Business Description and Operating Procedure

• The first section of your law firm's business plan should lay out the intricate details of the business itself. Begin broadly by writing a mission statement and setting forth a list of specific goals. The mission statement should encapsulate the essence of your law firm. If you firm is going to specialize in an area of law, such as estate planning or tax law, the mission statement should reflect this. In the goals section, lay out a road map for where you want your business to go.
  
  Also in this section you should discuss the competition in your field and outline the basics of how your business will operate. Detail what you need to do to beat the competition and how you will do it.
  
  Use this section to give readers a clear idea of the vision you have for your law firm. Break the section up into subsections and write each subsection with care. This is a professional document and it should look and read like one.
  
  

Financial Planning

• The second part of your law firm's business plan should outline your financial needs and projections. Use this section to organize everything you need to do to get the funding for your law firm. You should include loan applications and statements from financial institutions where you plan on receiving funding. Detail every cost you anticipate encountering. When detailing these costs, think about the big costs (such as rent, utilities, and advertising costs) and the minutiae of the details (such as how much will you need for office supplies, how much will you need for client refreshments (such as water, juice, or soda pop).
  
  Use this section to detail your projected revenue and project it out for the first three years of operation. The first year should be detailed month by month. List each cost you need to pay each month and determine how much you will need each month to meet those costs. Adjust the figures to reflect growth (since you want the law firm to grow). The next two years should be laid out in quarters.
  
  

Marketing and Client Services

• The last third of your business plan should detail your marketing plan and what services you will offer your clients. This section will overlap with the financial planning section since you will need to list the costs it will take to start up your marketing campaign and the prices you will charge your clients for your services.
  
  In the marketing section, think about how you will generate business and what you will do to attract clients. Think about all the aspects of advertising: print, television, and Internet. Note that younger clients tend to be more Internet savvy than older clients and adjust your marketing strategy according to who you believe will be your bigger client base.
  
  In the client services section, lay out what you will offer your clients. This subsection will overlap slightly with the business description section, but here you should go into more depth. Describe the services and list out what you will charge. If you are opening a general practice law firm, detail the various factions you will operate in (such as criminal law, civil law, property law, estate law, etc.) Be specific and charge rates comperable to your competition.