Practical tips to Planning your Business

Planning is the most important part to operating a profitable business. The budgeting process consists of putting together a financial plan. The plan addresses short-, middle-, and long-term time frames.

For example, long-term deals with questions such as

1. Do I want to be a solo practioner or larger law firm practioner?
2. How do I expect to benefit from this experience?
3. Do I want to specialize or be a generalist?
4. In what area of law do I want to concentrate my practice on?

May lawyers decide to go at it alone before answering any of these questions. They discover all too often the disadvantage of poor planning the hard way. While your colleagues are learning to be lawyers as associates in a law firm, big or small, you are having to learn how to own your own business, and practice law all on your own.

First, you need to decide the scope of your business, determine which services to provide, and identify the most profitable market niche.

Second, you need to decide where to locate your office, whether to lease or work from home.

Third, you need to develop a master budget. This describes short-term objectives in specific amounts of service target, service goals, and financial plans. This covers one year.

Before you can create your master budget, you will need to prepare the sales forecast.