I never set out to be a “landlord”, but looking back, it’s clear my entire professional career led me to this place.I have been a self-employed corporate lawyer for most of my legal career. Early on, I was experiencing the same frustrations many other solos attorneys face: inconsistent revenues, no time for marketing, and the isolation that comes with being a solo attorney.At the insistence of a colleague, I joined a shared law office suite with attorneys that had complementary practices. Almost immediately, I found by sharing an office with other solos, some of the challenges I faced got resolved.Most notably, I received a steady stream of referrals and I was able to co-counsel on projects, allowing me to keep more business. And the beauty of it was, I never had to leave my office to nurture these relationships. That experience forever changed the way I thought about office space. I started to see it as my biggest asset.Small firm practice can be one of the most challenging ways to earn a living. But it can also be incredibly rewarding. There’s nothing like closing a huge deal, winning a big settlement or landing a whale of a client, and knowing you did it on your own. So when I got an opportunity to open a shared office suite, I created a system to give any lawyer the tools be successful at solo law practice. This system, which is the basis of our attorney coworking space Law Firm Suites, builds supportive communities, generates referrals and creates practice efficiency, took off on its own. Several years later, we took this same system and used it to help small businesses in a second coworking brand, Ripple Coworking, with locations in Florida.With our focus on community, we have helped launch dozens of law firms and small businesses with a 92% success rate. We have seen clients get opportunities they would have never imagined possible when they first hung their shingle.It’s rewarding to know that this system I stumbled into because I was trying to solve some of my own problems as a professional service business owner, has played a key role in our clients’ success. It’s what I set out to do in the beginning of my career: help entrepreneurs be more successful. It continues to drive everything I do as a professional.