Enterprise Business Experts – enterprise Get Expert Tips & Advice Now!

Top Menu

  • Reach Us

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Business
  • Business Experts
  • Enterprise
  • Industry
  • Investment
  • Management
  • Marketing
Sign in / Join

Login

Welcome! Login in to your account
Lost your password?

Lost Password

Back to login
  • Reach Us

logo

Enterprise Business Experts – enterprise Get Expert Tips & Advice Now!

  • Home
  • Business
  • Business Experts
  • Enterprise
  • Industry
  • Investment
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Tips On Finding A New Supplier For The Packaging For Your Products

  • Do you know the benefits of SEO companies?

  • From Mundane to Marvelous: Taking Leather Accessories to the Next Level in the Leather Workshop

  • If You Suspect Asbestos – Step Away & Call Out The Professionals.

  • The Ultimate Guide to Corporate Team Building: Tips and Tricks for Success

Business
Home›Business›5 Excuses Professional Service Firms Use to Avoid Strategic Planning

5 Excuses Professional Service Firms Use to Avoid Strategic Planning

By Danny Messinger
November 2, 2018
1365
0
Share:

Yes, it’s hard to believe, but the fourth quarter is right around the corner, and what does that mean? Well, we are just two turkeys away from 2020. It also means that as a professional service firm, you’re probably looking at the last quarter as the homestretch of the year when you focus relentlessly on getting your work-in-process billed and your receivables collected. But what about 2019? What plans do you have in place to ignite your success and ensure your revenue expansion into the coming year?

If you are like most professional service businesses, you are buying into a common mythology that continues to hold you back and limit your growth potential.  It’s what I call year-end myopia. It’s amazing how the income statement consumes our consciousness in the last few months of the year. I know.  I spent 15 years practicing law, and I remember those eleventh-hour partner gatherings when we waited with anticipation to learn whether we were receiving abundant partner distributions or daunting capital calls. But today, I am writing to encourage you to shift your perspective, your expectations ― and therefore, your reality.

The Dance of Denial

We work with a full range of professional service firms―lawyers, accountants, engineers, consultants, wealth managers, and most of them have some pretty elaborate excuses for why they have not done the fundamental strategic planning that is standard practice for just about every other business.  Here are some of the excuses we hear most often:

  • Our partners are our most valuable inventory, and there’s no reason to waste billable time talking about things we can’t control.
  • Our business planning is easy. We just hire more bodies and bill more hours.
  • Our business planning is easy. We just find more clients and bill more hours.
  • Our business is dynamic, and new opportunities are constantly coming up. We can’t possibly know what the future holds for us.

And my favourite . . .

  • We already know what we’re doing . . . we don’t need planning.

Instead of perpetuating this self-defeating mythology, take a fresh look at December. Allow yourself to step off the hamster wheel, and embrace the benefits of strategic planning. Broaden your scope beyond collecting money in 2018, and focus on creating it in 2019. Spend some time thinking not just about the last day of this year, but the first day of next year. Do something radical. Promise yourself that you won’t end the year until your firm has committed to a formal strategic planning process.

Strategic Planning Revisited and Simplified

Think of your strategic plan as your road map. It is a tool that defines the path to your objective, or destination that you and your fellow stakeholders have identified. Consider it this way. The routes may change. Environmental factors may shift. You may even encounter detours or obstacles, but the map helps you stay on course. What’s that great quote? “When you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.”  And it often will . . .

Professionals in our firms are creative, talented people―and there’s no end to the compelling reasons they can concoct for avoiding strategic planning.  But here’s something you should remember like your next year-end bonus could depend on it (because it probably will) ― professional service businesses that make plans and execute them effectively survive and thrive at rates that leave their “we don’t need planning” counterparts in the dust. And conversely, companies that don’t plan document exponentially higher rates of failure than those that plan and implement efficiently.

The importance of strategic planning for professional service firms cannot be overstated. It will help empower and enrich your enterprise―from the top down and the inside out. Considering both internal and external contexts, it can be an iterative process that does not have to be complicated or time-consuming.  At its most fundamental level, with simple strategic planning, you can answer these basic questions:

Who are we?

Where are we going?

How will we get there?

Are we executing our plan?

Add a few bells and whistles―and you can customize a plan to help you achieve the business of your dreams. With the amount of amazing, time saving planning tools out there today, from MS Projects to Excel and VBA programming, there really is no excuse not to!

Previous Article

Safety tips to consider while using data ...

Next Article

How to get an auto insurance coverage ...

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Related articles More from author

  • Business

    A Quick Insight Into Digital KYC: Discover The Emerging Tech Demand!

    January 27, 2019
    By Danny Messinger
  • Business

    How Can Small Freight Owners Develop Their Business By Buying Refurbished Lube Trucks?

    September 16, 2017
    By Danny Messinger
  • Business

    Tackling Hazardous Waste Changes – How Will They Impact Construction?

    May 13, 2017
    By Danny Messinger
  • Business

    5 Reasons Why You Must Hire Security Agency Services For Your Business!

    October 25, 2017
    By Danny Messinger
  • Business

    How Your Business Could Benefit from Using a Funeral Call Centre

    June 19, 2018
    By Danny Messinger
  • Business

    What You’ll Learn When Taking an HR Management Course

    March 5, 2019
    By Danny Messinger

  • Business

    5 Mistakes to Avoid When Entering the Sportsbook Business

  • Business

    Tips On Finding A New Supplier For The Packaging For Your Products

  • Industry

    Understanding The Pros, Need, And Relevance Of Architectural Metal Panels!

  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Tips On Finding A New Supplier For The Packaging For Your Products

    By Danny Messinger
    September 5, 2023
  • Do you know the benefits of SEO companies?

    By Danny Messinger
    July 29, 2023
  • From Mundane to Marvelous: Taking Leather Accessories to the Next Level in the Leather Workshop

    By Danny Messinger
    July 26, 2023
  • If You Suspect Asbestos – Step Away & Call Out The Professionals.

    By Danny Messinger
    July 17, 2023
  • The Ultimate Guide to Corporate Team Building: Tips and Tricks for Success

    By Danny Messinger
    May 29, 2023
  • Tips On Finding A New Supplier For The Packaging For Your Products

    By Danny Messinger
    September 5, 2023
  • Benefits Of Hiring Event Companies

    By Danny Messinger
    January 12, 2016
  • Neglect The Options

    By Danny Messinger
    January 14, 2016
  • Deciding time for you to Sell a company

    By Danny Messinger
    June 3, 2016
  • Precautions to Take When Working on Electrical Wiring

    By Danny Messinger
    June 10, 2016

Recent Posts

  • Tips On Finding A New Supplier For The Packaging For Your Products September 5, 2023
  • Do you know the benefits of SEO companies? July 29, 2023
  • From Mundane to Marvelous: Taking Leather Accessories to the Next Level in the Leather Workshop July 26, 2023
  • If You Suspect Asbestos – Step Away & Call Out The Professionals. July 17, 2023
  • The Ultimate Guide to Corporate Team Building: Tips and Tricks for Success May 29, 2023
  • The Many Applications Of Hydraulics In Our Day-To-Day Lives. May 29, 2023
  • Lighting Up the Stock Market: The Fascinating History of Muhurat Trading May 16, 2023
  • Harnessing the potential of influencer marketing for online brand promotion April 7, 2023

2023

  • + September (1)
  • + July (3)
  • + May (3)
  • + April (2)
  • + February (3)
  • + January (3)

2022

  • + November (6)
  • + September (2)
  • + August (1)
  • + July (1)
  • + June (2)
  • + May (1)
  • + March (1)
  • + February (3)
  • + January (2)

2021

  • + December (2)
  • + November (4)
  • + October (5)
  • + September (1)
  • + August (3)
  • + July (3)
  • + June (2)
  • + May (8)
  • + April (1)
  • + January (1)

2020

  • + December (1)
  • + November (2)
  • + October (1)
  • + September (1)
  • + July (1)
  • + February (2)
  • + January (4)

2019

  • + December (1)
  • + November (2)
  • + October (5)
  • + September (7)
  • + August (8)
  • + July (5)
  • + June (7)
  • + May (6)
  • + April (7)
  • + March (10)
  • + February (17)
  • + January (11)

2018

  • + December (12)
  • + November (11)
  • + October (15)
  • + September (10)
  • + August (9)
  • + July (17)
  • + June (11)
  • + May (11)
  • + April (5)
  • + March (13)
  • + February (3)
  • + January (11)

2017

  • + December (11)
  • + November (6)
  • + October (18)
  • + September (11)
  • + August (8)
  • + July (7)
  • + June (14)
  • + May (29)
  • + April (17)
  • + March (37)
  • + February (12)
  • + January (22)

2016

  • + November (4)
  • + October (4)
  • + September (12)
  • + August (9)
  • + July (4)
  • + June (4)
  • + January (3)

Tags

Business Control your income Enterprise Enterprise Audio /Visual Conferencing Entrepreneurship Industrial industrial painting Perth Investment loan with no job Marketing office fit outs Perth asbestos removal printing companies Pontefract Sheet Metal Companies shop front signage Brisbane Small Business soap production virtual offices sydney
  • Reach Us
© 2023- Enterprise Business Experts. All Rights Reserved.