Project Description -- LG2G
- Details
Project Description Legal Guide to Germany
to obtain institutional funding for
Legal Media UG
Table of Contents
1.2. Lawyer Referral Directories
4.2. Profit and Loss Forecast 1
4.3.3. Institutional Readers ./. Volume Licenses
4.3.6. Calculations on Turnover from Readerships
4.3.7. Calculations on Turnover from Institutional Readers
4.3.8.2 Content / Online Manager
1. Introduction
Substantial financing is needed to push the service portal „Legal Guide to Germany(LG2G)“ into full swing. The vision is to develop LG2G from the phase of very first turnover to a self-financing business by selling legal content for everyday use and brokering professional (legal) services for the successful foreigner and investor in Germany.
At first, this project began with the book “The Legal Guide to Living in Germany” in 2005. The initiator having just passed his exams was unemployed and wanted to earn money. The first edition was printed by Weißensee Verlag. Afterwards, it was self-published – without budget. Continuing this project with a website proved as the only serious possibility to make money and provide 24/7 up-to-date information. LG2G in its momentary prototype status consists of the following subprojects. Those with a name formatted bold already exist as a prototype.
1.) Encyclopedia: selling content pages (initial orientation),
2.) Shop: selling e-literature (checklists, brochures, contract templates, etc.),
3.) LawFon: paid initial consultations via a toll number 09001 529 366 LawFon xx, ,
4.) Business Directory: yellow pages for service providers wanting to cater to expats with the possibility to promote their news and hints.
5.) Ask-a-Lawyer: Brokering legal services via an online portal,
6.) Get-a-Translation: providing a cheap and quick translation
The project’s overall goal is to advise successful immigrants and investors by instructing them of their everyday rights and duties. This is to help them successfully integrate and live in Germany – in regards to legal questions. It is all about collecting „F.A.Q.“ for all legal subjects and more under one portal.
Initiator of LG2G is a German / American lawyer focusing on the needs of expats and investors. He uniquely has this understanding deriving from an accumulation of professional experiences as a dual national lawyer for the foreigner. His personal background is multicultural: Father was born in Moscow to a Tatarian mother and German father. The applicant’s mother was born in Silesian to a Lithuanian mother and Masurian father. The publisher himself was born and grew up in the United States. As a child, he was a baptized into the Russian-Orthodox Greek-Catholic church but raised as a Protestant in the U.S. He was confirmed as Protestant in the American Church Berlin. His ecumenical wedding was dispensed by the Pope in Rome as his wife is a converted Roman Catholic.
Why is everything to be in English? Target customers of this project are foreigners (in Germany). In many cases when entering Germany, the command of the German language is not good enough to study such complex topics as “law”. Today „everybody“ speaks English – the modern lingua franca.
Initiator’s motivation for this project derives from:
- great pleasure to produce informative texts,
- enjoyment to teach lay persons,
- preference for the job as a legal journalist compared to that of a lawyer constantly arguing in court.
The initial spark to LG2G came from two experiences: A fellow worshiper of www.AmericanChurchBerlin.de asked for some help. in his shaking hands, he held a letter. He had the feeling of having done something wrong without knowing what. Though inwardly laughing out loud and outwardly keeping a calm composure, he was informed that he had not committed any crime. The TV tax authority in its brusque politeness requested the registration of his radio and TV set.
1.1. The Subprojects
All subprojects have their model business – but not in English and not targeting Anglophone foreigners. Nobody has successfully dared to cater this market.
1.1.1. Encyclopedia
LG2G informs the successful business person or expat – as well as diplomats. The online encyclopedia now exists as a prototype. These individuals are to obtain such knowledge that an average German citizen or businessman has by offering a web-based and always up-to-date encyclopedia. This “learning system” can quickly adapt to changes in law and add further content when needed as the information is retrievable online 24/7.
Economic attachés are interested in LG2G when they have to report to home authorities – e.g. as a nutshell for “German Pakistan Days”. An immigrant will consume, work, and enjoy his life if he has his basic concerns covered (employment, accommodation, and orientation).
Integration of the immigrating foreigner is very important for Germany’s economy – as well as a legal duty. Foreigners Commissioners or politicians in general, charities, other private initiatives care for the poor and needy, children and youth, refugees and other (socially) disadvantaged. Who cares for the successful persons or businesses in life which just happen not to come from Germany?
“Reliable information” is the name of the game! There are so many social networks for expats that want to serve their readers with legal information. Their quality is often questionable or simply wrong[1].
LG2G is a prototype and conceptually finished. Lawyer, accountants, and other professionals are to be acquired in order to provide content in which the applicant has no practical experience himself. Other professionals can be insurance brokers who will report on retirement provisions, private vs. statutory health insurance. They can be rewarded with free advertisement on the site (profile, publishing their own news, etc.). In the future when LG2G is obtaining profit, remuneration will be considered. Content partnerships will be offered for such professionals that care in full for a certain topic. Their contribution in kind will be rewarded with being preferentially treated in search results and be tagged as “Sponsor”. These authors will become silent partners and marginally participate in profits. This approach is like a further development of Rechtsanwalt Dr. Timo Ehmann implemented with his JusMeum.
1.1.2. Ask-A-Lawyer
Rechtsanwalt 2.0 or legal tech is the current buzz word for the future of providing legal services. Next to software for evaluating contracts, the marketing of law firms is dramatically changing. Private and freelancing clients are becoming ever more reluctant to visit a lawyer’s office but prefer to make use of an online portal. This website clearly identifies the individual lawyer via profile, and provides a competence check via previous questions, organizes payment. All this done inside everyone’s “comfy zone”. The relevant software needs to be developed in order to broker legal services because white versions of the existing software will not be sold. The idea is what Anwalt.de or Frag-einen-Anwalt.de or 123-recht.de have implemented is to be offered in English. Consulting lawyers and accountants can have their own profile and upload their own legal news and hints for a monthly basic fee of € 40 in English. These professionals will be promoted so that clients can ask their questions and offer a certain fee that the lawyer may accept or not. Even though the customer will determine the price, but for the sake of seriousness, no bid lower than € 30 € (incl. VAT) will be accepted.
1.2. Lawyer Referral Directories
More and more persons use lawyer referral services and internet platforms to find and vet the lawyer they intend to hire. Lawyers, just as much, embrace this new approach in acquiring new clients. In Germany, already 60% of all lawyers find new clients online on internet platforms brokering legal services. This relates to a study performed by Soldan Institute.
1.2.1. LawFon
The LawFon is the interface between the pure initial instruction that the encyclopedia provides and real consultation. Whenever it is too ineffective and costly to arrange an appointment with a professional, travel to him to have a short talk and only to be finished after 5 minutes, the LawFon comes in handy. With the thought of the phases of acquisition in mind, LawFon serves in the pre-phase of a legal assignment. Answering quick questions can clarify whether there is a need for a more detailed intensive consultation.
Service numbers are to be assigned in a two-fold approach: 1) by topic (labor law, residence law) and 2) to the individual attorney. When a dial-thru is assigned by topic then the call will be diverted via a random generator to any other qualified lawyer online. A personal dial-thru will be for the exclusive use of one professional – also on his own homepage for the contractual period. The call center software is already in use for the initiator’s own business needs: Ihreservicenumber.de. The existing domain LawFon.biz will used as a special marketing tool with the same technique in the backend.
1.2.2. Shop
The shop will sell contract templates and other e-literature for the immigrant. My plans are to obtain whitelabel version of their website www.JanoLaw.de or www.vertragsautomat.de (selling legal forms, contract templates, etc). Further templates will be offered – with the possibility to fill them out interactively. The Anglophone market needs its bilingual templates. Certain topics like “Legal Guide to Driving in Germany” or “Legal Guide to Dwelling in Germany” are to be extracted for digital books (.PDF, .MOBI, etc.) for downloading.
1.2.3. Directory
The directory will not only contain lawyers but also other service providers for Anglophone foreigners wanting to live in Germany. Such other service providers can be tax consultants, intercultural consultants, etc. This will be a major difference to the existing German business models. The basic idea is a service portal for the successful immigrant in Germany.
1.2.4. Get a Translation
This module will be continued to be developed once the other sub-projects are at least running to some degree. When people are new in Germany they need and want to understand “everything” and that instantly – but they cannot. LG2G could offer a “translation on the fly” or full translation – just as wished and needed. This could be implemented via toll numbers for sending and online payment schemes for picking up the translation. These translations could be done by well-integrated students or young professional translators as subcontractors.
1.3. The Market
This section will briefly discuss the need of this portal and any existing competition. Based on the numbers of the Federal Statistic Agency, this project is targeting 10 million foreigners living in Germany[2] and many more wanting to come to Germany: Germany is the third favorite destination to live abroad.
1.4. Demand
Does a demand for this exist? Yes! The project “The Legal Guide to Germany" was first introduced to the public in 2002. In 2007, the idea of this portal was copied by the Federal Marketing Agency of Germany, www.Invest-in-Germany.de, now Germany Trade and Invest. Proof is also shown by all those expat social networks and official publications that want to serve the immigrating foreigner.
While Germany Trade and Invest shows best the need for investors. Private persons also have a great need on reliable information – best from one source. Every businessman has also a private life – typically at least. In the meantime, Expatica won the initiator as an expert to answer readers’ questions. Until a few years back, their expert for Germany was unmanned. Within a month’s time the questions skyrocketed to approx. 30 per month. In the meantime, the average is around 10 questions a day.
A more recent demand for this project stems also from a more unexpected angle: the government itself. Federal politicians have decided to make German law more attractive as a choice of law to rule international commerce. This is reflected in the project www.LawMadeInGermany.de. The contents of this site basically boil down to the authoritative promise to internationally promote the implementation of German law in international contracts. But who will use something he does not know? LG2G will be there! Once LG2G is running, the owner of this site will be contacted for significant mutual cross-referrals.
1.5. Competition
At least one model business already exists in Germany but not in English and not orientated on the needs of the expat / foreign investor.
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Subproject |
Master Business |
Relevance |
Encyclopedia
www.HowToGermany.com
www.German-Way.com
www.Anwalt.de
www.GTAI.de
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§§
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LawFon
Deutsche Anwalthotline
www.Anwalt.de
www.123recht.net
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§§
§§
Ask a Lawyer
www.Anwalt.de
www.123recht.net
§§§
§§§
Public websites exist in manifold shades and intentions. However, they only want to lure the foreigner into Germany with official and positive information. LG2G, on the other hand, intends to keep the immigrant in Germany and also provide “true hard facts” based on professional experience. The encyclopedia is to be a “how to” for self-help. On the other hand, official websites might all fine in text but latest their videos remain exclusively in German.
1.6. Acceptance on the Market
The market has accepted this project. It is surely not unimportant that the American government is referred to this project on their website assisting export interested Americans http://www.export.gov – permanently ranking no. 7 on Google Analytics until a few years back. This exposure on the web has been mainly achieved by itself – virtually without advertising budget. Since the American government turned this portal to a money-making machine, LG2G’s presence has also disappeared.
2. Current Implementation
This section is to describe the „status quo“ in regards to concept, technique, and acquisition. To sum it all up, LG2G is a running prototype. LG2G provides:
Ø ca. 500 content pages as encyclopedia,
Ø ca. 300 news articles on 10 different topics.
3. Future of LG2G
As of now, the project did not create any real turnover. The reason for this lies in the fact that the initiator first exclusively invested own funds into technology / development of contents but not run advertisement and marketing, tried this business in part-time without a budget.
The encyclopedic part of LG2G is basically only in need of contents and less technology as the technology is only Joomla. The now missing contents will come from future authors.
The relevant software needs to be developed in order to broker legal services because white versions of the existing software will not be sold. The first development will cost 30€. The idea is what Anwalt.de or Frag-einen-Anwalt.de or 123-recht.de have implemented is to be offered in English. Consulting lawyers and accountants have their own profile and upload their own legal news and hints for a monthly basic fee of € 40 in English. These professionals will be promoted so that clients can ask their questions and offer a certain fee that the lawyer may accept or not. Even though the customer will determine the price, but for the sake of seriousness, no bid lower than € 30 will be accepted. In order to keep this acquisition “mutually reasonable”, LG2G will collect and forward to the professional.
The question remains to be answered why shall LG2G flourish in the future when in the past success failed? While the encyclopedic part has strong free-of-cost competition, the entrepreneurial focus is to be reset to the subproject “Ask-a-Lawyer”. When the initiator started, he was way ahead of the now current need to attract smart heads to Germany and keep them here to battle the great demand on the labor market. It is all about Legal Tech 2.0. This is current buzz word when it comes to the development of the legal consultation market. The combination of abstract instruction (subproject encyclopedia) and simultaneously brokering legal service (subproject “Ask-a-Lawyer”) will trickle the user’s interest to find it out for virtually nothing and when implementation is needed for one’s personal needs the lawyer is only one further click away. In regards to marketing, the future success will be triggered in the collaboration with established websites providing them affiliate ads to so spread the work of LG2G. The initiator has continued studying the market, need, and demand to have now the right understanding to develop success.
4. Financing
This project needs grant-in-aid financing in order to grow into a self-financing business. Positions that require an explanation will be briefly described below. Seed funding of 20 k€ has come from the three famous „fs (friends, family, fools)“. The target financing will be from the crowd with a requirement of 200 k€.
The funds are to go towards “Legal Media UG”. The crowd financing method shall depend on the funds provided. The smaller contribution x (up to t.b.d. €) shall only receive a life-long reading rights to the encyclopedia. The medium-sized contribution y (more than x and up to t.b.d. €) shall receive the reward for the smaller contribution plus exemption from fees for any further going services. The large contribution shall receive z (more than y up to t.b.d. €) minority shares in the company / profit distributions[ABvE1] .
4.1. Need
Monetary, personnel and technical needs of 200 k€ exist. The grant-in is intended to use for the details as described above. The director can oblige one third of his basic salary for unintended and short-term risks of this project. The special need for advertisement in the beginning is needed to boost the awareness of the project into reader’s and sponsor’s mind.[ABvE2]
4.2. Profit and Loss Forecast
Below is the forecast for the first five years based on careful and conservative expectation. An annual breakdown as well as break down for the individual positions will be provided below[ABvE3] .
4.3. Explanation of Earnings
The prognosis of this plan is realistic and can be expected. Relevant and comparable companies, like DAAG and QNC, are making millions in any year. The values derive from their published balance sheets for the year 2011. QNC runs the sites “123-recht.de” and „Frag-einen-Anwalt.de“ and „Steuerberater.net“. DAAG publishes “Deutsche Anwaltshotline (German Lawyers Hotline)”.
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DAAG |
ca. € 5 Mio |
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QNC |
ca. € 2.4 Mio |
4.3.1. Professional Profiles
If a lawyer or an accountant is to consult, they are to be paid. This leads to two income sources: The first source is the profile fee for the professional and the second results from brokering the payment. Further possibilities can be special registration services. Such as optimizing a customer’s profile for search results or uploading the profile in general.
The profile fee can also be described as a basic fee that the lawyer or accountant is listed among the experts. In return for the basic fee, the professional will receive many possibilities in return to promote his business. The expert will have i.a. the possibility to upload his or her legal hints. The applied prices relate to those of Anwalt.de.
When a visitor asks a question on the market place, the consultation price is published and LG2G will take a fee of 5% of the consultation fee from the questioner. LG2G will mediate payment with the questioner and the expert because the expert is to receive his or her remuneration at the end of any month without having to worry about being paid. LG2G will only publish the answer when LG2G (and so the expert) has been paid.
Even though LG2G is a legal portal, advertisement of other professionals reaching out to foreigners are to be added to the Business Directory. These professionals are to be translators, insurance brokers, financial consultants, phone brokers, etc. The target businesses are those which want to reach out to expats and foreign investors.
4.3.2. Paid Reading
Just like paying for a book, the reader is to pay for reading the contents. The freely accessible information functions as a teaser. Why should the reader pay for something that can be found for free on the Internet? It is all about having this information
- Ø from one source,
- Ø as a professional description, yet for the non-lawyer,
- Ø for instruction purposes and not as advertisement,
- Ø reliable
and - Ø up-to-date.
Lawyers and other professionals are telling inside stories – and not a layperson. It is like an online manual for self-help.
This approach stands in diametrical contrast to the model businesses “HowToGermany” or Wikipedia. The difference is justified because no expert knowledge is being published. HowToGermany can finance itself exclusively via advertisement because the contents only “alphabetize” the reader to Germany. No expert knowledge or experience is being transferred. Wikipedia has a foundation behind it which collects millions on donations annually but still lacks the professional liability of the contents. LG2G implements a high level of creativity to bring experts’ knowledge to the “normal” person and overcome (inter)cultural borders. As an example, “bakshish” is common concept in Arabic countries yet bribes are conceptually not welcome in Germany.
Seen from the reader’s monetary perspective, a subscription pays off. Each page can be considered as an initial consultation. Lawyers remuneration law (§34 Rechtsanwaltsvergütungsgesetz) determines that an initial consultation may cost the private person at most € 190 on fees + € 20 communication flat + € 39.90 VAT = € 249.90. This cap is not applicable for businesses. Compare this with € 3 per month or € 36 p.a. …
There are two types of readers – the private and the business reader. The difference between the two relates to the scope of included contents. As a basic offer for the private reader topics are offered that are interesting for the private person exclusively. Such topics will be marriage, divorce, child custody, renting apartments, driving rules, income tax, etc. On top of that comes everything that is needed for entrepreneurial activities. Business topics will address company law, VAT, corporate tax, trademarks, and so on.
4.3.3. Institutional Readers ./. Volume Licenses
This option is to address the global HR of a global corporation in its dealings with impats. This immigrant will only steal precious time from the HR’s duties, when having to ask all those basic questions. The impat will only then be profitable for the company if his/her mind is not full of question marks, when wanting to orientate him/herself on his/her everyday rights and duties. The new person in Germany will only be productive when work, living and orientation needs are covered.
These persons are lured to Germany with “welcome packages” (relocation costs, special bonuses, etc.). Nobody takes care of the trailing spouse. This is where the encyclopedia kicks in. Too many secondments have failed because the trailing spouse was bored to death, having no orientation on the life at the family’s new home country. If the working spouse can only return to dull home, the employee might lose the interest in the position abroad. When this happens, the employer will have wasted a lot of time, sweat, money and have disappointed many persons. Target companies for volume licenses are global corporations and research institutes with frequent exchange of foreigners visiting them.
Multinational corporations like:
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Ø Bayer, Ø Siemens, Ø Sony, Ø Babcock, |
Ø Coca (/Pepsi) Cola, Ø Kyocera, Ø HP, Ø etc. |
Research institutes like:
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Ø Max Planck Institute, Ø Robert Koch Institute,
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Ø Aspen Institute, Ø etc. etc.
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Consulates and Embassies will doubtfully have a budget for LG2G. The responsible person will have to be persuaded to follow the American example. The Americans have the topic “Living in Germany (http://germany.usembassy.gov/acs/about_germany)” on their website. The successful portal HowToGermany is mentioned here. This link has been indirectly remunerated. HowToGermany’s publisher has been giving the American mission 200 free copies of the print version of his portal. Surely such can be achieved with other consulates. Upon funding, LG2G will pursue this approach.
4.3.4. Shop
Alike the German market, people need legal templates. LG2G will provide such bilingual sample contracts and forms. Comparable successful companies that already exist in Germany are www.JanoLaw.de and www.Formblitz.de. I would like to sell their services and templates are exclusively via i-framing their shop into the portal. Bilingual contracts between contractual partners means eye-level for both sides of the paper. This enhances private and non-corporate transactions. When used in legal disputes, they have the advantage of not needing to be translated anymore. As a specialty of LG2G, checklists for typical applications of foreigners will be sold to prevent the target clientele to visit authorities more than required.
4.3.5. LawFon
The LawFon offers the possibility to have a “quick” question answered. The call on the toll number 09001 529 366 xx costs approx. € 2 / minute with costs of around € 0.90 / minute. This model copies DeutscheAnwaltsHotline – only in English.
4.3.8. Expenses
The most important expenditures will be briefly discussed below.
4.3.8.1 Sales Person
A salesperson with the gift of persuasion will be needed to promote the portal and its products. His salary shall consist of two parts: a monthly fixed salary of € 1,000 and 1/3 of acquired business as a commission.
The tasks of this marketing person will be to find ad sponsors, professionals willing to sell their knowledge over the platform. The professionals to attract will be individual lawyers and accountants as well as established firms. Marketing material has to be development. Marketing campaigns have to be implemented.
Expat fairs like Newcomers Festival in Munich, Frankfurt/Main, Dusseldorf as well as the very successful newbie ClubGlobals are to be visited as an exhibitor. More affiliate advertisement is to be installed and monitored; a marketing kit has to be developed and kept up to date. Professionals are to be acquired via specialist fairs.
4.3.8.2 Content / Online Manager
The content manager will triple check the language of articles to be published, markup the texts for SEO, SEM, searching and adding pictures to each page, interweaving leads to the shop, other articles and services, run the monthly newsletter.
After first analysis, a lower but fair salary for such person will be € 2,000 (including employer’s co-payments). If the working day cannot be filled with work on the website, the content manager will follow up on not yet successful acquisitions. In the second year, it is intended that this person will receive a raise.
4.3.8.3 Advertisement
At first, the majority of the advertisement budget will be reserved for affiliate advertisement provided to third-party websites in order to cost-effectively promote LG2G. The applicant will promote LG2G via affiliate advertisement known expat sites, like:
- Ø www.Expatica.com,
- Ø www.expat.com,
- Ø www.Internations.org,
- Ø www.Germany-Way.com,
- Ø www.germany-usa.com,
- Ø www.JustLanded.com,
- Ø www.Expats-in-Bavaria.com,
- Ø (Berlin) International Women’s Club,
- Ø American Women’s Club,
- Ø http://www.export.gov
- Ø etc.
Affiliate advertisement here implies that LG2G will be the sponsor in the triangle of platform provider, affiliation platform. Classic print or modern digital ads can be placed in the waiting rooms at immigration authorities.
[1] The midsize investor Investor Verge Inc laments this. Their story will be shown below.
[ABvE1]Kann mich nicht zwischen beiden Varianten entscheiden.
