Fall 2018 Dallas Elevate My Business Challenge: 2nd Place Winner
Pitch Link: https://vimeo.com/309916553/8d19e64829
Company Bio: Intuitive Edge offers an alternative to traditional legal services by providing unique legal consulting, contract management, and contract administration services for enterprises. Intuitive Edge helps companies optimize their contract management programs, completes post M&A transition projects, and performs on-going contracts management and administration services.
Lisa Scott worked for a large telecom company for over 15 years. Even though she was a lawyer, she began to work in a non-legal role in strategic sourcing. There she learned how large companies purchase from smaller ones. Having all of this experience, Lisa came to the conclusion that she could replicate her skills with her own company – Intuitive Edge.
At first, Intuitive Edge focused on the legal consulting aspect by bridging the gap between legal, corporate development, and sourcing. As the company began to grow, they realized they could expand their services. They specialized in contracts, but now they offer fractional general counseling services and legal services as needed. There are two main market segments – for small businesses and larger companies.
The main issue that small businesses face is that they are forced to pay a lot of money for legal services. Intuitive Edge can be more accessible to the small business whereas competitors would not be able to give this level of hands on guidance. The goal is to get to know the business and develop a long-lasting relationship to make it feel like they are a part of their team. For the larger companies, their biggest issue is that they do not have the bandwidth to conduct their own services.
Being a more affordable alternative gives flexibility to these companies, small and large. There are different consulting needs that vary between these larger and smaller companies. The small businesses need a lot of “hand holding,” whereas the larger companies need more detailed care in order to navigate all sectors of the company’s environment.
Lisa has reached many different milestones, but the one that sticks out the most is the contract she secured with Dell. She spent a grueling 18 months conducting numerous business development activities in order to get the deal done. This was a huge reward for Lisa and a testament to her work ethic. There were times where she could have given up, but she did not let any of the roadblocks stop her. Since winning second place at the Dallas EMBC pitch day, Lisa has been able to double what she has done in the past year.
So much effort went into finding new clients that she almost burned out. She had to overcome many obstacles to get to the place where she is today. She says that once she started her company in 2015 that the first two years were a struggle to figure everything out. The first year she did not know how to convey her value proposition, and how to effectively communicate to her target market. Through trial and error, Lisa was able to build her customer base because she developed an actual process of how to conduct business. She is thankful for these original growing pains because it forced her to think outside the box.
Lisa joined the 2018 Dallas EMBC to hone in on how she could become a better CEO. By addressing these gaps, she learned how to account for the voids. At first, Lisa said she was a CEO on paper, but she did not feel like a real CEO. She had an intuition about running her own business, hence the name Intuitive Edge, but she was missing a plan for where to take the company. Her vision was too nearsighted, but the Challenge gave her the opportunity to develop a long-term strategy. One of the tools that has had the largest impact on her business has been the Small Business Improvement Model Canvas; that helped her see how all these key pieces of her business intersect. Lisa had never pitched before either. Being able to force herself to communicate the business story in a pitch increased her confidence of how she comes across to brand new people. Since the pitch she has doubled her revenue with the knowledge she gained of how to implement a sales funnel. After the one-on-one coaching with LIFT, Lisa was able to incorporate the necessary tactics that fueled her growth.
Moving forward Lisa feels pretty confident that she will be able to grow and develop her team. Her ability to find larger clientele is the key to her growth. She has already begun the process of developing relationships with more and more companies. One of the most important things Lisa has done is to provide value and develop trust with some of these clients. In the next five years, Lisa believes that Intuitive Edge will become a multimillion dollar company because once she accumulates higher contracts there will be a snowball effect. Throughout the years Lisa has been building to get to this point. Her hard work has put her in a position where the trajectory of the company will continue to grow.
Lisa’s advice for other entrepreneurs is to always network and partner with the right people who you can bring value to. Down the line these relationships you have built will come back to your company in tremendous ways. Trust is the most important foundation to a healthy business relationship. Not only that, but Lisa says that you should be overly persistent by not giving up after every no. Lisa’s put her faith into the business, and during some of the hardships she could have just quit, but she wants to see it through.
Intuitive Edge has reached new heights in a short amount of time. We know that this is not the end, because the sky’s the limit for Lisa. Check out Intuitive Edge and see if legal consulting services are right for you business!
