Work Backwards From the Life You Want

When I first started thinking about my firm, I felt the same pressure most people do. Take on more clients. Keep saying yes. Grow through volume. That's the model you see around you, so it starts to feel like the default. But for me, that never really fit.

I didn't want to build a high-volume firm or work long hours just to keep up with it. So instead of jumping straight into that path, I took a step back. I started contracting, and during that time, I thought carefully about what I actually wanted my day to look like. Then I built from there.

Start with your life, not your firm

The shift for me was simple, but it changed everything. Instead of asking, "How do I grow this firm?" I started asking: What do I actually want my day to look like?

For me, the answer was clear. I didn't want to work extreme hours. I wanted to make a solid living and still be present outside of work. That was the priority. Not the biggest firm. Not the most clients. Just something that fit the way I wanted to live.

That clarity matters more than most people think.

Because once you define that, the rest of the decisions become more grounded.

The problem with building forwards

Most firms are built forward. Meaning, you start with opportunity, take on clients as they come, and grow based on demand. That approach works early on because it helps you learn, and you build momentum. But it also creates a pattern.

If you keep saying yes, your client base grows without a clear limit. Over time, your schedule fills up. Your workload increases. Your flexibility disappears.

And at a certain point, you don't have time to think about what you actually want to change. You're too busy maintaining what you've already built. That's where people start to feel stuck.

What it actually means to work backwards

Working backwards is not complicated. But it does require you to be honest.

You start with your time.

If you only want to work 30 to 35 hours a week, that has implications. It means your client load has to fit inside that constraint.

From there, you can start asking practical questions:

• How much time do I spend per client?
• How many clients can I realistically support?
• What does pricing need to look like to make this work?

This is where things shift. Instead of reacting to growth, you're designing it. You're making decisions based on a clear outcome, not just momentum.

The math is simpler than it seems

A lot of this comes down to basic math. If you want to work a certain number of hours, there's only so much capacity you have. But most people don't think about it this way. They just keep adding clients.

At one point, I walked through a simple version of this. If you have 500 clients, and each one takes even an hour, that's 500 hours of work. Now compress that into a short season. You're looking at 60+ hour weeks, consistently. And that's assuming everything runs efficiently, which it rarely does. Clients don't come in evenly. Work stacks up. Things take longer than expected. The numbers add up quickly. And once you're there, it's hard to unwind.

Why it's hard to change later

This is the part people don't talk about enough. When you have hundreds of clients, you can't just make a clean break. There's financial pressure. You rely on that income.

There's also the human side. These are real relationships. You can't just walk away from them overnight. So even if you realize the model doesn't fit, you feel stuck. That's why being intentional earlier matters. Not because you can't change later, but because the cost of changing gets higher over time.

How most people end up here

It's usually not one big decision. It's a series of small ones. You say yes to a client. Then another. Then another. Each one feels reasonable. But over time, those decisions compound.

That's how people build a firm that doesn't align with what they actually want. Not by making a mistake, but by never stepping back to choose.

Realigning your firm

If you're already in that position, the solution isn't to start over. It's to realign. That doesn't happen all at once. It happens through smaller, more intentional decisions. One of the clearest levers is pricing.

Instead of trying to serve a large number of clients at a lower fee, you can start thinking about serving fewer clients at a higher value. If you reduce your client load and adjust your pricing, you can often maintain a similar level of revenue.

But your day-to-day experience changes completely. You have fewer demands. More space. More control over your time. That's the tradeoff.

The bigger risk is staying in a model that doesn't fit.

The uncomfortable part

This is where people hesitate. Raising prices feels uncomfortable. You worry about losing clients. Letting some clients go feels risky. There's uncertainty in the transition. That's normal.

But what I've seen is that the bigger risk is staying in a model that doesn't fit. Because over time, that mismatch shows up in your energy, your time, and your ability to think clearly about the business. The goal isn't to make drastic changes overnight. It's to start moving in the direction that aligns with what you want.

There is no "right" model

It's important to be clear about this. There isn't one correct way to build a firm. Some people want a high-volume practice. That works for them. Others want a smaller firm with fewer clients and more depth, and that works too. The problem is not the model. The problem is ending up in a model you didn't choose.

At some point, you have to decide what growth means to you. For some people, growth means more clients. For others, it means better alignment. Better pricing. More control over time. Both are valid. But they lead to very different outcomes.

If you don't define it, you'll default to the version that's easiest to measure. Usually, that's volume.

Where to start

If you want to take a more intentional approach, start simple. Set aside 30 minutes and work through this:

Your 30-minute firm reset

1. Define your ideal week: Write down how many hours you actually want to work and what you want your days to look like.
2. Estimate your capacity: Think about how much time each client takes and how many you can realistically support.
3. Review your pricing: Ask whether your current pricing supports that model, or if it depends on volume.
4. Make one small change: Identify one place where you can be more selective or adjust your approach.

You don't need to solve everything at once. You just need to start seeing your business more clearly. It's easy to build a firm by reacting to what comes in. It's harder to build one around what you actually want.

But if you start with your life and work backwards, you give yourself a much better chance of ending up with something that fits. And that's what makes it sustainable.