Revenue Roadmap

SBA Loans for Lawyers: Ways to Start a Law Firm Smart & Fast

• Anthony Karls

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Tired of waiting for the "perfect moment" to launch your law firm? Helbert Lopez proves that sometimes the best business decisions happen spontaneously—he stumbled upon an empty office space and turned that moment into Florida Law Advisers, a thriving 3+ attorney practice powered by smart SBA loan financing.

This entrepreneur-turned-attorney reveals exactly how he leveraged SBA loans to fund his law firm startup, building systems and workflows that allowed him to scale from solo practitioner to multiple practice areas including family law, bankruptcy, and immigration.

You'll discover the real-world challenges of starting a law firm, the critical importance of treating your practice like a business from day one, and why having rock-solid processes and procedures is the secret sauce that separates successful firms from those that struggle to scale.


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📄 CHAPTERS

00:00 - The Accidental Law Firm: How One Office Space Changed Everything 

01:23 - SBA Loans Revealed: The Smart Way to Fund Your Law Practice

02:48 - Reality Check: Why Starting a Law Firm is Harder Than You Think 

05:22 - Building Your Legal Empire: From 1 to 3+ Attorneys 

08:17 - The Resistance Problem: Getting Your Team to Follow Procedures 

12:04 - The Startup Playbook: Essential Advice for New Law Firm Owners 

13:54 - Your First Hire Strategy: Building Your Legal Support Team

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1. BOOK A FREE 30-MINUTE AUDIT WITH US: https://rocketclicks.com/schedule-a-family-law-quick-audit/

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Tell me in the comments if you liked this podcast and w...

Halbert Lopez started Florida Law Advisors on a whim by visiting a vacant office space. Make sure to check out his story. Welcome back to the Revenue Roadmap podcast. The show for growth minded family law professionals. If you're looking to drive revenue, increase profit and grow your firm. This is the podcast for you. I am your host, Tyler Dolph, the CEO of our digital marketing agency called Rocket Clicks. That focus is 100% on family law firms across the country. And we can do that because we build and own our own family law firm that is called Sterling Lawyers, that has grown to over 30 attorneys and 25 offices across two states. So we have been there. We have done it. We now help family law firms across the country, and we have built this podcast in an effort to help you grow your firm. Halbert started his law firm on a whim after going to law school. He did not think he was going to be an attorney, but decided to change his mind. And he has built Florida law advisors, now to three plus attorneys. I hope you enjoy his episode. However, thanks again for being with us today. Really appreciate your time. I'd love to have you introduce yourself to our audience and tell us a little bit about your law firm and how you got started. hi. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm, basically an entrepreneur. I, have, of different businesses before, and. And how do I. I started the law firm. It was kind of like, out of the blue. One day, I was looking for, office spaces. Because I do real estate, too. And, that's how I kind of, like, I start, like, noticing that there were people selling law firms. And since I was an attorney, then, that's how I. It caught my attention. And I decided to start looking into, creating a law firm. And, That's insane. You got to go all the way back for us. So you were. Did you go to law school? And you were an attorney. But maybe you weren't I went to law school, but I never thought I was going to practice. I just wanted to have more tools for my businesses. And then two years later, that's when I thought, oh, maybe I can do this. Why not? Yeah. And I started with, with an SBA loan and, the help me with the building and all of that. So that was very helpful to. So take us back to kind of those early days. You stumble upon this office space. You think, okay, I'm going to. I'm going to start my own law firm. What were some of those, like, initial learnings? Was it as easy as you thought it was going to be? Was it more difficult? I would say more difficult of what I was expecting, for sure. Especially for all the regulations and, you know, all the rules that we have to follow. So it's it's definitely a different type of business. It's a little bit more complicated is what I thought. And, but again, it's like any other business. It has also, a lot of pros and, you know, it's, it's. And so, on, on the process of learning and growing. So I think I, you know, hopefully in the future my answer will change a little bit. Sure. Absolutely. Did you always want it to. Like when you were starting out? Was family? Was a family law firm focus like the idea or did that evolve over know, that kind of evolved over time. It was mainly all because we we purchased this domain and it has more traction with far law now. So we thought like, you know, it's at the end of the day with any businesses you probably know, it's, you know, what can you sell. And so, you know, I try my best, I try my business as a business. Right. So it was more like, okay, what makes sense? What type of services can we offer? Or can we sell? So family law seems to be really simple. We also do that connection with. So, kind of like very simple and boundaries. See, which is tricky because it's been a steady kind of decline. But at the same time, I think that in the future, you know, a could be, a strange in case of a recession or something. I think that that will help us, if there's ever a downturn, then boom proxy could help with the revenue. So that's what I keep that practice as well. Okay. And so from that, you know, moment. Like I'm going to start a law firm. Even. Even though I had never planned on it to today. How big is your firm today? And and what are you really proud of as you've built this firm over the last few years? Well, right now we have our three attorneys of counsel, family law. We kind of looking to hire somebody full time. So we're looking into maybe one of these attorneys can turn full time with all of, And we have one attorney, bankruptcy, full time. We have, part time attorney on immigration. So we'll be kind of trying immigration as well. That's kind of like something that it's, progress, as we speak. Love it. Love it. And as the plan talks about the future. Like, what's the plan? For your firm. I think what's interesting, or maybe an interesting approach that you've taken that we don't hear all the time, is treating your firm like a business. You know, in law school, there's there's, like, one class on running a business, and then you go and you create your own firm, and holy cow, you got to make payroll and you got to pay rent and you got to do the books. And so because you had your prior business experience, you know, that was something that the you're able to have is an advantage. But for our listeners who are maybe newer to, to this game and to entrepreneurship, what were some of those kind of thought processes you had back in the day? And what are you using today to to continue to move your firm Always looking for, way to have, workflows and, checkmarks with everything. And it really helps when you try to scale, when you can have a structure that you can delegate to your employer so they can follow procedure. So, that's something that I, you know, I knew before. So when I started with a law firm and I was like, okay, we need to have good workflows and process and procedures for every for everything that we do. And it's something that we continue doing every day. And it never ends because you have to. There are always updates and changes and you you have to update your procedures. So from time to time we go back and review, every time I see an issue I go back to my procedures, okay, why this happened. And then I try to see how we can avoid that in the future. And sometimes that includes update or procedures. So I think that's the something that is key. On when you're running a law firm that I, I'm assuming that not many people really think about it because we don't have that in law school, but. Yeah. That process is is literally the great differentiator as you're scaling and growing. You know, you have every one of your your lawyers running a different process or on their own island, doing their own thing. It's really hard to scale, you know, until you systematize all of those, those playbooks. Yeah. And it's hard sometimes with, even with the newcomers to adapt, you know, because some people, they, they are used to do things their way and you have to tell them like, no, we we do things here differently. This is the process that we need to follow. So that can create some friction. Sometimes. But it's crucial. Like if they don't follow the procedure, then everybody is kind of like doing different things. And you can run a practice like that. It almost never. Even across different, mediums or types of law, you know, knowing that you practice a few different things. Did you start kind of like chunking it out? Okay, I'm going to do all the family law practices and all the process here and then go to the next one. Or, yeah, yeah. It's been exactly. Yeah. And I, for one proxy, I support myself a lot. They have told me that I hire him. He is board certified, so he knows a lot more than me. So it was easier to kind of, like, think his idea of. And I still struggle a little bit, with him because, you know, he he has his way to do things, but then I have to kind of like, hey, you know, we need this structure so the rest of the team can function around you. And, you know, when people are not used to these rules or procedure, they kind of put some system. But at the same time, once they see that resolve, they are like, okay, maybe, maybe you're right. And then they start, merging into it. But it's a process. So that was very helpful to have him and the proxy in immigration, for example, I'm just about to start that. So we don't we don't really have all of the process of procedure. So that that's going to take some time. Sure. Absolutely. Talk to me a little bit about the culture that you've built and that are that you're building. We talked to a lot of lot of law firm owners who talk about the, the opportunity to to lead people and to help their clients in difficult situations. And in order to do that right, and get people on board, you know, you got to build a great culture. Is there anything, that you're doing that that stands out? Internally, when we hire, I always try to ask questions related to a culture to see how they approach life in general. Because I feel like we need employees that care for the client. Right. And that's gonna reflect on your final product and client. Satisfied, and whether or not you're going to get good reviews. So right from the moment that we hire, I try to see if they, they share those values. So it's it's tricky, right? Because you never know if they actually share the values or not. But I, they, we try from the beginning, towards the people that we believe they, they have that sympathy for, for the clients. And you can really tell when they're not a good fit, that sooner or later they're gonna be more friction with the clients, or they start having issues with the rest of the team. Yeah. 100% love it. As we kind of close up here, Halbert, thinking about a younger attorney or a law school student who's thinking about going out on their own and starting their own firm. Do you have a piece of advice for them as they're thinking about building their own firm? If they want to build their own firm, I mean, definitely have a little planning, right? Kind of like we were saying. Spend time thinking about their their process and procedures. They can try to get mentorship, you know, with, with a senior attorney as well, but important. But it has to be somebody who's open to, to be flexible. Right. And, and, and, and to adjust their systems. There are a lot of tools though, now that are really helpful, but you have to have the mentality that the goal is always to have a system and, is you gotta put time into it. Right? It's time consuming. Quarter percent. Yeah. And you got to be willing to put in the hard work for a number of years to. To get to a place you can really build a firm you're proud Yeah. And I guess you have that clear that you can allocate certain time to work on the firm and then work at the firm that, you know, could lead to success. But if you don't have that clear and you're just working for the firm, then it's going to be very hard to scale. Yeah. You got to have a team, right? What was the first hire you made after you. So I started right away with, on a legal amount for me. I thought that was the right way to go. Obviously, you gotta work kind of like, before you launch with a payroll, you kind of have to market any place which kind of, you know, a crucial part of the business. So you always have to think again, going back to like, think about this as a business. So like any business have to have these departments, even though even any of in you have. But you have to think, okay, what I'm doing a marketing warrant when in production. And then the people who tell they're going to produce the, the product. Right. Like. Yeah. 100%. That's so help for. How would I really appreciate your time? I love your story. I love the, like spot. Spontaneous spontaneity of of building a firm based on finding a building, you know? And the fact you're able to be successful, like, that's a really, really crazy story. So obviously, congrats on on all your success and really appreciate you sharing time with us today. Thank you. Thank you for hiring. I hope you enjoyed this interview with Hulbert. We are continuing this interview series, so make sure to check them out. In our previous episodes. We try to do one of these a week. So I really hope you're enjoying them and we will see you next time. On the revenue roadmap. And.

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Anthony Karls

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Tyler Dolph

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