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This month is for do-it-yourselfers out there, those who aim to put in the investment to grow their practice or expand the kind of work they do. All of our articles give you practical and specific how-to information on building your practice.

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Featured Articles

Prepare for better business development with the talking points from this month's featured articles – in brief.

There are many marketing initiatives a lawyer or law firm can consider. Steve Barrett takes a sharp-eyed look at how well 15 of the most common marketing programs stack up when you look at their ROI, what they truly deliver in business relative to their costs. Especially in these tough times, you want to keep your investments productive by doing those things that lie below his dotted line.

More and more in-house counsel are evaluating law firms through a request for proposal (RFP). And more law firms are competing for that business. Gail Huneryager, Director of Business Development at Crowe & Dunlevy, explains what you should do with an RFP, what’s important and your keys to winning new business through a successful response.

At a time when your clients’ budgets for attending industry meetings are severely limited, sponsoring a small group roundtable can prove particularly valuable for your business development. By spurring a discussion on trends or critical problems that a peer group is facing, you stand to gain. Michael Cummings explains how it can work.

The scope of Twitter can be overwhelming, especially to those who have a local practice and are unsure why they should bother with this borderless social network. Thom Singer explains why Twitter is best approached as not some "global networking" thing but rather a local tool, and he offers five tips to growing your personal and professional brand in your own backyard.

You keep hearing about the value of getting involved with a local trade or business association. After figuring out which one, the big question is how best to do this so that it brings you legal work. Darryl Cross advocates going where the action is, the membership committee, and explains why.

Like most legal marketing, emphasizes Andy Havens, there’s no good short cut to raising the profile of a practice group. It takes clear goals, a commitment from your attorneys, an organized plan, and a way to measure success. And it takes avoiding big no-nos, like the five whoppers in this article, to keep your effort on a sound footing.