I was interviewed for Soo Today - a Sault Ste Marie publication where I discussed our professional services model as well as Freedom by Acquisition - full article is here:
When business or personal challenges become complicated, having the right professionals under one roof can make all the difference. KPA Lawyers in Sault Ste. Marie is a unique law firm in that it’s a one-stop destination for professional services that individuals, families, and businesses need.
The firm provides legal expertise across business law, family law, real estate, criminal defence, civil litigation, and wills and estates. “A client can walk in and access more than legal services,” says KPA Lawyers President and Managing Partner, Jacob Murad. “For example, clients can make a will or if they’ve inherited money and don’t know what to do with it, we have wealth advisors who can provide expert guidance and we also offer alternative investment products.”
All the expertise, none of the runaround
For clients, the greatest benefit of a one-stop professional services firm is that accessing expertise is simpler and more efficient. In a smaller community like Sault Ste. Marie, it means that clients don’t have to travel from a lawyer’s office to an accountant’s office and then seek out another for financial advice.
When experts work separately, each may recommend a different strategy and sometimes those strategies can conflict. The client may be left trying to reconcile complicated legal, tax, and financial advice they may not fully understand. “Many times, what ends up happening, because there is no leader driving the plan,” says Murad, “people sign up for very complex estate trust plans that they’ve paid for, with the idea of saving taxes or saving fees, and they’ve paid a number of different professionals to do that. Working separately, each professional requires their own retainer, their own fees, their own ideas, and their own egos,” says Murad.
At a one-stop professional services firm, clients build a relationship with a designated manager who brings the right lawyers, accountants, financial professionals or consultants to the table. The result is, a multidisciplinary team that collaborates to develop a clear, cohesive strategy that considers the client’s complete picture. “It saves on time, it saves on costs, it saves on confusion, and it saves on conflict,” says Murad.
One relationship, many solutions
KPA Lawyers operates under the BlueStar Professional Services umbrella. Simply begin by contacting the BlueStar Concierge who will begin the process of solving problems by identifying the clients needs and connecting them with the right expertise. The Concierge will coordinate everything for the client to remove the guesswork and make the professional services easier to navigate.
KPA’s broader philosophy is that a lawyer should be a trusted professional who helps clients find solutions to all their needs.” “What I found with the introduction of artificial intelligence and newer software is that it’s becoming more important to show people the value of a lawyer,” says Murad. “A lawyer should be a problem-solver, not a person who says they only do this specific thing and will introduce you to other people who can solve your problem for you.
Some of the largest law and accounting firms in the country are adopting the Concierge approach.
Freedom by Acquisition: From search to exit
Jacob Murad brings more to the table than legal expertise. He also understands what it takes to buy, build and grow a business because he has done it himself. Murad recently co-authored Freedom by Acquisition with his brother Noah, CEO of BlueStar, their family business. Together, they have expanded the company and other ventures largely through strategic acquisitions.
Freedom by Acquisition reveals the bold, practical path to achieving financial freedom by buying and growing existing businesses. The lessons Jacob and Noah learned from building businesses for growth inspired the book.
Today, as legal counsel for BlueStar Professional Services, Jacob combines firsthand business experience with legal insight to help entrepreneurs navigate their own opportunities.
“There are a lot of books out there about how to start a business, how to exit if you’ve grown a business, very large mergers and acquisitions, but there is nothing that we saw that gives you a playbook on buying a local factory or toy store or law firm for example,” says Murad. “If you want to buy an existing business and you don’t have any money or knowledge or experience, how would you go about doing that?”
How would you go about getting financing, valuing the business, coming up with a purchase price or negotiating? “That’s what the book is about,” says Murad. “We just published in September and the book is available in print, e-book, and soon an audiobook.”
One of the first chapters of the book is “Why buy instead of build yourself?” Murad asks the question, why do people automatically assume that because they want to be an entrepreneur, they will start their own business? “Why do they do that,” asks Murad, “Because the knowledge isn’t out there, which is why we wrote the book.”
When you buy an established business there is a greater chance of success because it’s gone through recessions, employee turnover, and customer turnover. “And for businesses, that kind of survival factor is worth more and the market knows that,” says Murad, “because there are banks that have products to help people buy existing businesses using mortgage terms similar to a home mortgage.”
Jacob and Noah go through what a budding entrepreneur would need from beginning to end and answer a myriad of questions. “But I think an important chapter is at the end of the book,” says Murad. “We go into what happens when you fail. Many people won’t take that first step because they feel there is too much risk.
Jacob and Noah recount stories of when they failed in business and they explain what that means. “After you’ve gone through some of that analysis,” adds Murdad, “you realize that maybe, it’s not as scary as you’ve pictured in your mind.”
“We wrote the book because even if one person thinks about buying a business or expanding an existing business,” says Jacob Murad, “If just one person consults and changes their life because of our book, then that is great.”