Page 51 - Law Society of Hong Kong MPMC Manual v8 - With checklists (1 March 2018)

Practice Management Course | Unit 5
Business Planning

Guidelines for preparing a Business Plan

Business overview - what business are we in?

Overview of existing market position and sources of work
44. Describe the business undertaken by the practice last year and where it came from.
Describe the business the practice plans to undertake this year. Link it to the
business last year and explain what similarities and what differences are projected.
Be more ambitious than simply reproducing the results from last year. For each
area of the practice, identify:

• The target clients and/or market segments, existing demand and
estimated potential.
• The particular legal services.
• The projected financial returns from each key area.

Underlying assumptions
45. Describe the assumptions being made about the services delivered by the practice
during the planning period. Describe the assumptions that are most critical to the
planning process.

46. Indicate where the plan is conservative and likely to be very reliable and where the
risks and the long shots are.

Key performance targets - detailed projections

Financial indicators
47. Attach the summarised financial results for the last financial year and provide a
brief evaluation of how the practice performed.

48. Attach the budget projections for the practice for the current period. Identify the
billable hours and the charge out rates that have been applied to each fee earner in
order to calculate the projected financial return.

New business targets
49. Use action sheets to specify the marketing approach and particular activities each
fee earner will undertake to bring in new work from each identified business target
during the planning period. (Note: This section deals with actual 'work through the
door' marketing. The client development section deals with wider marketing
activities that are geared to obtaining business in the future through ‘brand-
naming’ and reputation building).

50. An example of an action sheet is provided below:

• Business Target 1: X Pty Ltd (an existing client)
• The marketing goal is to generate billings of $XX.000 for the practice from
this client in the planning period.
• Action Plan:
o Strengthen personal relationships and identify and seek opportunities to
meet new middle managers who are responsible for legal work referrals.

© The Law Society of Hong Kong (2018) Page 47