Lobbying Firm Business Plan, Marketing Plan, How To Guide, and Funding Directory
The Lobbying Firm Business Plan and Business Development toolkit features 18 different documents that you can use for capital raising or general business planning purposes. Our product line also features comprehensive information regarding to how to start a Lobbying Firm business. All business planning packages come with easy-to-use instructions so that you can reduce the time needed to create a professional business plan and presentation.
Your Business Planning Package will be immediately emailed to you after you make your purchase.
- Bank/Investor Ready!
- Complete Industry Research
- 3 Year Excel Financial Model
- Business Plan (26 to 30 pages)
- Loan Amortization and ROI Tools
- Three SWOT Analysis Templates
- Easy to Use Instructions
- All Documents Delivered in Word, Excel, and PDF Format
- Meets SBA Requirements
Since there have been significant changes in political laws within the United States, lobbying firms have become extremely popular over the past 10 years. As such, the number of lobbyists both on the federal level and state level has swelled substantially over the past 5 to 10 years. Lobbying firms can be extremely lucrative businesses given that they are able to generate high-margin income from per hour and per project fees when representing clients to politicians. Of course, there is a strong degree of discretion that’s involved in order to ensure that a clients interests while remaining within the letter of the law at all times. Most successful lobbying firms consists primarily of attorneys that have had extensive experience with local, state, and the federal government. The barriers to entry for a new lobbying firm are considered very low given that anyone can incorporate an organization and have that organization represents third parties. Typically, the startup costs associated with lobbying firm can range anywhere from $5,000 all the way to $500,000 depending on the initial scale and scope of the business. One of the largest expenses relating to owning and operating a lobbying firm is the fact that high-end offices need to maintain in order to ensure that clients understand that the lobbyist has the appropriate connections with politicians to help influence their decisions.
Almost all capital for a lobbying firm is typically provided by either the owner or an investor. Most banks and lenders consider lobbying firms to be akin to consulting firms. As such, these firms typically are only able to raise capital for a bank once operations commence and have a significant stream of highly predictable invoices that are sent out on a monthly basis. Of course, once the business becomes profitable they can acquire a working capital line of credit based on their year on year profitability. As with any business, a lobbying firm business plan is usually required. This document – like any business planning document – should have a three-year profit and loss statement, cash flow analysis, balance sheet, breakeven analysis, and business ratios page. Most importantly, a well-developed marketing plan should be included within the business plan that focuses on the average client profile and the industry in which a lobbying firm will be targeting. Although there are some firms operate in a more general capacity – one of the recent trends among lobbying firms is to have a very specific focus or very specific issue that they represent on behalf of their clients. This can be one of the strong differentiating factors that a lobbying firm can have from the onset of operations. This is especially true if the owner operator is an attorney that has a significant amount of experience within any specific industry.
A marketing plan specifically for a lobbying firm should be developed as well. This marketing plan does not need to focus on marketing to the general public but rather for obtaining clients that are going to use the lobbying firm on an ongoing basis. Usually, at the onset of operations – it is the owner that works directly with clients in order to secure lobbying contracts. Unlike other businesses, a lobbying firm must have extensive ties within the industry as well as within political circles in order to properly render services. Most lobbying firms do not maintain a very large web presence as discretion is one of the key components to operating these types of businesses. As such, a standalone marketing plan should focus significantly on the owner’s contacts and how they will generate billable hours.
A lobbying firm SWOT analysis should be developed as well. These documents focus on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. For strengths, lobbying firms can be extremely lucrative provided that the owner is able to assist clients with having legislation favorable to their operations past. For weaknesses, this is a highly competitive industry and the owner typically has had years if not decades of experience representing clients over us number of matters. As such, it is difficult to start with these businesses if the owner or lobbyists do not have the proper connections. For opportunities, many lobbying firms expand by hiring additional agents, including attorneys, that can assist with representing clients as it pertains to legislative and executive matters. For threats, there are continued discussions regarding regulations as to how lobbying firms operate. A new court decision or new piece of legislation could impact the way that any individual lobbying firm conducts operations. As such, it is important that a lobbyist understand exactly what rules and regulations apply to their operations so that they can remain within the letter of the law at all times.