Angie’s Success Story

Angie - Multiple Practice Areas

Angie Was Able To Quickly Exit Her Firm In a Few Months So She Could Have Less Stress

PRIMARY GOAL: Make the appropriate changes to quickly reduce the high level of stress she was under from her firm..

When she came to us, Angie was ready to “Do something else.”
Though she had a successful practice with repeat clients and a team, she was stressed by client demands and employee interruptions.
She was working longer and harder than anyone else in her firm. So, every other option she saw was a ‘greener pasture.’
During our Reality Check conference, it became apparent that Angie’s team wasn’t billing enough, resulting in her firm being less profitable than it should be.
Diving further into the situation, we discovered that the team was experienced and capable, but the work Angie was bringing in (she was the sole rainmaker) was too varied.
The firm couldn’t take advantage of the team's expertise because of this variation. This resulted in non-billable time being spent coming up to speed in different areas.
Further, because they weren’t confident in these areas, they interrupted Angie all day long to make decisions they couldn’t or didn’t want to make themselves.

THE CHALLENGE: She was too burnt out to make the needed corrections to her firm in order to sell it for a high price.

The solution seemed simple: Angie should focus on bringing in business that matched the team’s expertise and set up systems to deal with that work.
We would create a plan to develop referral sources and market for those specific types of cases.
As matters came into the firm, the responsible team member would write the process for handling that type of matter so it was handled fully and consistently. Then, Angie would review it and make any final edits.
It would take a few months, but the firm would be more profitable, run smoothly (and with much less input from Angie), and be more salable. More, importantly, it would take a lot of pressure off Angie so she could enjoy the firm and enjoy her life.
The real problem, though, was that Angie had been trying to grind it out for too long. She was spent. She figured she had another year, maybe two, but couldn’t go on after that.
She wanted an in-house position but didn’t want to close the practice, terminate her staff, and abandon her clients.
Angie decided the best option for her was to sell the firm “as-is.” She realized that she wouldn’t receive as much for the firm as she would if she’d fixed the problems and that a buyer would require her to remain with the firm for some time after the closing.
But she was willing to accept that downside in order to move to the next stage of her life.

THE APPROACH: Focus on the strengths of her firm and find a buyer who needs those strengths.

We confidentially marketed the firm directly to other firms in the same area and were able to secure a buyer within a couple of months.
The buyer was primarily looking to add experienced team members to support its current caseload and, secondarily, to add to its client base.
It also had a good marketing process to activate Angie’s former clients.

THE RESULT: She transitioned from the firm as the owner to an in-house position that’s less stressful.

We closed the sale within six months of the Reality Check conference. The sale was structured to reflect Angie’s client relationships with a part of the purchase price contingent upon Angie remaining for a year.
She was to work full-time for several months to transition clients and hand off the team, then part-time through the end of the year.
Once the buyer took over and began dealing with the management issues, Angie’s stress level dropped. She transitioned clients to the buyer, collected the contingent payment, and ultimately found an in-house position.

If you’re ready to sell your practice, call me at 407-649-7777 to set up your complimentary Sale Readiness Assessment.

We help lawyers increase the value of their practices by 25% or more, stop doing work they don’t like, and exit their practices in 24 months or less.

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