Divorce With Dignity Spotlight on Provider Cynthia Hall former paralegal now an independent legal document assistant.
Are you in the legal profession, perhaps specializing in family law, and thinking about opening your own business as an independent Legal Document Assistant? If so, you might be interested in the story of one of our Divorce with Dignity providers, Cynthia Hall.
Prior to her Divorce with Dignity affiliation, she had a divorce support business on her own for 10 years, running her business from home while raising two children. Later she worked as a paralegal for a family law attorney. After being laid off from that job, she decided she wanted to have her own business again, but wanted to avoid all the start-up difficulties of doing everything on her own. She started looking around for an established organization she could join forces with.
Fortunately, she found the Divorce with Dignity (DWD) network. After meeting with me, she decided this was the way for her to go. She wouldn’t have to start off from square one again, as many of the start-up tasks were already done for her, such as a business name, a logo, and a website. We also offered instant name recognition with our nation-wide and growing organization.
Cynthia found the hands-on business training we provide to all our licensees to be very valuable and she feels has contributed to her success. I asked her what she found the most helpful in this training. Her responses included:
- Being taught how to deal with initial client contacts on the phone
- Receiving the training manual to refer back to
- Learning the importance of having a Business Plan (she didn’t have one in her previous business) and getting help with writing hers
She added that the most helpful advice she got was about pricing and staying competitive.She had been worrying a lot about trying to adjust her prices to match competitors, but I advised her that prospective clients, especially those who have been referred by others, are more concerned with what you are offering than with your prices.
So she concentrated on providing great service to her clients. When asked what advice she would give to someone just starting their own business, this was her number one answer. Keep your clients happy, and if some problem does arise, make it right. Your best referrals come from clients who have appreciated your great customer service.
She believes that becoming a DWD provider has helped her achieve more success than she would have had on her own. She likes having a network to go to for procedural questions and advice, and also consults with me by phone every couple of months.
And what advice would she give to someone who is considering becoming a DWD licensee? If you want to have your own business and have a complete network of people available to you for support, this is a great opportunity for you. And the more the network grows, the more it is in the public eye and your referrals will increase.
Being an independent DWD provider has given her the chance to be in control of her time and her earnings, without having to worry about the recession and being laid off again. What she does with her time and how successful she will be is completely up to her, and she likes that. It does take time to build the business, but her revenue has doubled every year since she started as a DWD licensee.
Would she make the decision again to become a DWD licensee? Her answer is absolutely – and she just renewed her contract for another three years.
If you know someone who is in need of peaceful divorce services in the San Francisco/Peninsula area in California please contact Cynthia she would be delighted to help. Cynthia can be reached at:
Cynthia L. Hall
Divorce With Dignity
San Francisco/Peninsula
350 Townsend St., Ste. 255
San Francisco, CA 94107
P. 415-243-4345
If you would like to learn more about owning your own peaceful divorce services business and join the Divorce With Dignity Network, please contact us.
