Me. I am a seasoned corporate executive with over 20 years of experience working for a Fortune 100 company. As of 3 years ago I am also a small business owner. My corporate experience is very diverse. I have lead retail operations, store planning, supply chain, corporate strategy, and training departments. My most valuable skill is my analytical ability. I often need very little information to come to a decision or to create an action plan. A talent that I have is my ability to systemize and see trends. I aspire to be a COO and CEO of a Fortune 500 company. My business concept would be a short-term project the goal of which is to establish a company that can continue to exist and profitably service customers based on the original concept and without my daily involvement or oversight. I see the role of my business in my life as a means of producing additional income, while allowing me to pursue my chosen career path as an officer of a large corporation.
The product that I am offering is a comprehensive software solution for solo and small law offices that manages the firms’ marketing efforts, client intake, case management, document management, calendaring and finances. While there are many products on the market that address and manage one or more of the activities involved in running a law practice, none of them are comprehensive and none of them include all of the aspects that my software will.
Who am I offering it to? The majority of US attorneys are solo practitioners or are in a small firm of 2-4 attorneys, so the market potential is broad. My software will appeal to a few specific demographics. First, would be the many newly licensed attorneys that are starting their own practice right out of law school. Likely, these are people in their late twenties. Many are burdened by student loan debt and demoralized by lack of desirable employment opportunities. Many are fearful of the unknown. Some are entrepreneurial by nature. This demographic is short on funds. Fortunately for them, it does not take a big investment to start a law firm, unlike a medical practice or a restaurant. Efficiency, automation and low overhead are important to these attorneys. Second, attorneys in established solo or small law who are looking to increase efficiencies, cut overhead costs and impress their clients. These are entrepreneurs who are always looking for a better, cheaper, quicker way of doing something. These are attorneys who are not set in the traditional ways of lawyering and have a technology-minded vision of their law practice. These people realize that lawyering today is not what it was 20 years ago. My plan is to customize this software to attorneys that practice estate planning and probate, since these are the areas of law and type of law practice I am most familiar with. The second step would be to expand into other practice areas, one at a time by conducting thorough research to gain better understanding of different practice areas and the practitioners’ needs.
Why do they care? Customers will actually pay me money to use my software because most of them already do, but for inferior products. Attorneys must be very organized and efficient with their time, especially as the trend is moving away from traditional hourly billing to flat fees, in which case it is no longer in an attorney’s best interests to take longer to complete a task. They care because efficiency increases revenue for law firms. Today, my law firm spends close to $1,000 per month on various software subscriptions. All of those softwares are cloud based and some integrate with others and some do not. I would happily pay half of what we pay now, or even all of what we pay now, to have comprehensive solution that is all in one place.
What are my core competencies? My analytical and systematization skills is what sets me apart from others. I don’t think that anyone has anything that nobody else has, but I believe I have a unique combination of experience and talents that will make me successful at this project.
These elements fit well together because my experience, skills and talents are well suited for the task of gathering information and overseeing implementation and financial constraints of this type of project. My understanding of the market makes me confident that there is a real need for this product because I have an intimate understanding of day to day challenges that small law firms face.
I feel like I am unable to meaningfully complete this last part of the assignment because I received very little feedback on my original posting. Often, not just in this class, feedback consists of praise, and very seldom do people offer constructive criticism that allows other to improve. I have made minor edits on my original post based on my own review. One interesting idea I received from the feedback was making a similar software for other businesses besides law firms. I realized that medical practices must face the same challenges running their business and would consider researching the needs of medical professionals to see if the idea of creating a custom software for them is I viable business idea.
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