Six Tips for Setting Annual Professional Goals
Practice Management Coach
Carpe Argentum Coaching
Welcome to the last month of the year, AND…. of the DECADE! That’s right. December 2019 covers the last thirty days of this decade. What have you accomplished this year? This decade? What do you want to accomplish in 2020? Although this topic could easily take up a seminar of several days, let me lay out a few nuggets here.
1. Pull out your firm mission statement. You DO have a firm mission statement, don’t you? If not, you should. It should guide all decisions you make concerning your business. If you do not own the firm, you can still identify your professional goals and values and allow them to guide your career. Review this mission statement (or list of values) and see if it needs tweaking.
2. Pull out your personal mission statement. I highly recommend everyone have one of these also. If you don’t, then just make a list of personal values for now. For example, you might write:
a. Time with children
b. Time with spouse
c. Physical fitness
d. Travel
e. Hobbies
3. For your business, you should consider all aspects including profit, staffing, space, practice areas, software, hardware, etc. If you set goals last year, review those and see where there is room for growth. For example, as far as profit, what were your revenues in 2019? What was your profit? What was your personal income? An excellent resource on this topic is a book by Mike Michalowicz called “Profit First.” Some of you may have attended the CLE I created based on this book. Mike recommends a system where you open 7 bank accounts, designate each one for a different purpose, and pay yourself first. I know hundreds of lawyers following this system and enjoying much higher take-home pay. If you want help implementing it, just ping me.
4. Go through each major factor of your business and set a goal. Goals need to be specific and measurable. For example, “increase firm revenues by X %” is both specific and measurable.
5. Break the goals down into manageable chunks. Like the old adage of how you eat an elephant, the answer is “one bite at a time.” If you have an hourly billable practice for example, you can determine how much you need to bill AND collect each quarter, month, and week. Even daily! Every goal can be analyzed this way.
6. Take the time to measure results as you go along. Set aside time each month to gauge your progress and tweak the process. Do not allow anything to encroach on this time. If necessary, delegate a portion of this to someone else. For example, task your bookkeeper with sending you monthly reports on firm expenses and revenues. MAKE THE TIME to review them. If possible, enlist an accountability partner in this process. This can be your business partner, a professional coach, your CPA, a friend, or anyone else you trust. You don’t want someone who is only going to tell you what you want to hear. You want honesty and accountability.
I hope this quick overview on the process has been helpful to you. If you would like more guidance or an accountability partner, call or text me at (904) 994-2481 or email me at jodi@carpeargentum.net. Happy Holidays and see you in 2020!