Starting your own business
In one of my early posts, Being your own boss, I talked about using this time of unemployment as an opportunity to look at starting your own business. I have a former colleague who did just that. After getting laid off he looked around for something to do to earn some money. What he found was that there was a need among small law firms for someone who could do full service process server work.
If you don’t know what a process server is they are the people who hand deliver subpoenas, divorce papers and the like. Process severs also file papers with the courts. I am not in the legal business but from what I understand even the simplest legal matters generate a significant amount of paperwork that must hand delivered to various places.
What my friend discovered is a niche. Larger law firms can afford staff to handle the paperwork. Smaller firms or single practitioners are forced to use the sheriff or a delivery service that does process server work as a sideline. The sheriff will deliver the papers for free but on their time schedule. The delivery services will deliver the papers but treat them as any other package. For the small law firm neither of these is a great option. Many of the documents are time sensitive and can’t wait until the sheriff gets around to it. In some cases there is follow up paperwork that must be filed and notarized which the delivery services aren’t prepared to do.
What my friend did was to take the process server course (processor servers are licensed by the state) and started his own business called Tracy Legal Services. What he is able to do is to provide the full services that the smaller law firm needs but a reasonable prices. I think he has the opportunity to build a nice business here. Glad to see someone who took the initiative to do his own thing.
