Building a firm that can grow with you

Raised in an entrepreneurial family, Paloma Goggins was surrounded by talk of business deals before she could drive. So when it came time to choose her own career, becoming a lawyer who supports those kinds of transactions felt natural.

Now, as founder of Nocturnal Legal, she’s building a fast-growing firm while balancing the realities of business ownership herself. Here, Goggins, who specializes in business law, shares what she’s seeing in the market, the lessons she’s learned about systems and tools, and even the clever out-of-office trick that’s winning her compliments from clients. 

-Bianca Prieto, editor

Where do you see your particular practice area headed in the next few years?

I practice in both Arizona and Wisconsin, and I’m seeing a significant uptick in business sales as the baby boomer generation looks to retire. Perhaps because of this, it's become trendy to buy a business (instead of starting one). Whether this is a smart idea is an entirely separate discussion, but I believe social media brought the prospect of buying and selling businesses to the forefront for many, which has had many upsides. 

Has helping clients with their businesses shaped the way you think about your own?  

It has helped me think more long-term and focus more on systems. If I could go back in time and work on my practice from day zero, I would start putting systems into place early on. I may not have needed a fancy CRM or intake process when I first launched, but the slow days gradually faded, and suddenly I’m in the trenches of business ownership where my time is stretched thin. 

Everything is less stressful if you start with the mindset that you will, in fact, be too busy one day. 

How do you decide which practice management systems or tools are right for your firm?

Figuring out what works best for my firm was a long journey in trial and error with project management platforms. In the beginning, I was too quick to purchase software subscriptions on an annual basis (for the savings) only to determine after the first 30 days that the software wasn't what I needed or wanted. Since then, I've learned to ignore early adoption offers and simply trial a software for 30 or even 60 days before jumping in head first.

I have to say that I love the weekend OOO email I got from you when we were setting up this interview. 

I receive so many compliments from fellow professionals when they receive my OOO! (I have an auto responder set up that says an email has been received outside of working hours and provides some reassurances that I will in fact respond. I also include a link to my calendar so that a client who feels especially anxious can schedule a call the next day to speak with me.)

It's been up and running for a few months now and I have only ever received positive remarks about it. I've even had a few clients self-schedule a call, which saved me the back and forth scheduling battle over email. 

Interview by Emily Kelchen

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 Raise the Bar is written and curated by Emily Kelchen and edited by Bianca Prieto.