Where's the lawyer: reload legal services
In the beginning, as usual, there was a word. In our case, the idea. The idea to make a service that we have long lacked. The common phrase that the best business - the one whose client you want to become yourself, turned out to be most welcome.
Who are these "we", and what we lacked so much? A team of several young lawyers and one manager, who managed to fill more than one hand (and a lump) in consulting and simultaneously build a couple of moderately successful projects in the very âsmall businessâ. In general, we were on both sides of the barricades: we had a chance to be hired lawyers and a free wind in the business field.
How sad is the case with legal services for entrepreneurs, we were able to feel immediately and fully. To put it bluntly - good legal support is simply not available for small and un-fed medium businesses. Keeping a lawyer in staff is not cheap. Yes, and a hired lawyer, by definition, cannot thoroughly understand everything - this is work for an external consultant. That's just an appeal to a law firm - something else is a test for business. The prices requested by consultants for their services are exorbitant for a start-up company. Blame lawyers in this situation is not worth it. Keeping staff, renting an office, a lot of other overhead costs can be compensated for in the only obvious way - by putting all this in the price of services. From here high prices and orientation on large or freely living medium business.
')
In addition to the experience in employment in consulting, we were fully convinced in addition of the extremely dismissive attitude towards âbusiness kidsâ looking at the light. Such a client would not pay much anyway, so why bother and delve into his petty problems â such an installation is given to his subordinates by superiors in large firms.
We decided that this should not continue any longer: at least we should try to change the situation. And they created the project âWhere is the lawyerâ - a platform where for the first time a small business can get affordable legal support under new conditions.
At first glance, the solution to the problem is obvious: remove a legal firm from a lawyerâs relationship with the clientâs client. Indeed, if a lawyer provides services to the client personally, then their cost is several times less. But how, in this case, to ensure the reliability and quality of the services provided? Who will give guarantees to the client that the work will be done efficiently and on time, and to the lawyer - that it will be paid?
We tried to answer these questions by doing a project, and I want to think what we did. How does all this work? The mechanism of the service is simple and clear:
1. We form and constantly replenish the team of lawyers from among graduates and undergraduates of leading universities. Each of them must pass an entrance test in order for us to be assured that we can be confident in the quality of their work.
2. We receive a request from the client, agree on the timing and cost of execution and proceed to work. To fulfill the request, we find the most suitable and qualified lawyer from among the project participants.
3. We send the client a response to the request and make a final settlement with it. After that we pay the portal lawyer for the work he has done.
At first glance, all this looks like a freelance exchange. Our fundamental difference from them is that we do not just reduce the customer and the performer, after which we immediately forget about them. We fully control the process of order execution and payment and bear full responsibility to both parties. In principle, a situation is impossible in our country when deadlines are tight, the work has not been done, and the customer is searching for a strolling performer in a panic. Or vice versa - the order is completed a long time ago, but the client is in no hurry to transfer money to the contractor. Both the client and the lawyer enter into a relationship with the service âWhere a lawyerâ, and not directly with each other, and it is our service that is responsible for order fulfillment and payment transfer. And yes, we heard about âno risk transactionsâ and so on. But about the same number of times they heard about what problems the parties have, and how risk-free does not guarantee happiness.
In which case, the client does not need to worry that the executor of his request will linger with the answer or disappear altogether. A professional team of lawyers from among the staff of the project in an emergency will always take the execution of the request itself.
Optimism has given us a successful existence in recent years of services like My Business. Services that opened up a muddy veil of uncertainty and by all means invited everyone to enter the wonderful world of entrepreneurship. That very small business, about which, as always, they talk a lot in high offices and on central channels - these are just words that traditionally differ from business as usual, and businessmen are still left to themselves.
If they managed to make the complex simple and understandable, why shouldn't we try it? - we thought. The case remained for the small - to translate ideas raging in their heads. Overcome the same stage "but it would be nice .." and jump over the barrier that was never destined to overcome dozens of very good ideas.
The matter remained for small: to add life to something intriguing and amorphous in our heads. That is to move from the bare idea to the implementation - just something.
In the line of overcoming legal and administrative formalities, problems were expectedly not arisen: after all, a team of several lawyers with work experience simply did not have the right to fail in this regard. Some couple of weeks, and we already had a legally established business, able to receive and send payments.
Much more interesting (all of a sudden!) Everything was directly with the realization of the ideas in our heads - in other words, with the creation of a site that would meet our requirements.
Let me remind you that several lawyers and one manager, not a single programmer or designer, is a good combination for anything, of course, apart from developing an Internet service. If we had a couple of millions on our account,we wouldnât have done any projects at all. Of course, we would have turned to radiant professionals from the top ten of the corresponding chart. But we did not have such resources, as it should have already become clear. Search for happiness in the harsh guys, intriguing business cards like "I make up for food" or "five sites for the price of one," we also did not dare for some reason.
There was only one thing to do - to do everything yourself, but with things that were completely incomprehensible to the mind of a lawyer, go bowing at the feet of acquaintances and acquaintances. Funny, must be, from the side of the spectacle - looking up from laws and codes, lawyers learn the basics of design and site building. Fortunately, in our case, consciousness so strongly defined being that all doubts that arose fell by themselves. It turned out that everyone loved to draw in childhood, and even lawyers tend to feel beautiful.
We certainly didnât sit out all day long in the garage (itâs too expensive by the capitalâs standards - the garage), but otherwise the whole action was quite reminiscent of an exemplary start-up: a sea of ââenthusiasm, and the rest would follow.
From the very beginning, we, first of all, wanted to bring the finished product to the user as soon as possible, and not to delay the start in anticipation of better times (circumstances, money, a good investorâs uncle, etc). After all, it is the endless fine-tuning of the project to the state of "and the world will shake" most often and puts quite tolerable ideas in a coffin (it's a long box). From the very start, we agreed to act differently: the more so that the basis and essence of our idea is a workable service, and it is quite possible (and certainly necessary) to launch the first received profits on visual "charms". In the end, we are not the first ones - not one successful project has gone this way.
Whether long, shortly - by joint efforts the project was ready and at âX hourâ it was solemnlylaunched into the open spaces of the network. It was decided to immediately abandon technologies under the terrible acronym SEO - and besides, as in the case of the website, there was simply no means to appeal to professionals. Potential clients of the service among friends and acquaintances were enough, so it was logical to start the promotion with them. Someone left immediately, but many agreed to try: first, of course, under our honest word. For a start, the network of intelligent lawyers was placed in native universities, and after they began to promote them in places where lawyers gathered on the Internet.
So we have been living since then: the team of lawyers accepted into the project is gradually growing, the number of customers, too, the first regular customers appear. By the way, an unforgettable feeling for a barely started business, when a client comes in a second time - and not to express his âfiâ, but to cooperate again.
Almost all of the proceeds are trying to start in the refinement and processing of the service. The other day, we are just getting ready to fasten 1000 and 1 payment methods to the site so that our customers will be even more comfortable. So far, they have not earned a villa in St. Tropez, so no one has yet expressed a desire to quit the project.
Evaluate and use you, we only invite you to try - because we really tried.
How we came to such a life
Who are these "we", and what we lacked so much? A team of several young lawyers and one manager, who managed to fill more than one hand (and a lump) in consulting and simultaneously build a couple of moderately successful projects in the very âsmall businessâ. In general, we were on both sides of the barricades: we had a chance to be hired lawyers and a free wind in the business field.
How sad is the case with legal services for entrepreneurs, we were able to feel immediately and fully. To put it bluntly - good legal support is simply not available for small and un-fed medium businesses. Keeping a lawyer in staff is not cheap. Yes, and a hired lawyer, by definition, cannot thoroughly understand everything - this is work for an external consultant. That's just an appeal to a law firm - something else is a test for business. The prices requested by consultants for their services are exorbitant for a start-up company. Blame lawyers in this situation is not worth it. Keeping staff, renting an office, a lot of other overhead costs can be compensated for in the only obvious way - by putting all this in the price of services. From here high prices and orientation on large or freely living medium business.
')
In addition to the experience in employment in consulting, we were fully convinced in addition of the extremely dismissive attitude towards âbusiness kidsâ looking at the light. Such a client would not pay much anyway, so why bother and delve into his petty problems â such an installation is given to his subordinates by superiors in large firms.
What we have in mind
We decided that this should not continue any longer: at least we should try to change the situation. And they created the project âWhere is the lawyerâ - a platform where for the first time a small business can get affordable legal support under new conditions.
At first glance, the solution to the problem is obvious: remove a legal firm from a lawyerâs relationship with the clientâs client. Indeed, if a lawyer provides services to the client personally, then their cost is several times less. But how, in this case, to ensure the reliability and quality of the services provided? Who will give guarantees to the client that the work will be done efficiently and on time, and to the lawyer - that it will be paid?
We tried to answer these questions by doing a project, and I want to think what we did. How does all this work? The mechanism of the service is simple and clear:
1. We form and constantly replenish the team of lawyers from among graduates and undergraduates of leading universities. Each of them must pass an entrance test in order for us to be assured that we can be confident in the quality of their work.
2. We receive a request from the client, agree on the timing and cost of execution and proceed to work. To fulfill the request, we find the most suitable and qualified lawyer from among the project participants.
3. We send the client a response to the request and make a final settlement with it. After that we pay the portal lawyer for the work he has done.
Stop, somewhere we have already seen all this ..
At first glance, all this looks like a freelance exchange. Our fundamental difference from them is that we do not just reduce the customer and the performer, after which we immediately forget about them. We fully control the process of order execution and payment and bear full responsibility to both parties. In principle, a situation is impossible in our country when deadlines are tight, the work has not been done, and the customer is searching for a strolling performer in a panic. Or vice versa - the order is completed a long time ago, but the client is in no hurry to transfer money to the contractor. Both the client and the lawyer enter into a relationship with the service âWhere a lawyerâ, and not directly with each other, and it is our service that is responsible for order fulfillment and payment transfer. And yes, we heard about âno risk transactionsâ and so on. But about the same number of times they heard about what problems the parties have, and how risk-free does not guarantee happiness.
In which case, the client does not need to worry that the executor of his request will linger with the answer or disappear altogether. A professional team of lawyers from among the staff of the project in an emergency will always take the execution of the request itself.
Optimism has given us a successful existence in recent years of services like My Business. Services that opened up a muddy veil of uncertainty and by all means invited everyone to enter the wonderful world of entrepreneurship. That very small business, about which, as always, they talk a lot in high offices and on central channels - these are just words that traditionally differ from business as usual, and businessmen are still left to themselves.
If they managed to make the complex simple and understandable, why shouldn't we try it? - we thought. The case remained for the small - to translate ideas raging in their heads. Overcome the same stage "but it would be nice .." and jump over the barrier that was never destined to overcome dozens of very good ideas.
How we did it
The matter remained for small: to add life to something intriguing and amorphous in our heads. That is to move from the bare idea to the implementation - just something.
In the line of overcoming legal and administrative formalities, problems were expectedly not arisen: after all, a team of several lawyers with work experience simply did not have the right to fail in this regard. Some couple of weeks, and we already had a legally established business, able to receive and send payments.
Much more interesting (all of a sudden!) Everything was directly with the realization of the ideas in our heads - in other words, with the creation of a site that would meet our requirements.
Let me remind you that several lawyers and one manager, not a single programmer or designer, is a good combination for anything, of course, apart from developing an Internet service. If we had a couple of millions on our account,
There was only one thing to do - to do everything yourself, but with things that were completely incomprehensible to the mind of a lawyer, go bowing at the feet of acquaintances and acquaintances. Funny, must be, from the side of the spectacle - looking up from laws and codes, lawyers learn the basics of design and site building. Fortunately, in our case, consciousness so strongly defined being that all doubts that arose fell by themselves. It turned out that everyone loved to draw in childhood, and even lawyers tend to feel beautiful.
We certainly didnât sit out all day long in the garage (itâs too expensive by the capitalâs standards - the garage), but otherwise the whole action was quite reminiscent of an exemplary start-up: a sea of ââenthusiasm, and the rest would follow.
From the very beginning, we, first of all, wanted to bring the finished product to the user as soon as possible, and not to delay the start in anticipation of better times (circumstances, money, a good investorâs uncle, etc). After all, it is the endless fine-tuning of the project to the state of "and the world will shake" most often and puts quite tolerable ideas in a coffin (it's a long box). From the very start, we agreed to act differently: the more so that the basis and essence of our idea is a workable service, and it is quite possible (and certainly necessary) to launch the first received profits on visual "charms". In the end, we are not the first ones - not one successful project has gone this way.
And what we did
Whether long, shortly - by joint efforts the project was ready and at âX hourâ it was solemnly
So we have been living since then: the team of lawyers accepted into the project is gradually growing, the number of customers, too, the first regular customers appear. By the way, an unforgettable feeling for a barely started business, when a client comes in a second time - and not to express his âfiâ, but to cooperate again.
Almost all of the proceeds are trying to start in the refinement and processing of the service. The other day, we are just getting ready to fasten 1000 and 1 payment methods to the site so that our customers will be even more comfortable. So far, they have not earned a villa in St. Tropez, so no one has yet expressed a desire to quit the project.
Evaluate and use you, we only invite you to try - because we really tried.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/128440/
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