In this week’s edition of Things I Wish I Knew, New York solo lawyer Joleena Louis shares her strategy for finishing the year strong.
Fall is here and that means this year has almost come to an end. It’s also the time of year where many people put their legal issues on hold, which can be a good thing if you have a plan in place.
Time is your most valuable asset, so plan accordingly and make sure you’re getting the most out of this time of year!
Here are my three suggestions that will help you with just that:
Review Your Goals
Over the past couple years I’ve found that doing regular “performance reviews” of my business has helped me make sure I am on track to reach the goals I set for my firm at the beginning of the year.
By systematically doing a high-level review of my practice, I got a clearer picture of what I need to take care of in order to continue to grow.
With only three months left in 2018, now is the perfect time to re-examine your goals and make that final push to reach them by the end of the year. Check out the stats I use to review my firm each quarter.
Block off Holiday and Family Time
All of the winter holidays are coming up, so now is a great time to block time on your calendar. I use this time of year to plan my traveling and time off so I can keep important dates open.
Last December I took off three consecutive weeks – and still made money while I was away. This was the longest period of time I have been away without working at all, and I was a bit worried about my ability to pull it off.
But, because of the systems I had in place I came back to several scheduled consultations, no client issues or emergencies, and I was able to step right back into regular business without any issues.
Holiday Marketing
Though new business slows down for me in November and December, I get a huge influx of new clients in January. Knowing this, I like to do a big marketing push in the last quarter of the year to bring in more of those January cases. So in October I usually create a specific end of the year marketing strategy.
The upcoming holidays are a great opportunity to create some seasonal content. I create holiday-specific social media and blog posts and find that I get more engagement. For example, I may write about how to parent during the holidays or create a webinar on the topic.
If your business slows down a bit this time of year, it’s a great opportunity to do more marketing than usual.
I used to dread the end of the year because business slowed down, but with planning, I’ve learned to use the extra time productively.
