The outfield fence. To hit a home run. And partly because of that focus and that plan, Mickey Mantle became one of baseball's greatest home-run hitters of all time. You can contrast that story with the lawyer who goes to the law office every day to work on client matters without a target or plan for where he or she wants to be at the end of the month, the year, or a career. Without an overall objective, you're only putting in your time just like a baseball player who steps up to home plate only thinking of making contact with the ball and nothing more.
Success requires more than that.
Business planning is an idea and an action that can be accomplished regardless of the nature of the substantive area of your practice. This process applies to transactional work as well as a contingency practice such as personal injury or to debt collection. It's not uncommon for there to be a certain amount of fear associated with the thought of planning, but rather than being afraid of planning, lawyers should actually feel confident, since they are trained to think logically about problems and solutions. Planning is merely one form of problem solving, and like all problem solving, the business planning process has certain steps. In a law firm, it is important that all the key players agree on the direction of the firm.