We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Beau Hoffman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Beau below.
Hi Beau, thanks for joining us today. What’s the best advice you ever gave to a client? How did they benefit / what was the result?
The best advice I have for my clients–and other professionals–is that no professional can give comprehensive advice. Meaning, the attorney doing estate planning, business set-up, or real estate transaction cannot give a client long-term financial advice, professional advice on insurance, tax advice, or advice on how to best list and sell a business or real estate, or how to most beneficially structure a loan. Similarly, a banker, financial advisor, loan officer, accountant, realtor or insurance agent cannot give legal advice.
A good professional will understand a lot about the other professional industries, but not enough to make them an expert in that field. A good professional will “know enough to be dangerous” when it comes to other professions. What I know for sure is that everything I do on the legal side for my clients will impact the work that other professionals provide. As a result, clients need a professional who has an existing relationship (or can quickly create a professional relationship with) other professionals. My job is not to tell my clients what to do, because what makes the most sense legally may not make sense based on the tax consequences it creates. To determine what advice is truly best for a client, to ensure we find the best possible outcome for a client’s unique scenario, we need all of of the client’s professionals working together.
Parents often ask their spouse, “Did our kids play well with others today?” It is time to start asking the same of your professionals. If you have a professional who isn’t quick to recognize their limitations, pick up the phone, and call your other professionals, it’s time to look elsewhere. Demand that your professionals work well with your other professionals.
Beau, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’ve had an odd journey to the legal profession. I grew up in a blue-collar family in which my dad always ran his own construction business and my mom was an administrative assistant. They were hard-working parents who would do whatever was needed to make things work. If our family ever had a hard month financially, my dad would work twice as many hours, take on twice as many jobs, and do whatever was required to provide for our family. Obviously, this was a great trait for my brother and I to learn.
When I became a teenager, I started helping out on the construction jobs. About that time my dad’s business primarily shifted from residential homes to log home restoration [see article on my brother and the business he runs with my father here: https://canvasrebel.com/meet-
Law school was the answer. Although I spent many long nights studying, the fear of hanging off that ladder and being perpetually covered in stain proved to be a sufficient motivator.
Ironically, people like my father are my primarily client base. I guess I still work for him and others like him. I represent a lot of small business owners and truly pride myself on helping them start, form and grow successful businesses, and protect their families. I want my clients to focus on their passion and their work by knowing that I can take care of the rest. Seeing my dad run his businesses all those years helped provide me an understanding of the problems that I can solve for my clients and the risks that I can help them mitigate.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
We have several mottos in our firm, but I want to highlight one of them: “‘Good enough’ is never good enough.”
If you are looking to add more clients and grow your business, the best way to do that is to ensure that you are providing the best work product possible. That means you will need to spend countless hours studying the smallest details of your specific field. You will need to call other experts and ask for their advice on unique issues. You will need to read, write, analyze, outline, create charts and spreadsheets and strategies. You will need to train your support staff to do the same. Because going above and beyond for every client that you already have is the number one way to increase your client base–and not doing that is the number one way to decrease your client base.
Our firm does not advertise. We do not market or put any effort into finding new clients. That is because the practice of doing the little things with perfection was instilled in our firm by an attorney almost 50 years ago. That practice has been passed down over the years to each attorney. We do not cut corners. We do not look for the easy solution. If you do the same, soon you will not be asking how to grow your client base but, instead, how to find more time to get the work completed.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
I spent several years working for a larger firm in which I mostly practiced medical malpractice defense. The attorneys were brilliant. We handled large litigation cases representing doctors and health care systems. While I learned a lot from that job that made me a better attorney, the most valuable lesson I learned was that I had to find out how to be myself. It took me several grueling years of trying to fit into a mold that I was never meant to fit before I eventually became burned out. I recall one day in particular waking up around 2:00 a.m., stressed beyond comprehension, going into work and working until 8:00 p.m. that evening. My wife was worried about me. And I wish I could tell you that I accomplished a lot that day, but I didn’t. When you are that stressed, and are trying to be something inconsistent with who you really are, you end up being extremely inefficient. I didn’t want to represent large health systems, I wanted to represent people like my father. I wanted to represent regular people with their regular problems. I wanted to provide expert legal advice to the blue collar workers who keep our country running. It took years of stress and exhaustion before I eventually realized that.
I heard of Jeremiah (the other attorney in our firm) from several mutual acquaintances. I pushed as hard as I could to get a meeting with him because I knew I needed a change. Any change. He was busy but, thankfully, he was was willing to meet with me. He explained to me that he only does “happy law.” He helps people buy and sell real estate, start, grow, buy and sell businesses, do their estate planning, and develop their properties. He didn’t do litigation, handle disputes, family law or custody, or criminal law. He explained that those are valuable fields of law in which people can have a successful career, but it just wasn’t “for him.” We both quickly realized that we would make a great team.
I have now been working with Jeremiah for over 5 years and the bonds within our firm and with our clients continue to grow. It is amazing the difference it can make when you get to do something you love and are passionate about instead of trying to be something you don’t want to be in a system you don’t want to be in. As a young professional, I had the misconception that thriving at a particular job was the only way to be successful. I encourage anyone reading not to think of it that way. You are not meant to thrive at every job in this world, or even every job within your field of work. You have to be able to be your true and authentic self to thrive. You will be happier and more successful when your personality and passion fuels your work ethic instead of draining it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://axrunklelaw.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beau-hoffman-24ba655b/