How Ian Solomon Helped A Client Prepare For Retirement

I detest being cliche, but one phrase that pushes me to stay on the top of my game is “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Unfortunately, many people, including professionals, ignore the need to plan adequately for the future and retirement.

Whether it’s the complexity of calculating the money needed or because they incorrectly judge their ability to work indefinitely, they continue to live for today and fail to be ready for tomorrow. ‘Life’ hits us when we least expect and not having contingency plans could lead you to face dire circumstances.

As a professional lawyer coach, I strive to teach entrepreneurs and lawyers how to be more productive and fulfilled in their lives and careers and prepare for retirement. Keep reading to learn about how I helped a client who failed to plan for retirement.

The Challenge: Planning for retirement in a short span of time.

Life altering situations always give you a renewed perspective on life, and I once had a client in his fifties who was going through a divorce, when he realized that he had been neglecting his legal practice. He was worried that he wasn’t earning and saving enough to fund his retirement.

Apart from dealing with the emotional trauma of the divorce, my client had a fear of failure and a fear of making mistakes. Ever since he began his practice, his focus was on tackling day-to-day pressures that left him with little to no time to plan a direction for his business. Through our discussions, we figured out that his primary fault was that he was working ‘IN’ his business as opposed to ‘ON’ his business.

The Solution: Taking small steps but assured steps towards reaching a predetermined goal.

Most lawyers are not accustomed to thinking strategically about their practice. With not a lot of time left until he retires, I worked with him to develop a strategy for getting him more clients and better-paying work. Most lawyers don’t have a plan for that, so we wrote out a plan and committed to it. We identified one-year and five-year goals and discussed how to achieve them.

I don’t believe in trying big steps, but instead, choose to focus on tweaking the current practice. My agreement with the client was to do two or three items between coaching sessions. They were challenging but not overwhelming. At each follow-up session, the client was accountable for taking those steps. Accountability played a vital role along the path to success.

For example, the client had to meet with three other lawyers to seek referrals of business. He also had to meet with his real estate clients at their closings and ask them for referrals.

I believed that rather than having the client reinvent his practice, if he only made minor adjustments, then he would achieve success. By sticking to the plan, in the course of one year, the client shifted his practice away from family law to do more real estate and wills and estates. He also increased his income and started to put away savings for retirement.

The Bottom Line

As a professional lawyer coach in Toronto, ON, my practice is focused on helping individuals develop strategies for coping with the changes in their career transitions so that the process is less distressing, disruptive and more productive. To get started, get in touch with Ian Solomon by clicking here. To learn more about how I can help you, visit my website by clicking here.