Think You Won't Have a Boss If You Start Your Own Company? Think Again.

In this series, professionals share how they embrace the entrepreneurial mindset. See the stories here, then write your own (use #BetheBoss in the post).

As a lawyer who “went on my own” way back in 1991, I often heard colleagues remark how nice it must be to not have a boss. Little did they know how wrong they were. Yes the “supervisor” was gone, but all that did was to eliminate the middleman.

In other words, the client, the one who pays the bills, the one who keeps your lights on, is always the boss. It’s just that when you “go on your own,” you report directly to them, not to a supervisor, or “boss” within the firm. And as your quantity of clients grows, so do the number of bosses you have. And that is the difference. So in essence, working for a company or a person, is easier in many ways. You report to one person. Of course, if you do not get along with that person, you have a problem. But if you do get along with him or her, great.

When you are on your own, you hope you like your clients, but even if you do not, you may still do business with them. The good news is that if one fires you (or you fire them), hopefully you have others and you still have a job (as opposed to when you work for a company and your boss fires you).

So make no mistake, going on your own does not leave you free of a boss. But if you enjoy the thrill of the chase, the dread of the unknown, the challenge of it all riding upon your own efforts, then going on your own may be for you. I was able to do it before having a family and in fact, often thought of, and still think of the business as my baby. I cared for it, loved it, nurtured it, and raised it. Eventually I needed help and now rely on many others to help keep it going.

The most important thing, in my humble opinion, is to hire the very best people you can. In almost any business the most important resource you have is your people. This is especially true in the service business, and for family lawyers, it couldn’t be truer. The better the people who work with you are, the easier your life will be and the more successful you should be. Even if it costs, it’s worth it. Think of it as an investment. If you put money into the stock market, what will be your return? If you hire someone who can make you money, hopefully the returns will be much better. And if they save you time, even better (so you can continue to do the things that got you there, developing more business contacts, improving your skill set).

So how do you decide if it is worth it to you? I think it depends on your goals, or better yet, how you define success. To me, having time to do the things I love (and fortunately for me, practicing family law is one of the things I love), is the ultimate goal. And I have accomplished that. I have time to practice law and to travel with my family (my other passion) and write while others run the shop and do the administrative work. Of course, the basis for all of this is a strong foundation of referral sources so that we have clients who hire us, pay the bills, and refer other clients to us. Building that foundation took years of working 24/7 and responding at all hours of the day and night by phone, email and text, to inquiries and networking opportunities while also building my skill set by attending as many continuing legal education seminars as possible.

And in the end, even had I failed, I would know that I tried. Maybe I was lucky, but going on my own, leaving a place/job where I was not happy (even though I worked as hard as I could), has made all the difference in my life, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.