The Internicola Law Firm, PC is a specialized business and franchise law firm dedicated to supporting entrepreneurship and assisting entrepreneurs and business owners in building great businesses. This newsletter is all about entrepreneurship and sharing with our clients, colleagues and friends a mindset of success, best practices for business expansion and protection and learning from one another. This newsletter means a lot to us, we hope you enjoy it and we are always glad to hear from you with any comments or suggestions that you may have.

The Business and Franchise Law Report is a publication of the Charles N. Internicola Law Firm, P.C., and is intended to educate the general public about business law issues. It is not intended to be legal advice. The information in this newsletter may be freely copied and distributed as long as the newsletter is copied in its entirety.

ABOUT THE INTERNICOLA LAW FIRM, P.C.

email cni@BusinessandFranchiseLaw.com | web www.BusinessandFranchiseLaw.com | tel 800.976.4904

FIRM NEWS

volume 3 | issue 5

STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR SMALL BUSINESS: WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED SO FAR

4. What are our core values?

5. What is the mission that we want to achieve over the next

3 to 5 years?

This is all “stuff” that I have always thought existed in my

head and, quite frankly, I thought that I did a good job

communicating the strategic plan that existed in my head.

Turns out, that like many business owners, I have overlooked

the necessity of putting in place and properly communicating

our strategic plan.

—continued on page 2

Charles N. InternicolaBrian A. Lincer

In last month’s Business and

Franchise Law Report I briefly

mentioned the book “Scaling

Up” and my confession that as a

business owner one task that I

needed to do a much better job

of was putting in place a “strategic

plan” for our law firm. That is, a

written plan where our team put

pen to paper and following an extensive all day meeting we

put together the framework of our strategic plan including

our answers to questions like this:

1. Why does our firm exist?

2. If our firm disappeared tomorrow, would we be missed in

the marketplace?

3. What are our 2 to 4 core strengths as a law firm that make

us unique in the marketplace and how can we focus even

more on these core strengths to provide a service that is

unmatched in the industry?

Core values, company purpose and mission staff meetingwww.gazelles.com

2 The Business and Franchise Law Report | Volume 3 Issue 5

So why is Strategic Planning So Important? Well, I think

we would all agree that it is necessary to set identifiable and

communicated goals that are measured and monitored. The

problem is that many small business owners fail to put this in

writing and over the course of a business day, week, month

and year we get overtaken with business tasks (providing a

great service or selling great products) and fail to proactively

plan and monitor progress.

But Business is Good, My Staff Works Hard and our Customers are Happy. Things Must be Good - Right?

Well that has always been my philosophy and my excuse

why I didn’t need to sit down and go through the strategic

planning process. Turns out I am wrong and in reading Scaling

Up, Strategic Planning is all about “scaling your business up”

for 10X plus growth and really impacting your market.

So where Am I at Now? We are still working on our

strategic plan, and although we have a long way to go, here

are the tasks we have completed so far:

—continued from page 1STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR SMALL BUSINESS: WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED SO FAR

this newsletter are from the conference room where we had

our meeting and on the wall were giant post-its reflecting

the points we discussed and debated for over 8 hours. From

my perspective, the meeting was a success and something

long overdue. We left with parts of our strategic plan written

down and in place including our core vales, our 3-5 year

mission and an analysis of why we matter in the marketplace

and how we could do more. We also left with a list of our

strengths and weaknesses.

What is next for us? I would say we still have a long way

to go and the next step will be breaking down our 3 to 5

year mission and goals into annual and monthly goals with

key performance indicators that we can track and follow.

Basically, we have a lot more to do and the key will be to stay

on track with this planning process.

What is the end goal? After our meeting, it became quite

clear to me that the end goal for our firm and our team is to

be a firm and organization that really matters to our clients,

the overall industry that we operate in and for one another

and the families that depend on us.

The list of our core values are on page 3. For me, just as

important as the 6 core values that our team adopted was

the process where we spent many hours discussing each

one, how each core value came about and the list of core

values that we considered but did not adopt because, well,

they just didn’t feel right.

In terms of our strategic planning, there is still much to do.

Our company purpose and values (See page 3)

Notes and ideas from our all day staff meeting

p Strategic Planning Session - Utilizing materials

from “Scaling Up” and the “Strategic Planning for Small

Business Guide” by Clate Mask (co-founder of Infusionsoft

and someone discussed in the Scaling up book) I spent a

day by myself working through our firm goals, and setting

an agenda and discussion points for a full team meeting

where we would work on our strategic plan.

p Full Day Team Meeting - Once I put a plan in place

and an agenda, we set a full day team meeting. This was an

all day meeting that we conducted off-site at a conference

facility. We closed our office and our entire team spent the

day working on a strategic plan for the firm. The photos in

3www.BusinessandFranchiseLaw.com

COMPANY PURPOSE AND VALUES

Company PurposeTo provide services, resources and industry know-how to empower our clients and to partner with them in building a great business.

Company Values1. We go above and beyond without expectations.

2. We do what we say we will do.

3. We value time: Our own, our client’s and each others.

4. We always ask how we can help or do more.

5. We maintain a positive attitude in everything we do.

6. We consistently improve who we are and what we do.

Share your company purpose, mission and values with us on our Facebook Page:

wwww.facebook.com/TheInternicolaLawFirmPC

FRANCHISEE UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP

The Franchisee UniversityYoung Entrepreneur Scholarship

Mbalu F.

Congratulations to Mbalu F. for your excellent essay about

becoming a future entrepreneur and building a business that

will have a favorable impact for you and your community!

Mbalu is an aspiring entrepreneur and strives to be a leader

in transforming lives by organizing a College and Career

Outreach Program.

After reading “Success for Teens”, Mbalu realized one of the

most important lessons is that everyone is in control of their

own fate. “Ultimately, who you become is solely based on

your dedication to fulfill your goals even when perseverance

gets difficult.”

We still have a few copies of “Success for Teens” available! If you would like a copy for your teen, let us

know and we will be glad to send you the book. Email Samantha: ss@businessandfranchiselaw.com or

call (718) 979-8688.

PRESENTED TO

With This Scholarship Award For Excellence In: Entrepreneurship

$500 FRANCHISEE UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP WINNER!

4

IN THIS ISSUE

1000 South Avenue | Suite 104Staten Island, NY 10314

1.800.976.4904www.BusinessandFranchiseLaw.com

FIRM NEWS Strategic Planning for Small Business: What We Have Learned So Far PAGE 1

SCHOLARSHIP Winner of the $500 Franchisee University Young Entrepreneur Scholarship PAGE 3

COMPANY PURPOSE AND VALUESPurpose and Values our firm lives by PAGE 2

ENTREPRENEURS Entrepreneurs nationwide told us why Entrepreneurs Kick AssTM

PAGE 4

“ —Albert EinsteinA person who never made a mistake never tried anything

new.”

CONNECT WITH US!

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

ENTREPRENEURS THAT KICK ASSTM

We asked why you believe “Entrepreneurs Kick Ass!” Here were the top 5 answers and winners of the contest.

#EntrepreneursKickAss

ENTREPRENEURS THAT KICK ASSTM CONTEST WINNERS!1. “Entrepreneurs fail forward and create a lifestyle that no one else does and put a big foot forward in creating jobs, as well as contribute to building a better economy.” —Ronnie S.

2. “They set GOALS and ACHIEVE THEM!” —Spencer W.

3. “They control their own destiny.” —Christel P.

4. “We take unimaginable risks, deal head on with fear and doubts, and persevere!” —Monique L.

5. “Entrepreneurs kick ass because they aren’t afraid to succeed.” —Michael I.