A recent articlein the ABA Journal proclaimed, “Boom years for law firms were an aberration.” The article quotes information from a 2013 Client Advisory report from Hildebrandt Consulting and Citi Private Bank which predicts that the double-digit rate increases that occurred from 2001 to 2007 are over.
As proof, the article summarized information in the report confirming that “productivity is down among income and equity partners, expenses are up, clients are demanding and getting discounts.” As a result, future law firm success will likely be measured by “profit growth in the single digits.”
To succeed going forward, the article suggests law firms are going to have to do things like develop a growth strategy, practice good leadership, focus on key Clients, practices or industries and seek Client feedback. (I would add, “act on it!” to that last one.)
These are all radical concepts, I know. But the article also suggests that, to stay competitive, firms may need to rethink their business models to focus on efficiency, and to do this they may want to consider their outsourcing options.
This makes perfect sense. How many tasks are the firm’s key marketing and other professionals currently working on that are keeping them from their most important jobs of crafting and executing the firm’s strategy and helping the attorneys to develop business? The good news is that now there are some options to help law firms save time and money – and free up key staff members for more important and strategic pursuits…
The end of the fiscal year is a primary time for organizational evaluation. Whether you have a start-up operation and have been in business less than a year, or are a veteran; annual evaluations are not only beneficial to all organizations, they are a necessity.
During an annual evaluation, you want to assess your entire operation. First, start by examining your annual revenue against your cost of doing business. Were your profits as high as you had expected or hoped they would be? If not, why didn’t you make as much as you wanted to? Was it due to a lack of or faulty marketing efforts? Did you lose customers or clients? Did you spend too much time and money training employees with a high turn-over rate? If profits were higher than expected, first take a moment to celebrate your good fortune; then get back to business. Why were profits so high? Did you gain an unexpected amount of customers or clients? Did you efficiently train employees, and therefore had a low turn-over rate? Did you increase free publicity through effective public relations efforts?
After examining your revenue, move onto your organizational structure. If you planned well from the beginning, your structure should be fairly flexible to meet the current needs of your business, while having room to grow as your business matures. Do you have enough employees to meet current demand? Do you have too many employees? Are the current positions meeting organizational needs? For instance, a company may have a Human Resource Director and a Human Resource Assistant. As the company expands and begins to receive more business, it may be necessary to incorporate a Project Coordinator. Rather than hiring someone new, the Human Resource Assistant can probably make a very good Project Coordinator (during the annual review the company discovered that the Human Resource Assistant did not have a lot of work to do). Moving employees rather than hiring new ones can help your organization save time and money. Sometimes a change in title and scope of duties for one employee is all an organization needs to do to substantially increase productivity for the entire operation. This is also a great time to conduct individual employee evaluations.
At the end of the day, most businesses have the end-goal of growth. What did you company do in the last year to expand? How are you staying in touch with new and loyal customers and clients? How are you reaching people who may have never heard about your business? What is your current publicity/marketing strategy? How much time are you spending executing it? Based on your answers, should you consider outsourcing?
While product quality and assurance should be an on-going process, a year-end evaluation should also include an assessment of your company’s products and services. How do your products and services match up to the competitions’?
It is important to take note that whether the news is good or bad, you must always search for the reason why in your annual evaluation. If your company performed poorly, you will need to understand what went wrong so you can fix the problem. If your company had a stellar year, you will also want to have a thorough understanding of why so you can repeat and improve on those results for the next fiscal year. Once you discover what your company did right, and what went wrong, take the time to make a new plan for the upcoming fiscal year. This is a great time to bring out your business plan as well and make any necessary revisions.
To learn more about how Writings by Design can help your business connect with customers, clients and other key stakeholders, please visit us at www.writingsbydesign.com, email your question to inquiry@writingsbydesign.com or call us at (866) 937-2361.
Reducing overhead costs is the easiest way to save your business money, and therefore increase its bottom line. One of the simplest ways to reduce overhead cost is to eliminate or significantly reduce the utilization of full-time employees. Many companies have realized that outsourcing various services is beneficial in a plethora of ways. Outsourcing, using outside help to complete tasks that are normally performed in-house, is not a new concept, as companies have been utilizing outside advertising firms, accounting companies and distributors for decades. Small- to medium-sized businesses can also benefit from outsourcing other tasks, such as promotional materials, which has been proven to have significant advantages that outweigh monetary benefits—although those are nice as well.
In addition to saving money, outsourcing various marketing and public relations services has many long-term benefits for companies of various sizes and types. Long-term outsourcing benefits are as follows:
Increased productivity and efficiency
Reduced labor costs
Reduced utility costs associated with workplace lighting and computer usage
Reduced equipment costs for in-house staff
Increase company attractiveness to investors—Invested capital will be spent directly making money rather than being poured into expensive salaries.
Specialization—Outsourcing companies are often specialized in a specific area, rather than those who may be completing a project in-house who wear many hats.
Increased competitive edge—Many small- to medium-sized businesses do not have the resources to compete with the in-house staff of large corporations. Outsourcing services provides smaller companies with an edge to compete.
Increased focus on primary business concerns—Outsourcing writing and marketing services means that managers will have more time to focus on primary business operations, such as product development, distribution and sales.
Of course, there can always be too much of a good thing—outsourcing included. Sometimes it may not be wise to outsource all company writing or marketing services depending on the specific circumstances of the company. To avoid outsourcing too much or too little, prior to taking the leap into the world of business-to-business outsourcing, thoroughly evaluate current operations. How much is being produced and at what rate? Could outsourcing help you increase productivity and your company’s bottom line?
