How to Create a Strategic Plan for Growing Your Business in 2015

If you are looking to increase revenue and staff at your small law firm in the next year, a strong strategic growth plan is imperative. Whatever type of growth you are striving for, having a plan in place will keep you focused and on track towards your goals. Your plan will be your guiding compass for the coming year in all decisions you make. We realize creating a strategic plan may sound daunting, so we have compiled some tips and steps for you to follow.

Here are 7 Tips for Creating your 2015 Strategic Business Plan

1. Define your values, vision, mission, objectives, strategies and goals. These are the key and foundational elements of your strategic growth plan. Without them, your growth will be unfocused and could even be counterproductive. We recommend making it a firm-wide exercise to narrow down and define what is most important to your company. Having all employees involved gets everyone on the same page and gives staff an opportunity to have a say about the shape the business takes.
2. Understand your clients. Think about how they met you, why they chose you, what their background is and so on. It’s important to really understand the clients that you are pursuing. This knowledge will especially help you in your marketing efforts.
3. Learn from your losses. Take a look at business you’ve lost or places you made mistakes. Based on that insight, determine where it’s important to spend time improving in the year ahead.
4. Review the market. An understanding of your competitors will be key to your business growth in 2015. What are their values? Who is their client base? Are there alliances to explore?
5. Distinguish yourself. Analyze your strengths and weaknesses. What are the distinguishing factors your firm possesses? From there, focus on what you need to invest in to build up strengths and seize opportunities.
6. Prepare a marketing plan. Whether you run your own marketing or hire an agency, get a marketing plan in place that will support the growth you desire. Decide what kind of messaging you’ll focus on, which channels you’ll use to reach your target market, and how you’ll compel them to take action.
7. Prioritize business development. This may be the hardest part. Time is scarce in a small law firm, but you have to commit to developing your business every day. Set aside at least 2-3 hours each week to work on shaping your growth plans and building new relationships that could lead to business for your firm.

Need to free up some time to get focused on business growth in 2015? Streamlining your processes with a case management tool like Smokeball could help.