David Reischer graduated law school in 2000 with a joint MBA/JD degree from Brooklyn Law School and Zicklin School of business. He has been a practicing attorney in New York State with specialization in real estate transactions, family law, business law, and other general practice and trial litigation for over 16 years. He has litigated matters in NY Civil and NY Supreme Court in both the commercial and civil divisions. In 2012, he launched LegalAdvice.com which offers legal advice online to people seeking legal help over the Internet.
What were the top 3 mistakes you made as an entrepreneur, and if you could start over what would you do differently?
Vision
A business without a clear vision is truly lost. We knew we wanted the domain name legaladvice.com to capitalize on the budding intersection of the Internet and the legal space but a clear concrete vision to a profitable business was extremely elusive. A lot of trial and error eventually got us to a business model that works but any founder that starts a business without a clear business plan is making a grave mistake. It is important to create a business plan along with a detailed road map for reaching not just profitability but growing the business for the long term. A well-drafted business plan should include an estimated budget that considers all the things that can go wrong. The vision should be subject to the scrutiny of criticism from anybody that is willing to listen. Pitching the business plan to family, friends, partners, other entrepreneurs, and anybody that will offer opinion and ideas on how to improve the business will only make the enterprise more resilient in the long run. It is critical to be open to criticism and to find ways to overcome valid reasons for modifying the plan.
Accounting & Financials
A business must have a clear accounting of its revenue and expenses. In the beginning we spent money like wild, but it was only after we started making money that it became an even bigger challenge to plug all the leaks for where all our money was going. A business must have an organized accounting of expenses and financial reports that allow a CEO to keep the balance sheet strong. It is important to review all the expenses on a regular basis and eliminate or modify those expenses that are no longer needed or can be improved upon. It is not uncommon with the passage of time to locate new vendors that can either offer savings or improved performance by switching to a new supplier. In the technology space in which we operate there are always significant improvement and new participants entering the market, so it is important to constantly be reviewing the market for new opportunities while also lowering costs.
Review the Competition & Find Strategic Partners
It is critical to learn as much about the key players in the market as possible. A CEO must be pro-active and review the competition and actively see how they are operating. It is always helpful to see exactly what the competition is doing and copy what looks like is working and possibly even improve upon their ideas if possible. We took way too long to look at our competitors to see what was working for them and spent too much time, effort, and money exploring product development of ideas that were dead ends. A review of the competition will allow for the avoidance of unnecessary or bad ideas simply by watching the operation of other businesses in the market. Had we initially made a stronger effort to find good partners in the beginning, we could have avoided trying to reinvent the wheel by ourselves when our partners were able to do a much better job. The opportunity to partner with an ally rather than become a ‘competitor’ is a much better business outcome if possible.
David Reischer Founder of LegalAdvice.com
