[sf-perl] [OT] Infrastructure for consulting [e.g. CPA, lawyers...]

[George Hartzell]

Hi All,

This is off topic, but I think that there are a fair number of
freelancers on this list and I'd like to pick your brains a bit.  And
it does relate to Perl programming.

I've been on an apparently quixotic quest to find good support for my
small consultancy (an LLC) for years.

"Everyone knows" that you should have a lawyer check out your
contracts before you sign (I actually believe this) and I constantly
feel just a little bit nervous that I'm going to get in trouble for
failing to renew some piece of fed/state/local paperwork.

To date I've relied on favors from friends who are lawyers and put up
with CPA's that are happy to type my numbers into their copy of
quicken [and might actually be useful for other tax aspects in my
life] but don't seem to be set up to help a [very] small business.
And I've spent a lot of time cozied up with Nolo press books.

I've come to appreciate my Mac and OS X lately, I tired of taking the
time to monkey around with getting a nice FreeBSD laptop setup and I
have better things to do.  My Mac is a good-enough (for me...) unix-y
box that let's me just get on with "it".

In the same vein, I'd like to find some help for my [very small]
business.  I'm tired of reading Nolo books and ca.gov web sites and
crossing my fingers and hoping I've gotten it right.

I'd love to have a relationship with a lawyer who'd be happy to see me
once or twice a year to review a contract and touch base.  I'd really
love to find someone who had a checklist that covered all of the
things that a small LLC needs to do every year and would
prompt/help/supplement me through them.

I'm in Oakland, CA, and/but would be thrilled to find these things
anywhere in the Bay Area or possibly even beyond.

How to all y'all handle this kind of stuff?

g.