PLAN No. 671. ATTORNEYS BUILD LAW PRACTICE ON COLLECTION
These two attorneys realized that in starting in the law practice in a city of 100,000 was a very difficult matter, and this is the way they did it: They opened offices and started in the collection business. They did not make it on a commission basis, but on a certain amount per week, which would enable them to know just what their income would be.
They went among the cheaper stores of the community and secured their collections at very low rates. One took one side of the city in the morning and in the afternoon, the second took the other side of the city, thereby leaving one man in the office all the time. Their law office was a desk in a real estate man’s office. In this manner they finally built up a large collection business from which came a good many cases. In about a year they were able to have an office of their own. With reference to the other expenses, they were both single men, and so built a house outside of the city, somewhat removed from the business section. They lived over a year and a half in this manner; did their own cooking and so their living expenses were reduced to a minimum. They took more collections, and continued to work. A few cases began to come in; and they finally built a very good law practice. This took two or three years, but when once acquired the business was permanent.
During the war, when business was slack, they resorted to the same method of getting in touch with the public, and keeping a permanent income flowing into the firm. While this plan is not strewn with roses, yet if pursued with the same determination it will result in establishing a practice in the large city.