Although we lawyers were taught in law school that we could do brain surgery – if only the light was right, please don’t utilize a surgical knife when scrutinizing your coming year’s marketing budget.

As many investment advisors (oh yeah, we were taught we could do that too in our sleep) are telling their clients, now is a time to buy not sell. Well, for firms that want to take advantage of their competition, now is the time to avoid major surgery or selling short when it comes to the marketing budget.

Unfortunately, too many firms look at marketing as an expense, rather than as an investment in the firm’s future. Having said that, the budgeting process, if not well underway in your firm, undoubtedly will begin as year-end approaches. Michelle Golden has a few posts dealing with marketing budgets that are worth looking at:

The important point is to not amputate marketing from your firm’s budget at a time when your competitors are; rather, invest in your firm’s future now and let them try to catch up later.