Day One of "The 21st Century Lawyer: Lifestyle Design with a Virtual Law Office"

This is my first of a five-part series on Rachel Rodgers' teleclass, "The 21st Century Lawyer: Lifestyle Design with a Virtual Law Office." I hope to post brief responses to the four individual classes within an hour or two after the class ends. The last post of the series will be an overall review (and recommendation, I'm sure!) of the class as a whole and a response to the information I glean from it. Part one, after the jump.

Tonight's class, as I expected (sort of), was less substantive than I expect the other three sessions to be. Rachel talked a lot about motivating and overcoming fears that go with starting out on your own or undertaking a new venture. I've talked a bit about those things already in my post about my concerns regarding the launch of a virtual law office. I do want to talk about one thing that Rachel touched on at the end of tonight's session, though.

The last few pages of the handout for the first session contained a guide for formulating a life plan. I like this idea and plan to incorporate elements of it into my business plan. The life plan focuses on your goals for your personal life as a means of helping you focus your approach to doing business. Some elements of the life plan are short-term; others seem more long-term.

Things like your ideal house size, your children (or whether you even want to have children), and your work schedule (or even retirement) help you focus on the "distant" future of your business. Work style and preferences, income levels, and personal health habits all help you make short-term decisions that enable you to experience your ideals.

If I can get Rachel's permission, I'll try to get a PDF posted to share the life plan portion of tonight's handout. I think every attorney planning to strike out on their own should address the items covered by Rachel's life plan. Also, I hope some of my classmates will be willing or interested in commenting on these posts, as my experience in the class is certainly not going to be the only valid one. More input = better information!

Finally, check back tomorrow for a post on my initial findings regarding some of the major SaaS providers in the VLO area.