Make the New Year Count

Happy New Year! I hope it is a successful and happy one for you.

No doubt you have many New Year’s Resolutions on a personal level but it is very important to have some on a business level as well. Take some time out to consider what works well in your business model and improvements that can be made. Maybe, you might like to go a step further and make radical changes to the way you operate. In 2017, anything is possible. Technology, the legal market and the way in which people want to work are all on your side.

I have published these tips previously, but they are still relevant. To develop your business New Year Resolutions, book out 3 or 4 hours in your diary and contemplate the following:

1. Ask yourself whether you are running a practice or a business. Answer this honestly. The firms who are the most successful focus on being a business, first and foremost.
2.  Consider how practice will change over the next five to ten years. Consider the impact of technology and globalisation and how the industry is being disrupted by new players. Think about different business models which may threaten your current business model. Determine what you think your future business model should be. Don’t be scared to think outside the square – that is how Uber was created! Be a disruptor if you can.
3.  Look at where you want your practice to be based, which geographical areas you want to service and what services you want to provide. In particular, consider how you are going to deliver your services – the traditional face to face method, virtual services or a combination of both. Remember, technology is going to threaten the current focus on geographical service provision so start thinking further afield now before another provider tries to snaffle your clients.
4.  Determine what your point of difference is. Why are you different to any other practitioner offering a similar service? Now, come on, you can do better than ‘we are highly skilled and we provide excellent service’!
5.  Document your business development plans for the year. Are you using digital marketing to your advantage? Is your website Search Engine Optimised? Do you have a significant personal network? If you don’t have a formal marketing strategy, now is the time to get one.
6.  Look at your staff structure. Are the right people sitting in the right chairs on the bus? If not, what is your optimum structure and how will you achieve it? If someone or a group of people are holding you back, do something about it. Who is actually driving the bus? Without a competent leader, nothing will be achieved.
7.  Do you have flexible working structures in place to attract the best talent? Workplace trends are moving away from full time employment arrangements to different options that allow staff to work where, when and how they want on a flexible basis.
8.  Do you have the right KPIs in place for your staff? If you want to improve your overall net profitability stop rewarding staff based on traditional revenue measures and start rewarding them on profitability measures.
9.  Have you got the right technology in place? Are you using the Cloud? Do you have automated workflow and precedent systems in place? If you don’t have this, your main competitors are already streets ahead in the game.
10.  Review your pricing policies and mechanisms. The world is moving to value and fixed fee billing. Are you going to be left behind?
11.  Are you efficient? Have you implemented a paper-light office? Have you considered using offshore processing? Many of your competitors have been doing these things for a while now.
12.  If it all seems too hard work out the one initiative that will improve your business and work on that. It is better to do one thing well than nothing at all. Remember that story about the tortoise and the hare?

 Once you have worked out what you want to achieve, develop a project plan which details what needs to be done, by whom and when. Make sure you regularly assess your implementation progress and measure your successes. Most importantly, celebrate all of your wins when you achieve them.

All the best for 2017!