Where do you want your practice to be next year at this time? Wherever that is, the way to get there is to identify and exploit your current “areas of opportunity”.
Areas of opportunity include
(1) weaknesses you can reduce or eliminate;
(2) strengths you can make stronger; and
(3) unexplored or underutilized strategies, techniques, tools, and relationships.
Take some time to examine your practice, and yourself, and look for areas of opportunity you can work on in the coming year.
Here are a few examples:
- new target markets
- new practice areas
- strategic alliances with new business contacts
- new places to advertise, network, speak and write
- improving client relations
- new skills to acquire, hire or outsource
- eliminating bad habits
- developing new habits
- retraining or replacing under-performing employees
- marketing strategies that work and should be expanded
- new marketing strategies
- improving website copy
- eliminating marketing activities that use too much time
- giving some employees more responsibilities
- reducing overhead by cutting expenses, consolidating, negotiating
- opening satellite offices
- improving your brand
- getting more online reviews
- setting up additional websites to leverage important keywords
- working fewer hours
- improving billing and collection methods
There are many more.
Start by spending some time identifying major weaknesses, if any, and patching the dam.
Spend more time identifying and implementing things you’re not doing that could help you grow bigger or faster.
Spend most of your time identifying your strengths and making them stronger. Your strengths got you to your current level and, more than anything, they will get you to the next.
Client referrals are a major area of opportunity
