“Our friend and client, Conrad Murray, one of the Founding Directors at Nero Blanco, told me an interesting story about why he initially came to us for legal services.” says Kim.
(We first met Conrad at the Future Decoded event last year, and they engaged us at the start of 2020.)
He read a book and then attended a seminar given by the finance author, Robert Kiyosaki, who wrote “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.”
“The gist of the seminar was that Kiyosaki believes that you are the master of your own destiny and you don’t need to go to school and get an education to be rich,” Conrad said. “He told us that school doesn’t teach the life skills, entrepreneurial skills, money skills and property skills you need to make money. Instead you must create your own path, build assets, especially passive assets and, this is critical, you must surround yourself with a top-notch Team.”
The light bulb moment
But the kernel of truth that had the most impact on Conrad wasn’t the financial advice. It was this: When you build a successful team, one of those people must be a lawyer, or teams of lawyers. And they must be the best legal team you can assemble.
“That really stuck with me. The one exception to Kiyosaki’s “you don’t need an education” mantra was that you DO need a lawyer.” Conrad told us. “He said that to have a successful business you need someone who can help you navigate the tricky times.”
Has the advice paid off?
“Perhaps not at first,” said Kim. “Conrad was initially perplexed by the 40-page master services agreement we drafted for them because he thought it was too long and was worried most clients would push back.”
“But he’s seen how different it is when a professional legal team is fighting your corner. The master services agreement might have been 40-odd pages, but the terms, although supplier-friendly, were fair and there wasn’t much push back. It’s much easier to get contracts signed and win work with the support of a great legal team.”
“We not only helped Nero Blanco manage their risk, we enable them to do so with a low monthly subscription – ‘legal as a service’ if you like. So, although Conrad thought he wanted a contract where the clients would love the contract terms, he’s realised is that if your clients love your terms, those terms probably aren’t protecting your business interests. Ultimately you need to protect the baby you create in a commercial way.”
Is Conrad happy with his decision?
"It’s been easier and faster to close deals which has definitely saved us money in the Sales process by speeding up the end to end. We don’t have to involve ourselves as much on the contractual terms discussion, which is great because we’re able to focus on our core skills of project delivery. Thus, our own billing time ratio goes up. This has become more apparent after getting first set of working documents up and running. Having the confidence that they are tight and fit for purpose has been the best thing. I’m so glad Kim’s part of the Nero Blanco team.”
Twan Van Beers, Director and Infrastructure Architect at Nero Blanco echoes this view,
“We found Law 365 at a Microsoft conference and decided to give them a try. It was one of the best decisions we have ever made! The team are incredibly responsive, knowledgeable and professional. Whilst we don’t often say this about lawyers, we love working with everyone at Law 365.”
What else did Conrad learn from the seminar?
“Kiyosaki doesn’t subscribe to any moaning about people not being able to raise seed money or deposits. Cut out your $5 a day latte habit and you will get your money. Good advice!”
Further reading
https://www.neroblanco.co.uk/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/conradopenside/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/twanvanbeers/
