“Strategic entrepreneurs and leaders find the greatest insights hiding behind SWOT.”
Richie Norton, author of Anti-Time Management
As a young associate, I often wondered how senior partners built such impressive practices. I eventually concluded there were only four ways to get there:
- Inherit a book of business from a retiring partner.
- Be born into a wealthy family that hands you clients.
- Catch one “whale” of a client and ride that wave for years.
- Work your tail off to find clients one at a time.
Since I had no inheritance coming–my family was anything but wealthy–and the only thing I was likely to “catch” in New York City was a cold, I resigned myself to option four. It was my only path to the corner office.
But I had a problem: I hadn’t gone to business school. I had no idea how to build a business from scratch, so I started reading every business book I could find. Three stood out as the most impactful: Swim with the Sharks Without Getting Eaten Alive by Harvey Mackay, Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun by Wess Roberts, and—believe it or not—Machiavelli’s The Prince. Give them a shot; they are concise, easy to read, and surprisingly applicable to a law practice.
That was step one. Step two was adopting a “plan of attack.” Business schools and military academies alike teach that a plan cannot reside solely in your mind. It must be written down, examined, revisited, and revised. While you’ll always have to make quick decisions on the fly, a truly successful plan—whether for business or war—requires written goals, strategies, and tactics.
There are many formats for these plans. I chose to start with a SWOT analysis to identify my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. With that framework, I wrote down my strategic objectives:
- Short-term: Achievable within a year.
- Long-term: Aspirational goals attainable in a year or more.
Finally, I broke those objectives down into specific tactics, outlining exactly what I needed to do, when I would do it, and who I needed to help me. Over my 45-year career, that first annual plan grew from a few pages to over forty.
Once your plan is on paper, the real work begins. You must monitor it religiously. Review it monthly. Note what works and what doesn’t. Schedule regular check-ins with your collaborators.
But before any of that, you have to write the plan. No one can do it for you. Start typing.