Kim Chan understands that Google searches might not be convenient all the time. You might have to wade through hundreds of ads or hundreds of irrelevant results before you hit on the one you need. This problem is magnified when you’re looking for legal document templates on the web. Knowing this, Kim decided to start his own company, DocPro.
At DocPro, Kim Chan provides legal and professional document templates at an affordable price, without forcing you to go through tons of fluff. Individual users and businesses with legal needs can simply go to the site and download the template they need, in commonly used Doc format. Moreover, the company wishes to foster a community of users who help each other “find, request, share and comment” on their documents. If approved by DocPro’s team, these documents might become new templates, too.
Kim Chan and his team of lawyers who are qualified in several legal jurisdictions “including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, India, Hong Kong and Singapore” will give you all the legal help you need, all in one place. With DocPro’s easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions, members can claim the documents they need with a single click.
As a lawyer, Kim Chan has had extensive experience. He was a commodities lawyer for Morgan Stanley, and then he became the senior legal counsel for Standard Chartered Bank. Among his legal expertise are “commodities, fixed income, securities and regulatory reform.”
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Jerome Knyszewski: What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Kim Chan: As there has been so far no LegalTech player that has successfully revamped the legal industry, DocPro is different from the competition with the following features:
- Access to 1500+ Documents. We have one of the most comprehensive database for businesses and individuals online.
- Low Price. We are priced 90% lower than our competition without compromising on quality.
- Different Forms. We provide variations of document favouring different parties instead of a one size fits all approach.
- Jurisdiction Engine. We try to cater for all common law jurisdictions. Proprietary engine to select the right governing law and jurisdiction.
- Sharing Community. We are setting up a sharing community where members can share documents to be reviewed by our experienced lawyers.
Jerome Knyszewski: Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Kim Chan: Be very frugal when you start. For example, you can try to save money through the following tips:
- Remote Working to Save on Office Costs — We have a flexible 3 persons office space at Wework (additional staff are hired through hot desk arrangement). Since COVID, we have been working from home whenever we can and only go back to the office once or twice a week. By being flexible on office arrangement, you can save a lot on office costs.
- Hiring part time workers to help — there are a lot of bright university students who are sitting at home doing nothing. They are willing to work hard for little money to gain the summer work experience for their graduate career. They are the best value for money and the traffic to my site exploded after hiring a number of interns to help.
Jerome Knyszewski: None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Kim Chan: With very little traffic at the beginning, I consulted my next door neighbour at the co-working space, Raymond, who was running a successful online digital marketing agency, and he guided me through the SEO process. Since then, we have been trying to produce the best document templates possible focusing on less competitive keywords, and it is working like magic! Since the launch of our revamped site in April 2020, traffic has been doubling every month, and our COVID related documents have been doing spectacularly well. Raymond has since sold his digital marketing agency and is now my partner in DocPro.
Jerome Knyszewski: Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. Amazon, and even Walmart are going to exert pressure on all of retail for the foreseeable future. New Direct-To-Consumer companies based in China are emerging that offer prices that are much cheaper than US and European brands. What would you advise retail companies and eCommerce companies, for them to be successful in the face of such strong competition?
Kim Chan: My advice is “if you can’t beat them, join them”. If you are being beaten by online competitions, go online yourself. If it is cheaper to source from China, go and try and find manufacturers in China to get your products manufactured. As we can see with examples such as Blockbuster and Barnes and Noble, the worst thing one could do is not to believe in technology advancement and only changed grudgingly and half heartedly when forced. You will need to embrace reform and technology whole-heartedly.
Jerome Knyszewski: What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start an eCommerce business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Kim Chan: Most founders have lots of ideas and they tend to make the mistake of trying to do too many things at once. You need to build your eCommerce business one step at a time. You will just be overwhelmed and / or undelivered if you just to do everything at once.
Jerome Knyszewski: In your experience, which aspect of running an eCommerce brand tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?
Kim Chan: The time being spent on promotion, marketing, social media and SEO is often being underestimated. For example, you can easily spent a few hours responding to questions on HARO which may or may not have any effect on your traffic. You will need to allocate time better to ensure that you are also spending time to improve your product, instead of spending all day trying to get links.
Jerome Knyszewski: One of the main benefits of shopping online is the ability to read reviews. Consumers love it! While good reviews are of course positive for a brand, poor reviews can be very damaging. In your experience what are a few things a brand should do to properly and effectively respond to poor reviews? How about other unfair things said online about a brand?
Kim Chan: You should acknowledge the bad reviews and not swept them under the carpet. If the reviews are fair, then you should have a timeline and improve the issues as soon as possible. If the reviews are not fair, you should clarify your position without sounding defensive.
Jerome Knyszewski: You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Kim Chan: DocPro is planning to offer free download of the following documents. These are some of the essential documents that all elderly (and people with disability) should have but the majority of them do not have:
- Will — instructions on distribution of properties after one die, allows executor to take control of the estate immediately and minimise potential dispute between family members.
- Advance Directives — (i) spell out care preferences in the event a person becomes incapacitated and unable to communicate his / her wishes, (ii) facilitate self-determination by advance refusal of life sustaining treatment to minimize distress or dignity and (iii) avoid having family members to make difficult life and death decisions when the patient faces a serious irreversible illness.
- Enduring Power of Attorney (or Continuing Power of Attorney after passing of Ordinance) — allow someone to take over the patient’s financial affairs (and personal care after passing of Ordinance) and pay for medical expense in case of incapacitation or lack the mental capacity to make decisions.
With the aging population around the world, DocPro is keen to promote the use of these documents. Having these documents will avoid many disputes, issues and difficult decisions for their friends and relatives going forward. The main reasons for elderly not having these documents are: (i) lack of education and awareness; (ii) costs and hassles of going to a law firm to get them drafted; and (iii) difficulty in getting a professional (e.g. a lawyer and a doctor) to witness the documents.
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Kim Chan: You can sign up to DocPro.com and read our latest news on:
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Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!