On the other hand, if you are able to come to a business agreement quickly (and without one of you railroading the other), and you have common business goals and values, and you can agree on everything from office space to what software to use, by all means, go for it.

What we did not see eye to eye on was running a business: how to handle billing and collections, which clients we wanted to take on, hiring and firing employees, bringing on other attorneys, time management, staff management, book keeping, software, which phone system to use, office space, what Internet provider we wanted and other management decisions. Everything like that caused little, day-to-day crises and took up way too much of our time.

If you go into business with someone, talk about how those decisions will be made, and who ultimately will have the final say, before you hang that shingle.

Dennis C–you should write a post about your experience-I’m sure many would like to hear it. I can say for myself that I’ve thought of going back to being under someone else’s thumb, but managed to talk myself down. Congrats on returning to solo world!

Could you comment more on this? I’ve heard it before, but I can’t figure out what it means. I’m curious because a law school friend and I are considering going into business together after school.