Stop. Don’t buy a smartphone. Don’t rent a space. Don’t make business cards. There will be time for that later.

The first thing to do, the very first thing, is not to buy something, it’s to sell something. Find a person that needs what you’re offering and get them to buy it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a simple divorce or a complicated property division negotiation. Sell something before you go to work creating your ideal office environment.

This might feel backward. You may feel like you need the perfect office before you can see a client. Don’t believe it. It’s not that important. Sell yourself first, then work on the rest. If you don’t enjoy the selling, if you can’t do it or find you can only do it by slashing your price to next to nothing, them reconsider your plan. Putting the selling first forces you to figure out if opening your own office really makes sense for you.

All that other stuff will take care of itself after you have some clients. Buying things and renting space is easy. If you’re making so much money that you don’t have time to buy an iPhone or a Blackberry then you can pay someone to do it for you.

Since we focus on divorce here, let me give you some specifics about what to do to get your first client.

First, call everyone you know – colleagues, former classmates, judges, friends, family, neighbors, people you buy things from (restaurant owners, dry cleaner, car repair shop owner, etc.) and tell them what you’re doing. Explain your passion for helping people divorce. Ask them if they know anyone that needs your services. Ask them to let that person know you’re available and anxious to help. A great book on this topic is You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself. Harry Beckwith, the author, is a lawyer turned marketer with very practical advice.

Second, do it some more. Invite people to meet for coffee, lunch, whatever, and tell them about your passion for your work. Get advice from them, get to know them better, keep reminding them of what you’re doing. At each meeting, ask the other person who else you should be getting to know and then go meet that person. Do at least two coffees and one lunch (or two) everyday until you can’t spare the time because of your caseload.

Finally, do the work for the clients that come. Do a terrific job for every client. Ask them to tell their friends about you.

If, at that point, you need to buy phones, office space, pens and pencils, then go ahead and buy them. But if the work isn’t coming then don’t worry about the stuff. Worry about more meetings with potential referral sources.