Have you begun your business planning for 2018? If you’re looking for a few places to start, I’d like to offer some recommendations.  The process of putting together a detailed plan is what I refer to as The 2018 Business Imperative.  There’s an old adage, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.”  Quite frankly, we work too hard to let that be the case.

Note:  This article was originally published in the Louisville Bar Briefs (December 2018, edition, page 20)

Performing a deep dive into your key metrics, not just revenue numbers, will show you things you may have missed during the year.  Outliers are one thing, but identifying specific trends and comparing them to the assumptions you made at the start of 2017 can be quite telling.  Nonetheless, this is simply a post-mortem.  It’s historical.  We need to turn our attention to the upcoming year.

There are new markets emerging, new technologies to help you and new capabilities you’ve developed, even if it’s just because you’re a year more experienced than you were.  How can you leverage these changes (this evolution) in terms of your business as well as your clients’ businesses?  That’s the essence of effective, business planning.

Where will you invest in 2018?  I recommend you divide this into 2 key areas:  Money and Time.  In terms of your financial investment, it usually can be broken out into personnel, training and equipment.  As for your time, take a hard look at your processes.  Are you actually spending the majority of your time on the activities that generate the most cash?  If so, continue the DIY approach.  If not, it may be time to consider outsourcing or delegating.  For most of us, letting go of the reins can be one of our greatest challenges.  Remember, this may be the very decision that’s been holding us back from achieving significant progress.

One important question I’ve often asked clients is:  What are you willing to put down on paper?

In terms of business planning, I’m trying to get you to consider defining those goals, actions, activities and changes that will significantly impact your business in 2018.  More importantly, I want you to define for yourself those issues you’re willing to actually commit to, on paper.

Something interesting happens when we actually write it down.  We begin the process of visualizing the goal(s), as well as the steps necessary to achieve them.  Like any road trip, you have to begin with the destination in mind.

It’s interesting how many people don’t take their business planning to this logical step.  It’s almost as if they’re afraid of committing, because that creates the risk that they may fail in the endeavor.  Can I share a secret?  There are really only 3 outcomes in this process:

• Growth
• Stagnation
• Irrelevance

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Ever hear someone comment, “Attitude is everything”? It’s actually true in many situations. Your attitude impacts your success in sports, in your relationships, and especially in your profession. Attitude, however, is not the only thing. See, you can feel confident about your practice – even optimistic (those are attitudes). What I know to be more important is your mindset. Your business mindset encompasses much more.

Having the proper mindset requires that you focus on at least three areas, consistently.

The first area is structure.

Have you reviewed your internal processes lately?   If you agree change is inevitable, then realize things changed last year. You’ll be more successful this year if time is allocated for re-examining how you and your staff structure the work day and week. You might discover that what worked in the past, might not be as productive today.  Consider technology, personal habits and client preferences.

Step outside of “working in” your practice to “work on” your practice.

A few adjustments early on can have a substantial impact on productivity, communication and revenue. Each of those gains will definitely affect your attitude. It simply requires the proper business mindset to accept and commit to evolving your practice.

Note:  My article was originally published in the Louisville Bar Association’s Bar Briefs (February edition, page 10). Read more →