Goals

I wanted to open this blog post with a question. What is a good goal for income in 2011 for a new law office?

2011 will be my first full year in business. After talking with many local attorneys I have set my prices for my services. I will not post my prices online for 2 reasons. First, I am a new attorney and my prices currently reflect that. I do not want to find that years later someone found this blog post and generated an unreasonable expectation of what my current rates are based on what I was charging within my first full month of business. Second, I want to get clients to contact me, even if it is simply to ask what my base rates are. Note, I stated “base rates” different situations will require different rates, a will for a 20 something couple with no children is different than a will for a 69 year old man. The needs of these two parties will require different methods of estate planning and different considerations.

I’ve determined that people like round numbers. Therefore I will set the income goal for my business at a nice round $60,000. I know that my take home will be far less than this number, probably around $30,000 or so. This may seem like a lot to those of you who run your own business considering I will be liable for all my taxes, but I have managed to reduce expenses drastically.

First, I currently have no office rent expense. I have a conference room that I get to use free of charge. Second I own all my office furniture. I have a desk and chair at my abode and the office I am using has a desk, table and many chairs that I can use free of charge.

Third, I own my own computer, printer, cell phone, email and web site domain. These are all expenses that have monthly elements to them but I have the main expenses handled.

Massachusetts does not require that attorneys have Malpractice insurance. I would love to have coverage but I currently do not. This is an expense that I will have to pay in the near future to be taken seriously and to handle some specific types of work, mainly court appointed work.

Obviously I’d like to exceed $60,000. When picking $60,000 I included many factors, the type of work I do, the amount I charge, and the amount of clients I expect to have. I then raised the amount slightly to give myself a goal to reach for. I know that if I get lucky I could blow that goal out of the water.

I plan on evaluating and modifying my goals every quarter. Hopfully I can stick with this plan.

Building a solid foundation for my business is my first goal. If I can succede at that then I should still be here blogging about goals come December of 2011.