How I turned an idea, a passion, and four months of free time into a business.
This summer, I decided to dedicate my time to building a legal information website. I made this decision without any particular affinity for web development, or any real business or legal experience to guide me. The decision had something to do with the weak job market, my lack of confidence in my professional abilities, and my fondness for working in sweatpants at 2am, but those weren’t decisive factors either.
Image from www.canadalegalhelp.com. Photo credit: Sarah Stein
In fact, there really wasn’t any single motivation or goal driving me; just a collection of ideas, plans, and doubts that ended up working out okay. Fortunately, as I look back on how far things have come, and start planning for the future, I am coming to realize that the slow grind of determination may, in fact, be worth more than the lofty pursuit of perfection. And so here I am, writing about the many failures and missteps, out of which the Legal Information Network of Canada (canadalegalhelp.com) was born, in the hopes of showing that sometimes you don’t need to follow the script to get a pretty good story.
It’s one thing to have an idea, but as I found out, a whole other deal to act on it. My idea came while I was working for JusticeNet last year, helping refer low-income individuals to lawyers who would work pro bono. Many callers were asking us for basic legal information, unsure of whether to get a lawyer, and there was no real service in place to help them. I figured there should be some sort of simple website where individuals can submit a question and receive some basic information and resources.
A ton of legal information is online but it’s widely dispersed and can be time consuming and difficult to navigate. Individuals are generally left to either find free legal information options themselves or go to a lawyer. In my mind, it stands to reason that individuals looking for a specific piece of legal information should have a service available to help them get the help they need. Having worked at JusticeNet, I had a first-hand look at the breadth of the access to justice crisis, and I knew how badly individuals going through difficult and distressing legal situations needed help. With an idea in mind, and a passion to help fill this void in our legal system, I began planning for the summer.
When I speak to people about my website now, I am often fielding questions about how I managed to turn my idea into something tangible. When I started planning my summer, I was faced with the same question, and it is the answer I reached which has largely inspired this editorial.
I found that there is no magic formula to building a business. There’s no road you have to travel or route you have to take. With an idea in mind, and a passion for the work and the field, all it really took for me was determination, a short memory, and lots of trial and error.
Once I started working, I learnt pretty quickly that turning an idea into a business is actually not nearly the mythical task I had once assumed. I started the business without any fanfare or celebration. I didn’t get anyone’s permission or sign up for anything, and I didn’t even really tell anyone that my decision had been made. I simply took a few guesses at what the first steps for building a business might be, and when I launched into those steps, to my surprise I found it worked out.
This great divide between idea and action is what I hope this editorial will inspire others to conquer, because the truth is, the divide seems much greater than it actually is. When I started, I guessed that the first steps I should take would be to write a business plan, speak to all the advisors I know, and research the market. With the tasks written out I became determined to see them through, and actually found all the work surprisingly approachable. I quickly realized that further progress was possible, and could be done by building off of the foundational blocks I had set with my work so far.
A couple weeks in, I realized my business plan made no sense, I had asked advisors all the wrong questions, and I had about a month more research to do than I’d initially planned. This is when I started to really appreciate how important determination was, but also when I realized how badly I needed to develop a second skill: a short memory. With my emerging failures at the front of my mind, all the determination in the world wasn’t going to be enough without the ability to remain inspired and motivated.
Slow progress can be extremely disheartening, and for the first while, slow progress was all I had. At first, I hated seeing so few results for my work, but once I really started approaching each day with a short memory for the last, I found even the worst moments far more tolerable. With an idea in place, a determined approach, and a plan to move on quickly from mistakes, I finally found myself making real strides with the business.
After about a month of work, it became clear to me that the biggest strides were always thanks to trial and error, which is why I wanted to end this piece speaking about this over-used and unappreciated phrase. I found that trying, failing, having a short memory, and being determined to try again was all I needed to actually build a business. I rewrote my business plan, sought out more advisors, and finished my research. I got a web developer, a manager, and researchers to help me, and I turned my idea into a real, working web service. One step at a time, I managed to secure funding, advertising, and eventually clients by taking simple, manageable steps, and remaining determined.
This piece was written to show that the gap between an idea and a business may seem large, but the bridge across it is far sturdier than one may imagine. Taking determined steps, where each failure does nothing but set the groundwork for a future attempt, can result in significant progress. For me, being passionate about an idea and its potential to help others, and having a short memory to help keep me motivated and driven, proved more than enough to take on what at first seemed an enormous task. I hope this editorial will encourage others to do the same.