Take a moment to reflect on what you have accomplished through your entrepreneurial pursuits and consider whether those accomplishments align with your original intentions.
Marc Yonker is a personal injury attorney dedicated to providing a uniquely personal level of assistance and support to clients of Winters & Yonker, the Tampa Bay-area personal injury firm he founded with Bill Winters in 2001. With close to 25 years of experience specializing in personal injury law, Mr. Yonker is known for his expertise in taking on the biggest and most powerful insurers while working on behalf of clients seeking the compensation to which they are rightfully entitled.
Prior to founding Winters & Yonker, P.A., Mr. Yonker spent several years working for a sizable personal injury firm that allowed him to work with a large number of clients seeking justice in the aftermath of a situation or circumstance that led to a serious personal injury. Although Mr. Yonker found the work rewarding, he ultimately decided to pursue a course of action that would allow him to provide an even greater degree of personalized, client-focused care by partnering with Bill Winters to build Winters & Yonker, P.A. in Tampa Bay, Florida.
Mr. Yonker, who earned an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of South Florida before securing his J.D. from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan, is a member of the Florida Bar Association as well as the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Since being admitted to the Bar in 1994, Mr. Yonker has specialized in areas of personal injury law that include automobile accidents, construction accidents, premises liability, and slip-and-fall accidents.
Where did the idea for Winters & Yonker, P.A., come from?
After working for a large personal injury firm for several years, I recognized an opportunity to take a more personal approach in representing personal injury clients by founding Winters & Yonker, P.A. Along with Bill Winters, we have built a firm that seeks justice for our personal injury clients through an approach that is simultaneously aggressive and supportive.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
My days have to be organized around client meetings, which is why we are so grateful that our support staff works so diligently to optimize our schedules each day. Generally speaking, a typical day might begin with a morning client phone conference followed by a strategy session with members of our legal team and meetings with individual clients. Even on the most productive of workdays, I often take work home with me to ensure my clients get the outcome they deserve.
How do you bring ideas to life?
To bring ideas to life, I draw on my years of experience as well as my deep understanding of the complexities of personal injury law.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
It seems that more and more people recognize that insurers don’t always act in the best interest of the policyholder. This has led people to take the steps necessary to ensure they receive the compensation they are rightfully entitled to.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
I genuinely care about each and every one of my clients, which gives me all the motivation I need to deliver the best possible outcome for clients that turn to Winters & Yonker during their time of need.
What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
Although I found the work rewarding and learned a great deal about the path I wanted to pursue as a lawyer while working with a large personal injury law firm, I prefer the autonomy that comes with running the practice I co-founded.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
When I was admitted to the Florida and Pennsylvania Bar Associations, I preferred the security and stability of working for a larger firm to the risk of founding a firm of my own. If I were to start again, I would gladly take on the risk of building a firm from the ground-up.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Take a moment to reflect on what you have accomplished through your entrepreneurial pursuits and consider whether those accomplishments align with your original intentions.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? Please explain how.
We care deeply about each and every client that enlists the help of our firm, and it shows in the results we work so hard to achieve for our clients.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
When we first started out, I think we could have done more to retain members of our support staff. We now recognize the value of staff continuity and have since enacted measures to reduce employee turnover.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Any software application that could streamline some aspect of our daily responsibilities would be received well among legal professionals, as we are always looking for ways to devote more time and attention to our clients.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
I chartered a fishing boat so a few of my colleagues and I could spend a relaxing day out on the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
What software and web services do you use? What do you love about them?
My support staff and I utilize several software applications and services for scheduling purposes; my schedule must often be rearranged several times each day, and we rely on our scheduling software to ensure we are all on the same page when something must be changed on the fly.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
For anyone considering an entrepreneurial venture based out of Florida, Carl Hiaasen’s books offer a unique and entertaining kind of insight into what he describes as Florida’s “inverse, magnetic vortex of weirdness.”
What people have influenced your thinking and might be of interest to others?
Cass Susstein and Michael C. Dorf, among countless others, have influenced the way I approach matters concerning personal injury law.
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Winters Yonker P.A. on Twitter: @wintersyonker
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Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.