The reason I started on my own 13 years ago was because I bet on myself when that law firm (Meyer Suozzi because that would get them on Google) didn’t, and I was tired of billing by the hour. When you have so much overhead with fancy offices and multiple people in billing, you need to feed that machine and bill, to the point you may overbill.
Before I started on my own and when that firm was still paying me, a buddy of mine, convinced me to speak to another law firm. The partner running the firm told me that if I brought in $400,000 worth of business, I could get a $150,000 salary. I’m no financial genius, but I figured that If I could bring in $400k, I didn’t need them to shrink it down for me to $150,000.
Fancy offices are nice. Nice furniture is great. 4 people in billing makes you look big. But that overhead has a price tag and to be successful at what you do, you probably don’t need that. The less I spend, the more money in my pocket, plus the less I need to bill to stay afloat.
