3 Enterprising Ways to Fortify Your Legal Nurse Consulting Business with a Strategic Plan

Consider the Golden Gate Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge or London’s Tower Bridge. How did the architects dare to create such astonishing visions? They didn’t just look out at the future location, point a finger and say, “Pour the concrete right about there.” Of course not.

Are you pointing a finger at your legal nurse consulting business and saying, “I’ll just pour some concrete right there?” An architect knows that failing to plan is planning to fail. As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, you need a strategic plan that includes goals, strategies and target dates. This is your blueprint for building your CLNC^® bridge to astonishing success.

My first strategic plan was conceived in my mind but only came fully to life when I committed it to paper. That single page included my goals and the strategies to achieve them, with a target date attached. Every time I made a business decision, I consulted my plan. I reviewed and updated it frequently. It became my friendly nudge, my board of directors and my business manager. Today my company’s strategic plan is 65 pages, because this level of planning is necessary to run my company, but it all started with a simple plan.

Dale Barnes, RN, MSN, PHN, CLNC advises: “Don’t procrastinate on your plan. If I were starting out now, I would immediately make a business plan as I learned in LegalNurse.com’s CLNC Certification Program. I made the mistake of procrastinating and that slowed me down in the long run. If I’d had a plan to go by, I could have focused differently on my legal nurse consulting business. Even though I acquired attorney-clients quickly, the process would have been smoother, and I would have grown my CLNC business even faster. My advice to new legal nurse consultants without a business plan is to stop and write one now, and continue to modify it as needed. It will keep you on track, focused and will accelerate your CLNC business to the next level.”

Another Certified Legal Nurse Consultant shares: “The best advice I never took was to write a strategic plan. I thought I knew better, that I could grow my business without it. Eight months into starting my part-time business, I was floundering. I finally sat down and wrote a strategic plan and posted it where I could see it every day. My business began to flourish and within a month I was wondering why I had not done this sooner. Within four months of writing that strategic plan, I quit my regular job and focused on my legal nurse consulting business. I was amazed by my success and now know that I should have followed that advice from day one.”

Here are three enterprising ways to fortify your legal nurse consulting business with a strategic plan:

Envision your legal nurse consulting business as a bold enterprise.
If anyone had asked me 29 years ago whether I could manage a multimillion-dollar company, I would have laughed. My vision was smaller then. But that smaller vision got me to the bigger vision of today. Don’t hesitate to commit a plan to paper because it seems daunting; just start small. Starting small is better than not starting at all. Begin your plan by focusing on your passionate vision for your legal nurse consulting business. Describe the strategies you will implement to realize your vision.

Anchor your legal nurse consulting business.
The stability of your legal nurse consulting business comes from three cornerstones of balance: your values, your strengths and the way you handle challenges. How will yours anchor your CLNC enterprise?

Define your core values. This is not difficult, but it’s somewhat magical because your values will guide your decisions like a sage whispering in your ear. One of my company’s core values is building lifelong relationships with our clients. Clients include our internal staff. If we don’t serve each other, we can’t possibly serve our external clients. Your values will shape your future as they have previously influenced your past and will help keep your strategic plan on target. Write them down.
Assess your strengths. Think about the knowledge, skills and experience your CLNC business will draw on. List all your strengths that you will apply.
Appraise your challenges. Whatever the business, you’ll have challenges. These may involve expertise, competition or managing a CLNC subcontractor on a legal nurse consultant job. Challenges change as your CLNC business changes. My first challenge in 1982 was getting attorneys to recognize the need for a new type of consulting service. As my company grew, a new challenge surfaced: my lack of experience as a manager. That challenge led me to seek the right executives to support my vision. Without addressing that weakness, I might never have achieved big. What challenges will you face in pursuing your CLNC business? How will they impact your goals and strategies?

Shape your legal nurse consulting business.
Imagine your CLNC business as it exists in your ideal future. Think large. Answer these four questions:

What are my goals?
What strategies will I use to accomplish my goals?
What action steps will I implement? Do I have target dates for completion?
Have I assessed where I am in my plan and how the plan is measuring up to my vision for my legal nurse consulting business? Am I updating the plan regularly?

Use this blueprint to build your CLNC bridge to astonishing success.

Success Is Yours!

P.S. Comment and share the strategies you’ll use to fortify your legal nurse consulting business.