The new year has already begun!
We have never had a formal business plan or marketing plan!
Is it too late?
Are we truly doomed?
Even if your firm never has written a business plan other than a few numbers on a spreadsheet, or a marketing plan other than a to-do list, you can still enjoy many of the benefits of better planning. Use the suggestions and tools described in recent postings in this blog, but start small and start now.
An excellent way to introduce better business and marketing plan is to have each partner write a simple plan for his or her book of business. Many highly successful partners already do this, independently of any firm-wide planning exercises -- or the lack of them. These can become the foundation for practice group business plans.
Remember, any formal plan -- even a relatively simple one -- is better than none at all, provided that it is well-informed and realistic.
It is not too late to start now. Some law firms prefer to wait until the end of the first or second month of the fiscal year to finalize their business and marketing plans, after they have the benefit of a complete set of financial reports for the year just ended.
For more information on how Walker Clark LLC can help your firm improve your business plans and marketing plans -- and get a better return on your investments of time, attention, and resources -- click here.
Norman Clark
