Go Legal Yourself: Solving the Legal Intricacies of Startups
Why blend in when you were born to stand out – Kelly Bagla, CEO of Go Legal Youself
Do you have endless amounts of time and money to research the legalities of starting your own business? Have you ever been disgruntled by the complexity involved in setting up your startup? These questions become relevant for every entrepreneur who looks to embark on an entrepreneurial journey. He is surrounded by the dilemma of legal intricacies. To evade the hodgepodge and stress related to entrepreneurship, he seeks the advice of a business law firm. Though an established business law firm helps to clear doubts, it takes a whole lot of the entrepreneur’s time. There’s an adage which says time is money and if you are not able to save your time, you are definitely losing out on making money. So, what’s the solution and who to approach in case of such quandaries?
We are going to read about an innovative solution to this problem. Considering this, we are going to talk about a genius lady who has put in her seasoned expertise of business law to introduce an online legal product. We are talking about none other than the CEO of San Diego County based ‘Go Legal Yourself’, Kelly Bagla. Go Legal Yourself is a product developed with the purpose to assist newfangled entrepreneurs with dilemmas concerning the legal procedures of startups. It saves precious time of entrepreneurs ultimately saving money too.
The business world operates at lightning speed, and any business geared towards entrepreneurs has to deliver cutting-edge services online. That’s because entrepreneurs are busy. They need accessible products, and they need them now. Innovators don’t have time to research what they don’t know—which often includes the most important protective measures a business owner must take.That’s why Go Legal Yourself is such a strong product. They don’t just supply online legal documents. Go Legal Yourself provides attorney drafted, client approved, turn-key business start-up documents, including vital agreements, which are designed to protect business owners. They are backed by one of the nation’s foremost business law firms. Their contracts are drafted by licensed attorneys.
Making entrepreneurship as easy as possible
Through Go Legal Yourself, new businesses are set up just the same as they would be by a law firm—but at a fraction of the cost. Talking about the goal of the company, Kelly says, “Our whole raison d’être is to make entrepreneurship as easy as possible, all the while safeguarding the entrepreneurs. I want businesses to thrive, I want innovation to blossom, and I want the future business leaders of tomorrow to be able to set up their businesses properly from the outset,so that they are free to bring to life incredible products and services.”
To help achieve this, she continues to do everything in her power to reach entrepreneurs to make sure they are aware that they need not spend tens of thousands of dollars, and hours and hours of their valuable time to properly set up their businesses and protect their livelihoods. This includes authoring a best-selling book, ‘Go Legal Yourself,’ taking time for interviews, maintaining a high level of visibility. Moreover, she makes sure that she is proactive about marketing, so that both domestic and international companies looking to establish a presence in the US are aware of the revolutionary online services available through Go Legal Yourself.
Unlike online legal document companies, Go Legal Yourself provides all of the attorney drafted business formation documents that entrepreneurs need to fully comply with laws, and to protect their personal assets. Rather than providing 25-50% of the contracts necessary to smartly set up your business, Go Legal Yourself provides 100% of what entrepreneurs need to launch companies safely, legally, and quickly.
An all-rounder with seasoned expertise
In addition to being the founder of Go Legal Yourself, and an inventor, she also runs a successful business law firm based in San Diego, California. She launched Bagla Law Firm, APC after spending the early years of her legal career at one of the world’s largest and most prominent international law firms. She learned the practice of business law from some of the most brilliant minds in the field. Following that, she chose to work for a small IP firm, in order to have both large international firm experience, and small firm experience. Talking about the requirements of her clients, Kelly says,“I’m not just a lawyer, I’m a business owner and entrepreneur and know firsthand what other entrepreneurs are looking for and how to help them with their legal needs.”
It’s also important to note that she is an immigrant to the United States. Her story is quite fascinating. She grew up in England being the youngest of 7 children. “My father inspired me to go into business for myself”, she says. He worked for years as an employee of a factory, planning, saving, and strategizing, before ultimately buying the factory, and becoming a business owner himself.
Talking about the challenges she had to overcome, she says the biggest challenge has been finding the right fit when it comes to a marketing team to ensure that Go Legal Yourself is reaching the audience it needs to reach. Marketing is just as important as the product you’re selling and without the right partner, it can be a struggle to reach the right target market. “My advice would be to partner with a marketing team early on that has your best interest at heart”, she asserts.
The company takes pride inbeing the proverbial better mousetrap because it harnesses the power of technology, backed by attorneys and a business law firm to deliver the products that entrepreneurs, both within the US and in foreign countries need. In addition, this year, Go Legal Yourself has truly become an international brand, attracting companies from across the globe who love how easy, affordable, and thorough their business startup packages are to purchase and use for foreign businesses who want a US presence.
Wanderlust bibliophile
Now coming to her outside interests, her favorite thing to do is learning new things. When she becomes interested in something new, she gives it her all. “For example, I discovered body building years ago. I never set out to become one of the first Indian women to win professional body building competitions in San Diego, California”, she asserts. She is just extremely passionate about doing her best, when she finds something fascinating. She also loves traveling, reading autobiographies, and listening to books and podcasts on a variety of topics while she is walking her dogs. She takes all opportunities available to learn something new.
Talking about her favorite style of attire,due to being born and raised in England, it goes hand in hand that she gravitate toward a classy, elegant, and confident attire.“You rarely find me in a standard black business suit. I enjoy a bit of an intrepid aesthetic and embrace it in my own attire.” She doesn’t shy away from eye-catching colors, but she also embraces timeless classics like a strand of pearls. Talking about her motto, it is taken from Guru Granth Sahib. She says, “Why blend in when you were born to stand out.”
Two factors have been equally vital to her success as a best-selling author, inventor, entrepreneur, and attorney. The first has been the support of her family. Although no one else in herfamily is in the field of law, she has had enormous support from her family. Even when she chose to focus her efforts on business and corporate law, which very few women choose to do, her family supported her decision every step of the way. The other factor has been confidence. She firmly believes that if you don’t believe in yourself, and you don’t project an aura of confidence with others, there is no way that others will have confidence in you. It’s absolutely crucial that you believe in yourself, in your business, and in your capabilities if you want to become successful.
When she is not at work,like most entrepreneurs, she is virtually always at work. As an entrepreneur, it’s been her experience that you’re almost constantly thinking about your business, ways to grow it, ways to improve it, ways to market, etc. “When I’m not at work, I’m often speaking to others about Go Legal Yourself, or I’m writing a book which guides businesses in launching a successful business, or I’m hosting a podcast, giving an interview, or otherwise preparing a presentation of some kind”, she asserts. In addition, she runs a successful business law firm. So although she may not be in the office, if she is awake, she isfound working. However, when you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work.
Creativity in DNA
As a leader of the firm, there are many important decisions to be made, throughout the Business Legal Lifecycle®, which is made up of four phases any business will go through – startup, growth, establishment and exit. These include everything from aligning yourself with the right individuals internally and externally, deciding how to get to where you want to go, what to do once you get there, how and under what circumstances will you sell your business, what will your exit strategy look like.These decisions are endless. All leaders need to be thinking not just one or two steps ahead, but years ahead. In that way, running a business is a lot like playing chess. It’s inherently strategic, requiring constant thought to the future moves you’ll make.
Go Legal Yourself is creative by design. They literally created a product that did not exist, so creative thinking is in their DNA. “Personally, to keep myself thinking creatively, I have to be willing to listen to advice from others. That doesn’t mean I take all advice given, but it does mean that I am willing to consider it”, Kelly asserts. Great ideas come from within, and from the people that she trusts the most.“Most of the time the people that I trust are removed from my business, and therefore offer an objective, rather than subjective opinion, which is extremely helpful”, she asserts.
Talking about the biggest risk she has ever taken, creating Go Legal Yourself was a risk, as she also runs a business law firm. Creating a product that would eliminate the need for entrepreneurs to retain the services of a business law firm to safely, affordably, and efficiently set up their businesses was a risk. She is offering an alternative to the services of her own firm. She has created a company which makes lawyers unnecessary in many cases, which is fairly risky. But the fact that she did this is testament to how much she genuinely wants to help entrepreneurs to be successful. She wants to reduce the number of businesses which fail. She wants everyone to have access to complete, legally sound business formation practices, and documents, without the financial chokehold of hiring a business law firm.
Braving the coherent risks
She has walked through any fears she had about starting Go Legal Yourself. She has forced herself to identify ways in which she could create a better mousetrap. She has embraced thinking outside-of-the-box, and ignored naysayers when they told her she “couldn’t” do something. These are all useful practices for any budding leader to adopt.
Talking about the risk involved in an innovative idea, she says “It is ok to take calculated risks, and there is no better time than the present to go after what you want. For too many brilliant individuals, it seems as if tomorrow never comes, because there is always some reason to delay launching a business or bringing an incredible product to life. I want to say to others, that it’s time to create your purpose. It’s time to launch your legacy”.
She identifies with the needs of entrepreneurs, because she is one. She has made it her life’s work to help fellow entrepreneurs and business owners because she is one of them. She writes books to help answer questions she herself had. She hosts podcasts to learn new things at the same time she is educating her audience. She created a plush toy, and the entire Go Legal Yourself company because she wanted to see for herself what it was like to be a bona fide inventor. She doesn’t just walk others through the process of business ownership, she has walked herself through the process.“I am here to support entrepreneurs any way I can, because I know how empowering it is to create something, you’re incredibly proud of”, she exclaims.
Awards and Recognitions
As the result of these efforts, Go Legal Yourself has been named a Top 20 Business to Watch. Apart from this, Kelly has been named a Business Woman of the Year, by the San Diego Business Journal. Also, she has received a “Powerful Woman Entrepreneur” award at the 2017 DREAMS Inspiration awards. Moreover, she has been featured on the covers of numerous publications recognizing entrepreneurship. Also, she serves as a judge on the Emmy-winning show “Everyday Edisons.” She contributes articles to both San Diego Veterans magazine and Homeland magazine. She regularly speaks to various audiences at events such as Start Grind powered by Google, Veterans in Business Network and more.In addition, she hosts a podcast, Go Legal Yourself (free from your App store) featuring interviews with likeminded entrepreneurs.
However, Kelly feels there is more work to be done, because the product is exceptional and entrepreneurs are looking for it. “So, now it’s up to me to make sure that people know about it”, she concludes.