Establishing the business plan

When I was researching what I needed to do to start my law firm I knew about the basic things, getting a web domain, office location, file with the city, etc, but I was absolutely clueless about establishing a plan for my business. So I did a little looking around for business planning and I stumbled across another blog written by a DUI attorney in Seattle. You can find his blog at http://startingalawfirm.blogspot.com/. I am in no way connected to this attorney I just really enjoy what he has to say about starting your own law firm and in the first stages of this venture I have found his advice very helpful.

When starting the Law Office of Kenneth C. Allison I decided that I would focus on Estate Planning and Social Security Disability Law. These were two areas of practice that I was exposed to prior to becoming an attorney. I feel comfortable describing those areas of law to clients and other attorneys and felt that I had a passion for practicing in these areas of law.

Of course I can, and still will handle contract issues and landlord tenant issues for clients but I have decided that my business should focus on as few areas of the law as possible. By focusing on a limited section of the potential areas of practice I am carving out a niche which, with more experience, will help craft my reputation as being an expert in these fields, allowing me to charge and receive higher rates for my work in these fields (or at least Estate Planning because SSDI rates are capped by law).

I then laid out my expense and rate portion of my business plan to determine what I should charge for my services and what my expenses of running a law office would be.
For the time being I will be operating my law office mostly from the internet and my own home however I did spring for a PO box and I was able to use my contacts to secure a conference room in town for the time being. I hope that I will have a stable office location outside the home within the next year, mostly so I can separate the home/ work environment and focus solely on my work while I am working.

The next steps I need to take are networking and marketing steps. I have some ideas for both and I will implement them over the coming weeks and I will review the results of my efforts here on my blog.

Until then I hope everyone has a happy holiday tomorrow and stuffs themselves with food, enjoys the company of family, and watches plenty of Football.