Dear Nina:
You have been one of our expert guest writers for the last several years, and our readers have received great advice from you. Thank you for your contribution. We would like to learn more about you and your business this time.
EB. Could you tell us about your background and your decision to start your own business?
Nina Kaufman
EB. What were the biggest challenges you faced as you started growing your business? How did you overcome them?
NK. I wish I could say it was a well thought out plan, complete with market research, long experience in my field, and a full-blown written business plan. Well, it wasn’t. I had been practicing law for about four years when I recognized four important truths about my experience working for other law firms: (1) I was not seeing women become partners of these firms . . . which made me concerned about my career advancement prospects; (2) the attorneys were not being taught within the firm to develop specialized skills–rather, they were hired from other firms because they already had those skills (for example, trial advocacy skills); and (3) I was not encouraged to learn about networking and to develop my own client base. The fourth “truth” was that I was really unhappy in these job situations. Deep down, I believed that the issue (for me) was not the legal profession itself, but that I had not yet found the place where I could feel fulfilled practicing law.
My biggest challenge was I was starting from scratch without a clue of how to build a business. I had no client base to bring with me to get started. I had no idea where clients would come from. I had never built a client base before. I had no business development role models: both parents had worked for corporations; their lawyer friends had gone in-house; my then-business partner had mostly worked for other firms; no law school friends had started their own practice; none of my other friends were entrepreneurs. I didn’t know how to ask for help, or what kind of help I needed. Like Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark, “I’m making this up as I go along.” All I had was the burning desire to build my own practice.
Without support, training, or prior experience building a law practice, I needed to surround myself with like-minded people. Luckily (and strategically), my target market was entrepreneurs and small businesses. And, while most people who know me would never believe it, I’m a shy person at heart. Attending networking events through the National Association of Women Business Owners, LeTip/BNI and other business-related organizations put me in touch with potential clients and the education I needed about rainmaking. They also gave me the tools to get out of my shell.
EB. When is the right time for a woman entrepreneur to consult with a business attorney?
NK. It’s never too early to speak to your friendly neighborhood business attorney. 🙂 I The best time for woman entrepreneur to consult with the business attorney is during the planning stages of her business. Legal issues have a nasty way of smacking you on the bottom (or in the face) when you least want them to and especially when you don’t have the money to pay for them. By consulting with the business attorney from the get-go, you are able to identify the issues you’ll be facing, their anticipated urgency, and roughly what it will cost you to deal with them.
For example, if a woman entrepreneur hasn’t set aside enough funds to pay for her business formation, initial contracts, and website terms and conditions, she could find herself in a position where she’s afraid to spend money to have the things done properly and timely. And she may feel even more frenzied because she’s got to get this business up and running and generating enough cash for her to meet her personal expenses. So on the one hand, she may not have enough money to pay for legal services (because she hasn’t planned properly) and on the other she may be legally exposed in a way that could cost her even more money should something go awry. By getting a sense of the legal issues that are likely to arise and what it will cost, she can make a sounder decision about the timing for making the leap and the initial investment she’ll need to make. She will also have the added advantage of starting to build her “success team.”
EB. Tell us about your new program “The Entrepreneur’s Prenup: How to Choose a Business Partner Who Won’t [bleep] You”, and what inspired you to create it.
NK. They say that “experience is the name we give to our mistakes.” 🙂 I had been working with business partnership issues for a number of years in my entrepreneur-focused legal practice. For marketing reasons, I started writing and blogging on the subject of business partnerships, and even self-published an earlier version of The Entrepreneur’s Prenup (under a different title). It listed 100 key questions in 10 different subject areas that I thought entrepreneurs would find helpful in screening and choosing their business partners. The odd thing was, in the course of writing the book, I was subconsciously asking myself all these questions regarding my own business partner at the time. And boy, was I uncomfortable with the answers I received!
Through the process of unraveling that business partnership, I began to see more clearly than ever what lead to its demise and how I contributed to it by ignoring red flags. Being a couple of years “older and wiser” than I was when I wrote the first book, I thought it was time to revise, revisit, and revamp the subject. Hey, if my program can save a woman business owner tens of thousands of dollars of heartache, it will have been well worth it.
EB. This month’s theme is “When all else fails…”, What would be the first step someone whose business partnership isn’t working should take?
NK. The very first step is to get yourself in the right mindset. The fact that a business partnership does not work out is not necessarily a failure. I learned just as much (if not more) about myself, my strengths, and my power as an entrepreneur in closing my business partnership as I did in the 12 years that it had been active.
The second step–and it’s something I didn’t do until it was too late–is to bring in a third party to help facilitate the difficult conversations you’ll need to have with your business partner. A threshold question is, “is this partnership worth salvaging?” If there’s something to be salvaged, but you and your partner have developed a dysfunctional pattern of working and relating, the two of you may not have the objective perspective you need to get the business back on track. That’s where a third party can help. Or, if you decide that the partnership can’t be saved, you’ll have to confront the details of dividing the partnership assets and winding up the company. Again, having a third party in the mix can help ensure that both partners remain accountable to the process, and don’t lapse into sabotaging behaviors. This is especially helpful if you don’t have a written partnership agreement.
EB. What do you find most rewarding as a business owner?
NK. I adore the freedom, flexibility, and creativity! I’m not chained to a desk churning out dozens of billable hours of work every day. I enjoy variety in what I do and how I structure each day. I love the creative opportunities to write articles, develop products, give back through legal education, and speak to entrepreneurs. And I control my destiny and career prospects (the control freak within appreciates that!). This would never have developed had I continued working for somebody else. And let’s not forget one of the great advantages to the Internet age: the ability to work remotely. I can be in my PJs, at a spa, or in Starbucks, and still be productive, engaged, and in touch with my clients and colleagues.
EB. What advice would you give an aspiring entrepreneur?
NK. Entrepreneurship is not a walk in the park–it’s more like a marathon. It involves a lot of long hours, a lot of trial and error, attention to detail, a certain amount of money, and an extraordinary degree of persistence and dedication. Do you have that? If not, you may be better off investing in a lottery ticket.
Assuming you have the intestinal fortitude to take this on, I think the most important thing you can do is to create a “success team.” There is no way on God’s green earth that you can know and be excellent in every area to get your business up and running. There are legal issues, tax issues, accounting issues, financial planning issues, insurance issues, financing issues, employee issues, marketing issues, administrative issues, client management issues–to name just a few. Maybe you know some of them, but not necessarily all of them. You want to be sure you line up the right people who can give you the advice you’ll need.
Another important component of your “success team” is having some sort of colleague or coach who can keep you focused on the vision, looking at the horizon, and give you the encouragement you need to keep plugging forward.
EB. Are there any other questions you wished I had asked, from which you feel Women and Biz’s readers could learn valuable lessons?
NK. Lawyers always love to get the last word in, and here’s mine: what. What made you want to be an entrepreneur? What made you want to start this business? What are your passions? And how can they be expressed through the business? What do you want this business to do for you? After all, the business needs to serve you, your personal dreams and goals, and your lifestyle. If all you are is the servant of your business, you have worked yourself into a job with a witch for a boss (you).
I have a bee in my bonnet about these questions because I spent years as an entrepreneur without a clear sense of where I wanted to end up. And as Yogi Berra said, “if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else.” Initially, I was so excited about the launching and running of my company, that I paid no attention to the “end game.” How much money do I need to earn from this business? Is it in fact generating enough to meet my needs and desires? What will I do if it doesn’t? After a time, I developed the habit of working for working’s sake (thankfully, that has definitely changed). That’s not an entrepreneurial life; it’s a life of self-imposed servitude. But your life and your business don’t have to be that way.
Ask yourself this: if you were working for someone else and putting in the hours you’re working for the pay you’re receiving and doing the kind of work you’re doing, would you be happy? Would that be enough for you? If the answer is “no,” congratulations! You now have identified an opportunity–an opportunity for change that can enhance your life.
For more information, visit http://www.askthebusinesslawyer.com/