How to remain ‘in love’ with being a business owner in law

According to this law firm owner, remaining “in love” with your legal firm remains crucial to achieving success — especially during a period of prolonged uncertainty.

Jasmine Siljic • 29 August 2022 • SME Law

How to remain ‘in love’ with being a business owner in law

Caralee Fontenele is the director of Collective Family Law in Queensland and manages her own coaching platform, Scalable Law. Speaking recently on The Lawyers Weekly Show, she revealed how she sustains her passion for running a law firm.

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“For me, I really love the law obviously and the area of law that we practise. But I have an absolute passion for running the business, and I’ve realised that I can impact more people positively by creating an environment that can have leadership levels and can bring on more juniors. So, my role here really is to be a visionary of the firm,” Ms Fontenele said.

Whilst emphasising the sense of purpose that underpins her business ownership, Ms Fontenele opened up about the bitterness that can often build during difficult periods.

“It starts out by having the realisation that, ‘I’m burning out. I’m actually really starting to hate and resent this business’. The challenges are then not being able to pick and choose every single file that comes through the door because you now need cash flow. The reality of keeping the doors open. You are overworked and underpaid. You are working way too many hours, and you don’t know where to best spend your time.

“Whatever it might be, there’s hard things that you go through and patches, and you do lose love for your business and you gain something else which is called resentment. And that’s the worst thing that you can have in your business,” she acknowledged.

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“Unlike employees, they can leave tomorrow. We can’t; we’re stuck. Once you’ve made the decision to be in your business as a business owner, there is really no way out, except either selling or closing. So we have to get through these times.”

Ms Fontenele spoke about strategies to avoid feelings of resentment and maintain being “in love” with the legal firm you run:

“The first one is mindset, and knowing that this isn’t a destination. Being in your business is a journey over time, and it’s not that it’s going to be amazing when you arrive. Because there is no arrival point, our goals keep us going to the next level. But as long as we know that there’s still going to be challenges and you’re still going to have to keep recommitting all the time to this business and to be showing up in the best version of yourself.”
“One of the things is streamlining processes and making things run really smoothly. Law firms can feel very clunky and manual. But if we can automate things as much as possible in our firm and remove yourself from the daily grind of things, it can definitely alleviate you. There’s a streamlined process for everything from debt collection to answering the phone, to how we want our client experience to be.” She describes this as being an “absolute lifesaver” for her.
“Have your messaging right around your marketing so that you are getting your ideal targeted client in the door. And you’re not getting the non-ideal clients that don’t appreciate what you do.”
“Having your goals set out is really, really important. Those are 10-year goals, three-year goals, and one-year goals. They will be the compass to your business and where you’re actually heading ... putting in place goals that are something for you to shine towards really does help you to stay in love with your business.”

Her transition away from client work within the legal firm to a focus on business expansion has allowed her to further “fall in love” with directing a business.

“Once you start really working on your business, rather than in it, and your business starts supporting your life, rather than your life supporting the business — that’s when ... it’s much easier to stay in love with your business,” she said.

Ms Fontenele reflected on her time as a lawyer and encouraged others to prioritise their underlying purpose for being in the industry.

“The business is about impacting and resolving [your clients’] legal pain points. That’s what we do, right? So remembering and getting back to that core of why you’re passionate about the area of law that you practise,” she said.

Being a mother of a 21-year-old legal student, now working in her business, has also enabled new prospects to evolve.

“My thinking has been, ‘maybe this business is going to be a legacy business for my family’, which gives me more purpose and excitement about the business. Or maybe it’s a legacy business for someone else’s family, another lawyer that comes through here and wants to own a law firm.

“So, there’s opportunities there. I think that’s a really exciting prospect,” she mused.

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Caralee Fontenele, click below:

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