Do You Dread the Law Firm Annual Planning Process? 5 Ways to Make It Easier and More Fun

Setting annual goals can feel a little overwhelming. But like everything in your law firm, it’s easier if you have a process.
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Law firm annual planning doesn’t have to be so brutal. Consider it an opportunity to look back at the year, celebrate your wins and recommit to your future.

It’s that time of year again. With 2024 winding up, we’re heading into the season of holidays and annual planning. Setting your goals — and the steps you’re going to take to achieve them — can feel a little overwhelming. But like everything in your law firm, it’s easier if you have a process.

5 Ways to Make the Annual Planning Process More Fun

Annual planning doesn’t have to be a chore. Instead, it can (and should!) be an exciting and motivating time to look back at the year gone by, celebrate your wins and recommit to your future. Here are our top five tips for creating an effective annual planning process for your practice.

1. Start With an After-Action Review of 2024

Look back at your firm’s long-term vision and the annual goals you set for yourself in 2024.

• Were you able to make progress toward your longer-term goals?
• Did you meet your 2024 objectives?
• What were you most proud of?
• What did you intend to do … but didn’t?

Starting your planning process with a retrospective sets the stage for your future. Acknowledge your disappointments and regrets, but don’t look at missed goals like failings. Instead, look at each as a possible opportunity. Regrets or disappointments point forward to new and hopeful possibilities.

As Michael Hyatt says, “Treat regret like a road sign, not a roadblock.”

Do a gut-check on your long-term vision.

Circumstances, economies and lives change, so take this opportunity to revise your vision if it needs updating. Then, you can ensure your annual plan for 2025 aligns with your broader objectives.

2. Conduct a SWOT Analysis

Evaluate your firm’s current position by analyzing its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Take this opportunity to look at your local market, your competitors, your clients and your team.

• Can you identify practice areas for growth?
• Are there new risks you’ll need to consider and mitigate in 2025?
• Are there processes within the firm that you can improve, or knowledge gaps you need to fill?

Use the SWOT analysis and your retrospective to move to the next step: setting your goals.

3. Set Your ABCs

Aim to set goals using this formula:

We will accomplish A by B because of C.

Your “A” should be the destination, often framed in terms of financial or economic objectives. It might be something like starting a new practice area, attracting three new clients a month in an existing practice, opening a new office in another jurisdiction, or hitting a revenue or profitability target.

Your “B” is your deadline. Since we’re talking annual goals, your outer deadline should be December 31, 2025. Some goals may need to be accomplished sooner, so feel free to set yourself a tighter deadline if that makes sense.

“C” is your why. Why do you want to accomplish that particular set of goals? Having a reason will help keep you and your team motivated.

One of our coaching clients set her annual goals like this:

We will increase the firm’s annual revenue to $1.3 million by December 31 so we can support all the families that depend on this business.

I will increase the percentage of my personal practice that is mediation to 50% by December 31 because I want to do more of what I love.

And, I will have all my team members identify their ideal clients and their Power Zones so that by December 31, everyone is doing more of what they love and making more money.

4. Break Down Yearly Goals Into Achievable Steps — With Deadlines

Everyone works better to a deadline, but December 31, 2025, is probably too remote to be motivating. If you’ve set a revenue target for the end of the year, break it down. How much do you need to make each month to hit that target? If you want 20 new clients in your estate planning practice, set yourself a target of five every quarter.

Even if your practice naturally ebbs and flows, setting monthly and quarterly targets will help you stay on track.

Breaking your goals down also makes it a lot easier to allocate resources. As you set your targets and deadlines, consider the resources you need to achieve your goals. Consider the staff, technology, budget and training you’ll need, and allocate resources accordingly.

5. Check Your Goals Regularly and Adjust

Make your planning process dynamic. As you set your goals, also block time in your calendar for monthly and quarterly reviews. It doesn’t have to take long. If your goals are financial, task your assistant with pulling your numbers every month. If they’re more qualitative, set aside time to get the information you need. Then, assess your progress based on the data you’ve got.

Make any adjustments you need, keeping your plan flexible and responsive to new developments or changing market conditions. Otherwise, next October, you’ll realize you’re only halfway to your objective with just a quarter left in the year.

Pro Tip: Keep your yearly goals visible.

Planning isn’t a one-and-done activity, with your plan lying quietly in a drawer until next November. We keep our annual and quarterly targets on our Daily Workboard in Trello. We check them regularly and adjust them if needed. It’s part of our weekly review process.

Annual Planning Can Be Fun

Building these five steps into your law firm’s annual planning process can make the exercise more strategic, efficient and a lot less overwhelming. Good luck, and have fun!

More Process Improvement Tips for Your Law Practice

• 5 Tips to Make Time Entry Less Painful for Lawyers
• Law Firm Intake: 3 Tips to Save Time and Convert More Clients
• New Client Onboarding: 5 Tips to Win Over New Clients
• Time to Build Your Team: 5 Steps to Improve Your Hiring Process
• From Hire to Higher: 6 Ways to Improve Employee Onboarding

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Karen Dunn Skinner and David Skinner help lawyers and legal professionals build more efficient, productive and profitable practices. They’re the co-founders of Gimbal Lean Practice Management Advisors and lawyers with over 20 years of experience each in Canada and Europe. Together, they’re the exclusive Global Advisors on Legal Process Improvement to the International Institute of Legal Project Management. They write and speak regularly, facilitate legal process improvement projects across North America, and have taught Gimbal’s LeanLegal^® approach to thousands of legal professionals.

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