$750k Paralegal Business with Heather Gardner of Propel Paralegal Services
If you’ve been in the legal industry long enough, you can feel the shift happening.
Law firms aren’t just delegating tasks anymore. They’re outsourcing solutions. And that changes everything—especially for paralegals who want to build businesses that don’t trap them in chaos, constant reinvention, or “I’ll take anything that walks through the door” survival mode.
In a recent conversation inside the Paralegals in Business Society, I sat down with my paralegal business course alumni, Heather Gardner (founder of a bankruptcy-focused paralegal agency, Propel Paralegal Services) to unpack what it actually looks like to grow a niche legal support business into multi-six figures—without trying to serve everyone.
Watch the full interview and start your 21-day paralegal business plan inside the Society for $9.99/mth. Cancel any time!
This interview hit on so many truths that paralegals need to hear—especially if you’re in that tender, scary phase where you’re thinking:
“But how will I ever get clients?”
“What if I pick a niche and it’s not enough?”
“What if I’m not ready?”
Heather scaled her bankruptcy paralegal business to $750,000 in four years by capturing less than 1% of the bankruptcy attorney market. Let’s talk about it.
What Paralegals in Business Need to Understand in 2026.
There’s a subtle but meaningful shift happening in the legal industry, and most paralegals sense it before they can articulate it. Law firms are no longer satisfied with simply “handing off tasks.” What they’re really searching for now are solutions — support that understands the bigger picture, anticipates problems, and integrates seamlessly into how their firm actually operates.
That shift changes the opportunity landscape for paralegals in business. It raises the bar, yes — but it also opens doors that didn’t exist before. What stood out in Heather and my conversation wasn’t just what she built, but how she chose to build it — and what she intentionally didn’t do along the way.
One of the biggest themes that surfaced was fear. Not dramatic fear, but the quiet kind most paralegals carry when they consider going out on their own. The fear that narrowing your focus will limit your income. The fear that choosing a lane means closing doors. The fear that if you don’t offer everything, you’ll end up with nothing.
So many paralegals respond to that fear by trying to stay broad. They offer multiple service lines. They say yes more than they want to. They keep their business flexible — but what they don’t realize is that flexibility without strategy quickly turns into exhaustion. When your business is built to serve everyone, it becomes almost impossible to serve anyone well, including yourself.
What our guest shared, very candidly, was that clarity didn’t come from adding more. It came from subtracting with intention. From choosing to specialize even when it felt risky. From trusting that depth could outperform breadth — not just in revenue, but in sustainability.
There was a moment in the conversation where she described the first time she told an attorney “no.” Not because she lacked the skill, but because the work didn’t align with what her business was designed to solve. She didn’t describe it as a loss. She described it as freeing. That moment marked a shift from operating like a paralegal trying to make it work, to operating like a business owner who understood her role in the ecosystem.
This is where the distinction between outsourcing tasks and outsourcing solutions really comes into focus. Firms don’t just want “help” anymore — they want confidence. They want someone who understands the gaps they’re trying to fill in their firm well enough to navigate nuance, not just instructions. And that level of trust doesn’t come from generalist messaging. It comes from clear positioning.
When your audience knows exactly who you’re for, your marketing becomes simpler. Your operations become cleaner. Your hiring becomes more intentional. You stop explaining yourself so much. You stop chasing. Instead, the right conversations start finding you.
That doesn’t mean growth is effortless. We talked openly about growing pains, burnout, scaling too fast, and the uncomfortable reality that at some point, control has to be released if growth is going to continue. We talked about how personal growth and business growth are inseparable — how every new level of leadership requires you to confront parts of yourself you didn’t need to face when it was “just you.”
Start Your 21-Day Paralegal Business Plan Pathway, access tools, and expert interviews like Heather’s inside The Paralegals in Business Society for $9.99 per month.
What made this conversation powerful wasn’t a checklist or a framework, it was the honesty. The kind of honesty that only comes from someone who has lived through the messy middle and is still standing — clearer, calmer, and more grounded in her choices.
And that’s exactly why this conversation belongs inside The Paralegals in Business Society.
A blog can give you a sense of the shift. It can spark recognition. It can help you name what you’ve been feeling. But the real value is in hearing the full dialogue — the nuance, the pauses, the “I didn’t know then what I know now” moments that don’t translate into soundbites.
If this conversation has stirred something in you — curiosity, relief, or even a little discomfort — that’s not accidental. It’s a signal that you’re already thinking like someone who knows there’s more possible.
The full interview, along with conversations like it, lives inside The Paralegals in Business Society. That’s where we go deeper — not to overwhelm you with information, but to help you orient yourself to where the industry is heading and how to build a business that actually supports the life you want.
Sometimes the most valuable thing isn’t another tactic. It’s perspective.
Watch the full interview and start your 21-day paralegal business plan inside the Society for $9.99/mth. Cancel any time!