6A – Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Opportunities Related to Economic Trends

	Generation Z, also known as iGeneration is entering the workforce.  With their unique set of characteristics and their unmatched attachment to their electronic devices, these post-millennials require a unique approach to workplace training.	Approximately 3/4 of all US law firms have 4 or less attorneys.  These firms, especially solo attorneys and newly established practices face unique challenges.  Newly licensed attorneys face extreme debt and limited employment opportunities.  As the small and solo law firms face their unique challenges, they require specialized support and services on their road to success.
(a) where you found it (i.e., what the source of the information was that led you to form the belief about an opportunity)	Countless books and articles have been written exploring the challenges of millennials entering the workforce, many on the specificities of training and developing them.  As GenZ is graduating college and entering the workforce, employers that are looking for fresh ideas and talent must adapt yet again to the changes in the learning style of their workers.	After graduating law school, my wife faced a challenging job market.  New attorneys are expected to work long hours, working nights and weekends, which was not an option for our family, especially not after our fourth child was born 6 months after she became licensed.  We opened our own law office while she was still on maternity leave, so I am intimately familiar with the challenges that small firms face.
(b), what leads you to believe that this information suggests an opportunity might exist	Worker productivity is a hot topic in corporate environment, which is where I spent the last 20 years of my career.  My employer has invested generously in my training and development.  It is common knowledge that different people have different learning styles.  People from the same generation often share common characteristics.  Millennials are known as the ME generation, Generation Z is called iGeneration because of their inseparability with internet and their electronic devices.  These people have never known life without their smartphone or internet.	I have a full time career in the corporate world, but I am very involved with the decisions, budgeting and strategies for our law firm. I know first hand that appropriate technology-related support would be invaluable to small and solo law practices.
(c) who do you think is most likely to be the customer with the opportunity (i.e., the prototypical customer)	Large and mid-size corporations are the most likely customer for this opportunity, as they are the ones with the need for employee training on a large scale and funds to effectuate such training.	Solo and small law firms leverage technology to be profitable.  What is missing in the market is a comprehensive software solution for total management of a small firm.  There are many software solutions that are specific to law, but none of them seem to have everything, or even close to everything.  Integration between platforms, softwares and applications has improved greatly over the years, but the setup is more complicated than it needs to be with multiple programs not always integrating seamlessly.
(d) is the opportunity relatively easy or relatively difficult to exploit, and why do you think so?	This opportunity is relatively difficult to exploit because of the time and expense that it takes to conduct scientific research on what actually works for GenZ.  On the other hand, technology decreases expenses of actual implementation.	This opportunity is relatively difficult to exploit because of the seemingly saturated market and the expense of developing a comprehensive platform.
Why did I see this opportunity?	This topic is of particular interest to me because my team is in charge of all associate training for all of our 1375 stores.  Our ideas for innovative training initiatives are sometimes stifled the HR and legal departments.	I know well the practical aspects of running a law practice.  It is a business that provides a professional service.  Marketing and networking are as essential to a practice as is knowledge of the law.  My wife and I often talk about partnering with developers, investors and other professionals to create a comprehensive software solution that does not require outside components to fully run a firm.

Opportunities Related to Regulatory Changes

	Opportunity: to help small businesses prepare for next year’s tax season by making impactful changes to existing practices and adapting them to tax policy changes.	Opportunity: to help small businesses comply with regulatory changes that are almost certain to come to the US in light of General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in the European Union.
(a) where you found it (i.e., what the source of the information was that led you to form the belief about an opportunity)	Tax policy changes have been on the news for quite some time.  I knew right-away about some limited aspects of it from my wife, since the significant increase in the dollar amount of non-taxable estates directly affects her estate planning law-firm.  I recently learned more about the new law in general and more specifically how it affects small business owners from our CPA’s presentation.	Again, these changes have been in the news, which is how I first learned about them.  I then started receiving updates to policies from every major website or company that has my e-mail address. When you go on Forbes.com, a pop up tell you “We’ve updated our Privacy Statement to support new EU data protection laws. Click here to learn more.”
(b), what leads you to believe that this information suggests an opportunity might exist	An opportunity to educate and help people prepare for how these changes will affect them in April exist because no business owner has ever said “I would like to pay more in taxes!”  Most tax paying citizens and business owners would be interested in knowing what changes they can make to their practices today to be better prepared (save more money) next tax season.	This particular regulation only affects those doing business within the European Union, but experts say US will soon follow suit.  Cybersecurity regulations are imminent in light of serious security breaches experienced by giants, such as Target and Equifax.
(c) who do you think is most likely to be the customer with the opportunity (i.e., the prototypical customer)	The most likely customer is a small business owner.  While we cannot change certain aspects about the new tax law, such as the new tax brackets, but businesses can make small changes, such as updating their policies on spending, to be in step with the new tax laws on which business expenses are a “write-off” and which are not.	Most likely clients will be government agencies and businesses, small and large, so really any entity that handles personal information, which today is majority of businesses and all government entities.
(d) is the opportunity relatively easy or relatively difficult to exploit, and why do you think so?	This opportunity is relatively easy to exploit.  What is needed is a CPA with knowledge of how these changes will affect small business owners next tax season, a practical plan to help businesses identify changes they can and make, and targeted marketing.  The only difficulty is that to be useful, this idea needs to be implemented almost immediately, since we are already half way through the tax year.	This opportunity is somewhat difficult to exploit because customers first need to be convinced that they need to pay to comply with some regulations that do not yet exist in the US.
Why did I see this opportunity?	As a small business owner, this is a topic that is of a particular interest to me.  For example, in our own business, we have decided to decrease the “Meals and Entertainment” budget, which under the new tax law is only “Meals.”  We had a follow up meeting with our CPA and he helped us identify small changes we can make today to have a more beneficial tax return for 2018.	Because I own a law firm that serves individuals and small businesses, and because the Fortune 100 corporation I work for serves small businesses, my thinking often gravitates towards small businesses.  Large corporations have vast financial and legal resources to comply with new regulations.  Small businesses are looking for effective and cost efficient ways to do what needs to be done.