technolese

I have a friend, another sole practitioner, who pretty much works every day except Saturday; he does it as much because he likes his work as because he has a lot of it—a great “problem” to have. Because I used to do this in the beginning as well (except that my day off was Sunday), I can definitely relate to such an extended workweek.

No doubt that when we first start out, we need to invest whatever time it takes to build the practice; and we may be fulfilling the roles that in a more established business are delegated to others. But after a while, it becomes evident that we cannot do everything, especially as we grow a family.

I soon realized that no only did I want time off to have a life, it was a schedule I couldn’t stick to after the first two years. My mantra became “there must be another, easier way” to do this—“this” being able to continue as a solo practitioner doing the kind of work I like while being able to make a reasonably good living at it without working six days a week.

I don’t think there is an ideal set of work habits, as such, that a solo practitioner (or any other profession or position) has to have. What I have found out from speaking to other solos who work a “normal” work week, is that there is an ideal set of work habits that work well according to the solo who know his strengths and weaknesses. These strengths and weaknesses seem to be related to the time when we are at our best as well as the type of work we do within that time.

For example, I work best in the early morning hours up until about 1 p.m., but I am worthless between the hours just after 1 pm and about 3 pm—everything seems to take twice the effort as it did in the mornings. After 3 pm, I seem to catch my second wind for another two or three hours, and work seems to flow just as effortlessly as it did earlier in the day. Another solo friend seems to work best from about noon until 8 or 9 pm, no weekend work either.

But how effective and efficient I am during the time I actually work within my personal sweet spot depends on the kinds of things that I concentrate on—the kinds of things that I do well. I’ve had to learn to let go of some of the need for control of things which, when seen in the larger perspective of the practice, are important but not critical for me to personally handle, don’t play to my strengths, and don’t provide a valuable service to the client. It is the old “control” thing: I’ve had to learn to develop ways to delegate after appropriate training.

As we all know, more is not necessarily better. What about you? What works best for you in your solo practice when it comes to your work habits.

I am a firm believer in having no accounts receivables. Of course, this is not always possible because of the nature of the case and because some of our clients need our help in paying us by entering into payment terms. So I always shoot for the next best thing: making it easier for the client to pay up front as much of the fee as possible in flat-fee matters; in litigated cases where the client chooses the standard billable hour instead of the flat fee, clients pays the standard retainer.

The key that has helped make it easier for clients to pay me as agreed is to spend some time clearly explaining to the client how and when they are expected to pay for the services I provide. As solos we sometimes shy away from discussing “the Fee.” In conversations with fellow practitioners about how we handle getting paid, I always think about the proverbial white elephant in the room; it’s there, but no one wants to really talk about it.

But the thing is that when you spend time discussing this with clients, including fees to be paid up front and how future payments will be handled, clients are relieved because they know what to expect, will not be surprised later, and can budget better to pay for your services—or even to decide to scale back on some of the services while still letting you help them solve their legal problem. It’s been my experience that being clear about this results in almost no noncollectable amounts. For larger firms, this is not an issue; but for many solo practitioners it continues to be a challenge.

Getting paid on time is not really an issue for the solo practitioner who addresses fees with a client in straightforward manner, has at least a simple system to collect payments (especially if done electronically), and works the system consistently. This usually results in a higher quality of life for the solo. Our life is improved tremendously when we can concentrate on doing the work we love to do (presumably we still love it) without having to worry about how we are going to pay our professional and personal bills. From this worry-free zone, we can provide our best service to each client.

Consider sharing your questions, challenges and solutions to getting paid for our services by way of the comments. I am always interested in hearing the stories of other solos.

For us lawyers to stay in business, the business has to consistently generate a profit. That means our law practice has to bring in enough for us to pay our overhead and let us take some money home to take care of our family—even if our “family” is just a single, newly-graduated lawyer.

As we know, controlling overhead is the key to a profitable business. A solo practitioner setting up his or her solo practice will have to consider, for example, the following when it comes to overhead: telephones, computer equipment, perhaps software equipment beyond what comes standard with any computer, staff (a secretary or receptionist if justified by the volume of work), rent for a traditional space and some money (or time) for marketing consistently.

Thanks to technology, we can generate a good income (net profit) if we take some time to build a practice that will let us deliver our best service to our clients at a cost that by traditional standards is really minimal.

Controlling our expenses when it comes to these things leads to profitability and a higher quality of life as a solo practitioner. Finding out how they work and the cost is easy because of the availability of information, including reviews from users, which can be invaluable in terms of helping us decide which services to choose.

If you’ve found ways to minimize overhead that work for you better than others, I would love to hear about your experience.