PROBLEM: Our practice group has no business development budget.

RESPONSE: Of course it does. You’re already spending money on business development at one or more ends of the spectrum. You simply need to collect the data and find out what you’re already spending. That’s your budget.

RESULT: Getting a hold on your current actual spending will allow you to focus resources where they will clearly do the most good.

PROBLEM: We missed the major new litigation!

RESPONSE: Don’t dwell on any one matter or even on any whole genus of legal business. Look to the pipeline to deliver a stream of alternative possibilities, some of which may not yet be on your radar screen.

RESULT: You’ll need to start making decisions about which kind of business to go after and which to let some other law firm go after. That’s a wonderful problem to have.