Legal Research

"Do Something! Taking Stock of Where You Are Now"

This post was written by Allison Shields: "It's tax day in the U.S., and chances are that means that you have recently spent time  putting together your personal and business financial information - or you've been avoiding doing just that and are now forced to file an extension. Either way, like it or not, you've probably been faced with some financial realities about how well your practice did last year. But what about this year?

The first quarter of 2010 is already behind us, and if you're like many of my clients who made resolutions to be better at staying on top of the business end of their practice, but find that (just like last year) they haven't gotten around to it, take heart - it's not too late to do something about it.

The 'where are you now' evaluation

In order to ascertain what needs to change or how to improve your practice, you first need a good idea of where you are now. After all, even if you know where you think you want to go, you can't plot your course unless you know your starting point. One of the tools I use with my clients is what I call the "where are you now" evaluation.

This evaluation is like a snapshot of your practice as it exists today. Some of this information may be at your fingertips or easily accessible through your practice management program, but some of the information may not be as easy to obtain. But the process of gathering this information and reviewing these items will help you to highlight not only where you are now, but where your systems may be lacking to capture the information you need.

The information I recommend that my clients gather includes..."

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Source: Legal Ease Blog, 15 April 2010, reproduced with permission of the author.

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on April 16, 2010 (boomark / email).