Business plans are critical to the success of your law firm. However, they are only beneficial if you’re able to properly use your business plan to experience exponential growth. Read 8 Figure Firm’s blog to learn more.
What is a business plan?
A business plan is a record of what you envision for your company’s future and the steps you will take to get there. It provides an outline of your strategies for all departments, including marketing, operations, and finance. Not only does it help you stay organized, but it is also something your executive team can reference to stay true to the vision of your business throughout the year.
What does a business plan include?
This document is critical to the success of your firm, especially because it outlines your organization and defines goals. A business plan includes an executive summary, a description of your firm, and an organizational breakdown. Each business plan is unique so adding more sections and details is beneficial to provide a clear look at your business and its future.
It also includes a financial snapshot of your firm. Include the past few years’ projections and actual profit, as well as projections for the next couple of years. For the first year, consider projections based on quarters, maybe even months, in order to keep a close eye on and ensure you are on track to meet your goals.
Finally, it should include a market analysis, information about your marketing strategy, and a buyer persona. Including information about your audience and how you plan to approach them is crucial to growing your business.
How do you use your business plan?
There are a variety of ways to use your business plan. Let’s work through a few different options and how they can benefit your firm.
Budget
Finances are an integral part of your firm’s success, and your business plan can help you set a solid budget. You’ll want to include projections of revenues and developments you’d like to make to your business, while also thinking about what changes could take place in the market and potential issues for your company.
Because your business plan includes a financial snapshot of your firm, you can set budgets for each point throughout the year. This is helpful because you will be able to keep track of what you’re spending and determine if there are spending cycles that can be predicted for the next year.
To set a budget using your business plan, you’ll need to take note of what other companies in the industry are doing, factor in the costs of vendors you may use, and go over each department’s individual budget in order to keep everything organized.
Monitor performance
When done correctly, you can use your business plan to monitor the success of your firm. The more you are able to compare projections to reality, the easier it becomes to isolate the problem and fix it. Whether it’s the marketing channels you are utilizing, not hiring the right staff, or another issue, the sooner you are able to identify the concern, the sooner you can take action to correct it and get back on track.
Monitoring your performance is helpful because it allows you to track your progress. Being able to look back at the end of a year and see numbers that reflect your growth helps reassure you while assisting you in planning for the future.
To monitor your firm’s performance, choose key performance indicators that align with your business plan. By monitoring the three main areas, financial, customer service, and process performance, you can choose KPIs that help you understand your business and audience.
Set goals
While your business plan contains long-term goals for your firm, it can also help you set weekly, monthly, and quarterly goals.
Business plans are helpful in setting goals because they provide direction for your firm. Your executive team is able to use this information to make sure their teams are continuously aligned with your mission, vision, and values. Giving them a roadmap is invaluable to making your employees more efficient for your business.
Plan for all possibilities
Though no one likes to think about failure, it’s important to consider all possibilities. Your business plan can help you plan for future successes and failures.
Creating a plan for failure is helpful because it helps mitigate the damage if it were to occur and provides you and your team with a sense of relief knowing that preparatory measures were taken.
Speak to the experts
There are many ways to use your business plan.
While it’s an important step in building your law firm, using your business plan can be challenging. Here at 8 Figure Firm, we can help you through the process with ONE.Coach, our proven program to help you grow your business.
If you’re ready to take your law firm to the next level, register for ONE.Coach today. We’ll help you turn your law firm into a law business.
