Get me Beltrami!

  

   That statement might not mean much to you but it was an oft-reported phrase in the Scottish press during the late 80s and early 90s when trial after trial of (alleged) Scottish Gangsters was won by Joe Beltrami, solicitor.

   There is a world of mystery surrounding Solicitors. Nowadays when we visit the Doctor we are often quick to second guess them or check the information they have given us when we get home to our laptops. This air of doubt doesn’t really surround solicitors yet. They are still proudly esconsed in their Ivory Towers for a good while yet.

   What does this have to do with the world of Business opportunities you may well ask? Don’t worry I am not going to advocate that you get down to the local Uni enrolling office and sign your life away for the next 7 years. Instead I am going to put a “system”-spin on things. You couldn’t go out tomorrow and call yourself a lawyer. To do so would be fraudulent and to be plain, you’d get caught with your pants down pretty quickly when you had to go in front of a judge and defend someone. However, you could legally trade as a will writer, conveyancer, debt buster, Estate Agent (a function of solicitors offices in Scotland) and Letting Agent. All of this could be done under the signage of “Legal Matters” and of course, the office could be dressed up to look as much like a legal office as others.

   Let’s break it down:

Will writer – From a distance learning college website: “Unlike many legal activities, will-writing can be carried out by anyone who wishes to set up a will-writing business. However we would recommend that all will writers are trained to a high level of competence, and our distance learning courses will equip you to give a better level of service to your clients. You should be aware that, unlike will-writing, the winding up of an estate after death is a reserved activity which can only be conducted by legal professionals working within organisations regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority or other regulatory body.

   We recommend that you start with the CILEx Level 3 Certificate in Law and Practice (Elderly Client Practice). This is a five-unit qualification set at approximately ‘A’ Level in standard and a pass in any of the units leads to Affiliate Membership of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx).

The units that you will study are:
• CILEx Level 3 Unit 1 Introduction to Law and Practice £195
• CiLEx Level 3 Unit 8 Law of Wills and Succession £330
• CILEx Level 3 Unit 15 The Practice of Law for the Elderly Client £330
• CILEx Level 3 Unit 16 Client Care Skills £330
• CILEx Level 3 Unit 17 Legal Research Skills £330.

   You can buy all these courses together as a bundled package for £1200 or you can start with the first three for £770 and then enrol on the skills courses at a later date. Atlernatively each of the courses can be purchased individually at the fee shown above. A pass in CILEx Level 3 Unit 8 will exempt you from the membership exams of the Institute of Professional Willwriters, subject to payment of a membership fee.

   We also offer CILEx Level 3 Unit 14 Probate Practice for £330 , which would be relevant if you are working in a firm regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and wish to carry out administration of estates. This could be studied as an alternative to The Practice of Law for the Elderly Client with the other units listed above, and these five courses studied together would lead to the award of an CILEx Level 3 Certificate in Law and Practice (Probate Practice).

Conveyancing – www.doyourownconveyancing.co.uk gives pretty much all the information and links you need in order to complete the conveyancing process. The plan here would be to submerge yourself in the process the next time you are moving house. Conveyancing is one of those things which is completely shrouded in mystery, however when you lift the curtain you’ll find that it isn’t that difficult after all. From my own experience in Financial Services I know that Solicitors use the conveyancing process as a method of gaining Cross-sales. The most common one is the selling of insurance to cover yourself against Chancel Liability Insurance.

Debt Buster – In both Scotland and England there has been a large increase in Debt busting firms over the last few years. Using legal methods these teams basically arrange IVAs for people in the financial myre. The service is usually pushed as free at the point of source, but of course the fee for the work is added into the IVA mix so the firm is getting paid handsomely in the end. The business has the spin-off that having a lot of cash poor people crossing the doorstep means access to “desperate sellers” or in other words people who might be willing to sell their house on the cheap.

Estate Agency – anyone can legally call themselves an Estate Agent. From my own experience in the Industry I can tell you strongly that it is the most “fur coat and no knickers” industry in the UK. Have a smart office, a sharp suit and nice photos in the window and no-one will think twice. There is very little legal details to worry about outside of the wording of your contract. As a startup there are a few things you should do:

1)      Look for houses that have been on the market for ages and then approach them to go “multi”. This means have more than one Agent working for them, but they only have to pay the agent who makes the sale. This won’t do much for your business (the house have been on the market for ages and hence are not sellers) but it will get you some photos to put in the window.

2)      Get a great camera. Pictures and details are everything.

3)      Don’t bother with a section in the local paper – no-one does that nowadays.

4)      Get great signage. Just look in the yellow pages. Go for signs that either illiminous or very brightly coloured. Tests have shown that Blue Type on a Yellow Background work best.

5)      Work to 1.25% at the beginning and be willing to go down to 1% for anyone that is going to haggle.

6)      Don’t bother with Rightmove at the start. Once it becomes inavoidable look out for deals where you can get Rightmove on the cheap.

   You will have to shell out for the camera and boards up front but these costs would be cleared by the first sales. Even with these very, very basic points I think you could sell 2 properties a year bringing in c. £5000.

Letting Agents – once again, there are very little barriers to entry in the Letting Agents game. One online short course coupled with a few weeks in practice and you could be as good as someone who has been doing it for years. From my POV I would use my own properties as the starting point for an Agency. Imagine you have 5 properties lying empty at the same time. You would advertise these in the window in order to get the ball rolling. Anyone interested in taking these properties would be dealing with the company rather than you as an individual. In light of this the Letting Agency could then charge you and thereby lessen the overall tax liability. Don’t forget to place in the contract that Gas and Electricity must be taken via Utility Warehouse or whatever organisation you are getting a kickback from.