THE BUSINESS LEARNING CURVE

There are many reasons a credentialed professional might choose to work at a big national firm rather than strike out on their own. Beyond the allure of becoming a partner or securing a corner office at a prestigious downtown outfit, established firms come with a number of practical benefits, including the infrastructure it takes to run a successful business.

After spending years studying to become a doctor, lawyer or a credentialed professional of another occupation, professionals likely want to focus on applying their expertise, and not spend valuable time learning how to bookkeep, market their services or manage client issues.

And even though many credentialed professionals often follow an education path that combines theory with practical experience, residencies, articling or other kinds of professional practicums rarely focus on the business of the profession – or what it takes to open, run and grow a successful business.

“In order to go out on your own, you do need to have business plan, and think through your business development, your infrastructure, your cost and what revenue you are going to need,” says Kerry Simmons, executive director of the Canadian Bar Association’s BC Branch.

“As a lawyer you either need to hire somebody to guide you in that or make sure you learn it yourself because you don’t learn how to establish a business from your education up until that point.”

Simmons says this is part of the reason new and emerging lawyers might be more interested in joining established firms rather than starting up their own practices.

But the majority of lawyers in British Columbia – 58 per cent – work for firms with five or fewer lawyers, meaning that they – or at least, their colleagues – have likely had to develop and hone their business skills for themselves, without the luxury of a large firm’s institutional infrastructure.

This is an experience lawyer and Paperclip Law founder Elizabeth Mah knows well.

“Ultimately, in the beginning you end up doing all of it, and I have been there before,” she says.

“I did the marketing, I did the accounting and finance and the billing. The burnout is really intense and the parts that you are good at suffer.” Mah completed an undergraduate degree in business before becoming a lawyer. Her initial experience in the legal world left a sour taste in her mouth, she says. She wanted a less competitive and more collaborative and customer-facing environment – one that better reflected her values. So she set out own her own.

Mah credits her success to the diverse skillset she developed outside of law school, including her experiences working for a stint in hospitality. She says her time in event planning taught her how to manage client interactions, and helped her develop good customer-relation skills.

Business school courses also gave her an appreciation for business fundamentals, like accounting and marketing, she says.

But even with the leg up of business education and real-world business experience, Mah still says she recognized she couldn’t successfully run a business all by herself. She says she learned the importance of hiring and trusting a team. She also had to learn to understand her own limitations and accept that no one can be an expert in all things.

When it comes to advice for young professionals debating whether to strike out on their own, Mah says the hardest part is building a team where the members share the founder’s vision and work well together. This builds the foundation for a successful, scalable firm, she says.

Mah also suggests that young entrepreneurs spend some time working at an established firm instead of setting up their own practice right after being called to the bar. This allows young calls to focus on improving as a lawyer before needing to also focus on establishing a business.

When the time is right to start a firm, May says to think big.

“I’ve found a theme among entrepreneurs is that everyone regrets not thinking bigger,” she says. “That scalability and assistance early on tremendously assists with leveraging and pushing the business into profit so much earlier.”

Thinking big – or rather, trying not to think small or short-term – applies to all kinds of decisions. Being too focused on competing on price point can lead entrepreneurs to miss opportunities and undervalue the unique benefits they bring to the table.

“Hire people earlier, don’t go for the cheap website that you’ll need to pay to update in a year, invest in yourself and in your business now,” says Mah. í

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