I Know I Have to Leap …

For the past 2 years or so, I’ve been saying I’m not taking on any new estate planning clients.   I’ve been promising myself that any month now I’d have a solution to keeping the law firm open so it can service my existing clients without me having to see anyone new.  Months have now turned into years and still no solution.

Each time I believe I’ve found the right lawyer to come in and take over, something happens.  First, there were Carla and Gina.  Both, great lawyers, but moms first and with no desire whatsoever to run their own law firm, let alone mine.  They were happy enough to just see clients and let me handle the operations.

Then, there was Eric.  He picked up everything I taught him right away and was engaging loads of clients, but he didn’t want to drive from Studio City to the South Bay.  Then, he decided to leave the law business altogether and go to work in the Trust department at Mother Merrill.  That was a shocker!

Next came Amy,  a great lawyer who would have been perfect given some time to build up her confidence, but then she got preggo with baby number 3 and retreated to the security of a law firm salary.

And Lisa, the best yet.  I had such high hopes for Lisa, but she’s building a Personal Family Lawyer practice in Valencia, about as far from the South Bay as you can get and still be in Los Angeles County and thanks to what she’s implementing as part of the Personal Family Lawyer program, she’s having too much success up there to give it all up and take over in the South Bay.

At this point, I’m out of safe options for making this work, or so it seems.

My current plan of action –

1.  Meet with my bookkeeper tomorrow to see what the financials would look like if I stopped taking on new clients and let go of all of the variable expenses related to new clients;

2.  Talk to landlord about current lease and brainstorm options for keeping the use of my space on an as-needed basis while making it available to one or more other service professionals for meetings; and

3.  If all else fails, work up the courage to leap without a safety net.