug 22, 2022

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Today, my guest is Mike Chastaine. Mike is an attorney outside of Sacramento, California, who has a thriving criminal defense practice. I say that he has a criminal defense practice, in actuality, he's transitioning out of that practice and has already moved to New Mexico. So we're going to cover his journey from how he got started in criminal defense and how he, with the help of a couple of mentors, turned the ship around from being a struggling criminal defense firm to a thriving firm to the point where he was able to sell it. We're going to spend some time talking about the mechanics of how you go about selling a law firm, how you go about valuing the firm for sale, and structuring the purchase. We're going to cover a whole journey here in this episode, so let's get with it. Without any further delay, Mike Chastaine.

In this episode, Neil and Mike discuss:

From struggling firm to thriving firm ready for sale.
Mentorship and running a great business (not just being a great lawyer).
Filling the holes in your office.
Hiring for a specific position and having clear, direct standards.
Competing on value, not on price.

Key Takeaways:

Mistake #1: you cannot do it all and do it well.
Hiring someone to do your books is a leap of faith, but it will increase your billable hours without spending additional time.
Without having a follow-up system, things will fall through the cracks. There will always be things that you can’t predict, but you can prepare for that percentage of unpredictability.
Having clear procedures and policies not only allows your staff to know what is expected at all times but also makes transitioning out of the firm easier.

"I basically went from running things on a gut level to running it based on true data. And things really just started to explode from there." — Mike Chastaine

Get in touch with Mike Chastaine:

Website: https://mikechastaine.com/

Email: mchastaine@gmail.com

Book: https://michaelchastaine.com/books/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-chastaine-4683104/

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Get in touch with Neil:

Website: https://thelawentrepreneur.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lawentrepreneur

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelawentrepreneur/?ref=hl

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyralawfirm/

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Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.