Company sees opportunities in professional services

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This article was published 10/05/2023 (1259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg entrepreneurs have had an amazing track record of identifying opportunities to aggregate businesses or build platforms to make it easier to do more business in a more satisfying way for customers.

Winnipeg companies like Boyd Group, Arctic Glacier, Wellington West/Wellington Altus and SkipTheDishes have all built models that are scalable that successfully service both the supply and the demand side and have become very large businesses.

The smart founders of Vexxit Inc. believe they have found another vertical market to deliver services to more people who need them more economically — professional services.

The company originally launched in 2020 with an online platform with professional service providers paying a fee to become members and consumers would get matched with a service provider online.

The business was working, but launching as it did during the pandemic caused the founders to identify a few things along the way that made them pause the business, massively overhaul the digital platform and they’ve now re-launched with a slightly different model.

Among other things, the pivot included dropping the fee for professionals to participate and homing in on only a specific number of services to be offered and clearly identifying the cost for those services.

They are starting out with more than 100 “products” some with additional add-ons — would you like a power-of-attorney with that will? The plan is to include more services like immigration and real estate law to be added in the near term.

Polly Craik, the former owner and founder of Fineline Communications, is one of the co-founders of Vexxit.

“We really needed to have a model that could scale sustainably because we fully intend to take this beyond Canada,” she said. “In the previous membership model our clients were the professionals, not the consumers. This is about giving every Canadian access to legal and accounting services, to be in control and to live a better life.”

The company has about 12 employees including a few in southern Ontario but not including an IT development team in India.

Craik said the service is not for companies needing legal and accounting help doing mergers and acquisitions.

“We are for the employees of those companies, new Canadians, people looking for professional service providers with the same interests or who speak their language,” she said.

It’s also not necessary for Vexxit to attract the big law and accounting firms. For instance, Julie Rempel, the company’s chief revenue officer, said they have connected with a LinkedIn group called “Lawyers on the Beach” whose membership is about 1,000.

Vexxit’s algorithms will match people with the right professionals after only a few questions. Fees are clearly identified. Its web-site quotes prices like $630 for a simple will, $2,380 for a cohabitation agreement, $2,100 for a parenting agreement.

Those prices include Vexxit’s administration fee, as well as all taxes and any other charges.

One of the things that was identified in the first iteration is that people might have known they needed help but might not have been sure exactly what service they needed. This time the algorithm helps in that regard as well.

Vexxit’s current CEO, Rick Duha — who’s also the chairman of the board and owner of the Duha Group — said the model is appealing for lawyers and accountants who can generate revenue on their own time at their own pace. And on the supply side it addresses the needs of many under serviced Canadians.

“In a typical relationship professionals have to keep track of hours and justify them,” he said. “They need to invoice them and then they need to worry about collection. There’s none of that on Vexxit.”

Clients pay Vexxit up front and Vexxit disburses funds when the work is done, much of which will be conducted on Vexxit’s own online platform.

Rempel said that while the company is not privy to the details of the work that gets done, it controls the relationship rather than having clients negotiate prices or professional service providers charging for fees that were not already agreed to.

The new version of Vexxit has just launched so the take-up is just starting to materialize.

But the company has already had experience promoting the brand.

Marshall Ring, the CEO of Manitoba Technology Exchange, which has worked with Vexxit over the years, has seen all sorts of different types of entrepreneurs launch businesses.

He said one thing that sets Vexxit apart is that the founders were so committed to the idea that they paused and pivoted even though the original version of the operation had already started generating revenue.

“Once most startups hit revenue you don’t find them pausing and going back and tweaking the business model,” he said, “But the Vexxit folks did a full stop and went back to the drawing board. What they realized was that there was a bigger opportunity out there that they were looking to pursue.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca