I started out my own business plan by finding some templates online and adapting portions of some of them into a format that I thought was helpful to me. Then I took the first session in Rachel Rodgers' VLO class and completely changed my approach. The content that I put together previously is still valid and helpful, but I thought I should follow Rachel's advice and start from the desired impact of my virtual law office's on my personal life. If you're a regular reader, you know that in my first post on Rachel's class, I talked about liking the idea of a Life Plan as an element of a business plan. On Monday this week I promised some more business plan content and my reflections on doing my own life plan. You can find all that good stuff after the jump.
Let me start by waxing eloquent about the virtues of doing a life plan prior to the nuts and bolts of business planning. To be sure, your life plan will do you no good when it comes to securing a small business loan or some other form of start-up capital. You banker doesn't care that you want to have two dogs and a cat, live in a 120 year-old house, or drive a 1964 Ford Mustang. The life plan is entirely for your own benefit. And the benefits are many.
If nothing else, doing a life plan will help you focus your thoughts on what kind of success you need to have in your virtual law office (or any other business, for that matter) to achieve your life goals. If you expect to have income of $120k per year but want to live in a rural area and only plan to work 20 hours a week, you may need to reevaluate your life plan. But, if you think you only need $40k per year in order to rent your efficiency apartment and have a vibrant night life, then you know what kind of effort to put in within the context of your VLO.
One of the major benefits I got out of working through the life planning exercise was some realizations about myself that I may not have otherwise had. Specifically, I realized that, despite evidence to the contrary, I am a morning person (Don't laugh!). Even though my body clock makes it nigh unto impossible, I would really prefer to be awake at 6:00 or 6:30 every day. My wife shared the sentiment, so we have started the slow and difficult task of adjusting our body clocks so that we can be up an 1-1.5 hours earlier. I learned that I would like to be able to self-motivate myself to run at that time of day as well. 5 years ago, I would have called myself crazy for even thinking that.
How can you get on this amazing self-awareness bandwagon? Well, thanks to Rachel's kindheartedness, here is a PDF of the Life Plan Exercise handout Rachel provided to the class. As you can see from the bottom of the page, the concept is not original to Rachel. Rachel's Life Plan exercise is an adaptation of the original which Pamela Slim first wrote about in her book, Escape from Cubicle Nation. Thanks to both ladies for the work and for allowing the redistribution of this most excellent exercise.
Now, the moment of truth. Here is an excerpt of my own life plan in paragraph form.
Health: Ideally, I would like to get an average of seven hours of sleep per night. During the week, I recognize that this may not always be possible. However, work should not bleed over into the weekend if at all possible, so I expect to make up for lost sleep on Saturday and Sunday. In addition, I would like to run at least three times each week, regardless of the weather. Hard work during the week may cause some fatigue come Saturday, but weekends are for rest and recuperation only - work on the house being the exception. The overall goal for my health is that I be physically able to play sports with my two sons and golf at least once a week during the summer.
Work Style: Generally, I expect that I will work alone. This is primarily because the VLO will allow me to do a lot of work from home. However, a full time staffer in the brick-and-mortar office location will be unnecessary. A receptionist/legal assistant who works half-time would be ideal. A flexible schedule is the most attractive element of a VLO. The freedom to take off work to pick up the kids or to attend a sporting event is important to me; family comes first.With that said, some formal scheduling will be important. "Office hours" will help me focus on work when necessary. On the flip side, the number of hours worked in a week will be fairly fluid, with a "40-hour week" as a baseline or starting point. I would expect to work between 25 and 45 hours each week, depending on client needs.
Nature of Your Work: The most rewarding aspect of my job is the counseling aspect. The ability to help people find peace in their finances through estate planning and long-term care planning is what keeps me going to work every day. Therefore, some document generation is required and a natural part of my job, but the real "work" gets done in the counseling sessions with each client. The virtual law office will focus on planning: estate planning, LTC planning, business planning, succession planning, etc. Two niches that I plan to serve are families with children and farmers. This could potentially be narrowed further to provide planning services targeted specifically and separately at livestock farmers and grain farmers.
Financial Life: The primary financial goal I have is to be debt-free outside of a home loan or mortgage. No more student loans, no credit cards, no car loans. Zero consumer debt. This freedom from debt will enable the most important aspect of our financial life: charitable giving. A 10% tithe will come off the top of all income, but I want the freedom to be able to give to the causes that are important to me without the limitation of monthly debt payments.
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