"Firstly, success is a concept that is different for every person."
Taylah Allen Tweet
Taylah Allen brings more than a decade of experience in the legal and conveyancing tech industry. She started her career in Sales, selling legal tech both in Australia and Overseas, quickly rising the ranks into a leadership position. In 2018, Taylah went out on her own to start triSearch.
Taylah started the triSearch journey as CEO in early 2018. However, her journey in the industry begins in 2013 in Sydney where she quickly thrived in an entry-level sales position. In 2014, she worked as an Account Manager and Business Development Manager in the United Kingdom before returning to Sydney in 2015.
It was at this time she seized her opportunity to succeed, rising through the ranks in Australia’s leading legal and conveyancing search provider. It wasn’t until early 2018 when Taylah was given the opportunity to start triSearch as its CEO and has been leading the company to achieve milestones since.
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Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us, please introduce yourself to our readers.
Taylah Allen: My name is Taylah Allen, current CEO of triSearch. I have more than 10 years of experience in the legal and conveyancing tech industry. I started my career in Sales, selling legal tech both in Australia and overseas, quickly climbing the ranks into a leadership position. In 2018, I was given the opportunity to head up triSearch, after finding a gap in the market for our services.
To get us started, Can you tell our readers what does your company solve differently in the crowded marketplace? Give an example or share a story.
Taylah Allen: Since triSearch launched in 2018, our goal was and still is, to fulfil the gap for premium conveyancing technology at an affordable price. This was the case for our Search Platform prices in 2018, and we’ve adopted the same model with the launch of newest product triConvey which is a Practice Management Software for Conveyancers, launched back in September 2021.
This most recent market disruption is an example of how we provide different solutions to our competitors. The legal-tech space is a crowded one with numerous solutions available for Conveyancers to run their practice. triConvey has set itself apart from the competition in a number of ways, but most predominantly through its pricing model. The Software itself is available to Conveyancers for $0 when they continue to use the Search Platform integrated within. It’s currently the only $0 Practice Management Software on the market and it has had a great reception from the market, with over 700 Conveyancers adopting the solution.
Apart from the price of the triConvey software, triSearch differentiates itself by being an all-in-one solution. A problem a lot of our clients have is using multiple technology providers for different aspects of their Conveyancing work. triSearch has combined the three main technology solutions that conveyancers use, Search, Software and eConveyancing tools, making them accessible through one integrated platform, with one dedicated support team.
While your company is growing, what are some of the challenges you face? Hiring? Tech development? Raising capital? Branding? Tell us more about the journey.
Taylah Allen: Having only celebrated our fourth birthday in March 2022, the plan for triSearch is to focus on growth and to continue to disrupt the many established competitors in the market. On this growth journey so far, we’ve faced three main challenges, these include, hiring, technology development, and branding.
For hiring, ensuring we find the right people is always a challenge and something we struggled with in the early stages. I was just trying to fill roles as quick as possible, but quickly worked out that a longer recruitment process was more beneficial for the business in the long term.
I had to ensure we found people who fit the supportive and high-performance culture. In addition to this, we saw the onboarding process as a crucial aspect to our employee growth. Spending time training new people is an investment, and you want to see a return on that, not just quick turnover.
Tech development was another challenge we’ve faced. We have adopted a model whereby our tech development is outsourced to partner companies. This has allowed us to keep our overheads low, in turn passing on the savings to our clients, but it has given us less control over innovations we want to bring to market specifically for conveyancers. Saying that, we have the full support of our partners, and they have the initiative and innovation to continue seeking strategies to help us grow.
One of the other challenges is our branding. As a start-up company coming into an industry where the same competitors have reigned for 20 plus years, our branding has been one of our biggest focuses
When you offer lower prices for a product or service, people usually assume it’s of a lower quality. Battling this stigma in the early stages was one of our biggest challenges, as our plan has always been to bring premium products to the market at affordable prices. Building a brand that articulates this is what we continue to work towards, and that has been aided immensely with the launch of our Conveyancing-specific product triConvey.
Everyone has a different story, what influenced your decision to be an entrepreneur, what would you have done differently?
Taylah Allen: Overall, I’m a passionate businessperson; I want to succeed, and I know what I need to do to get there. It was however, in the early stages of my career in the legal and conveyancing tech industry which most influenced my decision to commit to the growth of the industry. I wanted to see a change in the industry, especially as my passion for it grew. And, after identifying a gap in the market, there was a clear opportunity for me to do it. Which ultimately led to the launch of triSearch.
As I mentioned, I want to succeed and for me personally, that means leading from the front is an especially important aspect which motivates me in my career.
My career so far has unfolded the way I had always hoped. It has come as a result of my hard work, and a supportive environment from friends and professional mentors around me, so, I wouldn’t have done it any different if I had another go around.
Now for the main focus of this interview: what qualities or characteristics do women entrepreneurs have that make them great leaders? Please share some examples.
Taylah Allen: While there is an endless list of qualities and characteristics which female entrepreneurs have that make them great leaders, I believe empathy is a crucial one. All women leaders have a firm grasp of how to be empathetic, for both clients, and their team, and it’s something which translates into great leadership and produces results.
Another is our motivation to always keep adapting and changing. We can find what our industry needs and provide that. As a female entrepreneur this is something you should always be striving for, you need to want to make a difference, and it’s an important characteristic which makes a great leader. In the conveyancing industry, this means staying updated on legislative changes, competitors, and consistently thinking of innovations we can introduce to help our industry professionals in their workflows.
Finally, an important quality which all female entrepreneurs have is that they’re comfortable with being uncomfortable. As a leader, you need to be willing to step into the ‘deep end’ of business and take risks. For me, this was taking the leap back in 2018 to launch triSearch. It was a big decision for me and a great deal of the unknown, but I believed in the mission and had no doubt I could succeed.
What are some of the biggest challenges you still see women face while conducting business, compared to their male counterparts? What would you like to see change, and how would you make it happen?
Taylah Allen: The first challenge I see is the social expectations placed on women in business, compared to men. There is still a stigma that women, more often than men, will eventually place having a family over a career. They are expected to be the ones to pick up their children after school and that requires adjusted working hours, and therefore, have a subtle bias against them when looking for progress in their career.
Another big challenge female entrepreneurs face in business industries is the lack of women filling executive roles. While I believe all executives are respected in the industry regardless of gender, there is still a lack of equal representation and therefore less role models for younger female entrepreneurs.
Overall, I want what everyone should want, to have equal opportunity for all genders. I think achieving this needs to have a long-term solution with representation from all sides. For me specifically, I want to keep doing what I can to raise awareness. That means taking on interviews like this to showcase the female leaders in business, recruiting applicants based on qualifications, cultural fit, and equal merit, not on gender, and helping the young entrepreneurs in my industry, and business in general.
With all of your experience as a business leader, what is the most important thing you can tell fellow entrepreneurs that you’d like to share with aspiring women entrepreneurs?
Taylah Allen: I have two tips I want to share for aspiring women entrepreneurs:
Firstly, success is a concept that is different for every person. Whether it means having a great career, a home or a family, success is something everyone strives to achieve. It makes you feel proud and makes you excited. However, you cannot be successful if you do not put in a substantial amount of effort. You must be the best, make sacrifices and work smarter.
Secondly, know the product back to front. Being able to answer a prospect or a client’s question straight away allows you to move on, without slowing you down in your tracks. This involves asking questions and constantly trying to improve on your product knowledge. It shows your audience that you are an expert with the product or service you are offering, and you won’t waste their time having to ‘get back to them’
What do you plan on tackling during 2022? Share your goals and battles you expect to face.
Taylah Allen: Each year is all about putting Australian conveyancers and property lawyers first. Last year, we made big strides in research and development, launching multiple products, including triConvey. Now that we’ve laid the product foundations, we want to focus on growth and retention.
We plan on achieving this by providing the tools necessary to help businesses succeed by offering the best training from highly knowledgeable account managers and fast and efficient problem solving from our expert support team.
We have also placed a great emphasis on innovation in 2022. We don’t ever want to be stagnant or take our position for granted. We are a business that will never stop growing and looking to stay ahead of the curve.
How do you keep learning? Podcast? Books? Audiobooks? Videos? Share some of your greatest sources of inspiration? Share an impactful story.
Taylah Allen: My colleagues and my own passion are by far my greatest sources of inspiration & motivation. I have a thirst for knowledge, problem solving and a deep passion for the conveyancing industry. I’m constantly soaking up the professional experience of those around me and finding ways to convert that into relatable growth experience for myself.
As a leader, I get to succeed with a team of strong, independent and passionate individuals. This was on full display at our recent leadership day, which we call a ‘bootcamp’. This is where we hold a day at the end of each reporting period (four months) for all employees to get together, either in person or remotely, to share their successes and learning moments from the period. We talk through overall business goals and strategies, as well as hear from each department in how their teams are achieving their goals. Our most recent bootcamp was in early March, and it was a big learning moment and source of inspiration for me to see how each employee enjoyed the day, shared their experiences, and learnt from one another. I also place importance on a positive and embracive work culture, which was on full display with everyone praising and helping each other in work sessions, and especially during our culture building exercise.
I couldn’t recommend a day like this enough. Having everyone refresh themselves, start fresh and realign themselves with company and individual goals.
I’m sure our readers will be very thankful for the insights you have shared. Where can our readers follow up with you?
Taylah Allen: I welcome all follow-up questions, you can reach me at [email protected].
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Taylah Allen for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Taylah Allen or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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