Startup Story
Taryn Blignaut is the founder of start-up legal consultancy, Legal Ninjas. Taryn is a corporate attorney with over 15 years in experience as in-house legal counsel for large listed companies including Coronation Fund Managers and Ninety One. Taryn is a seasoned entrepreneur who, through her interactions with other founders, spotted the gap between smaller businesses and legal services. Taryn decided to leave corporate life behind and launch a legal consultancy to provide affordable, commercial legal solutions to SMME's by matching up the skills of former in-house lawyers with the needs of SMME's needing legal expertise with flexible pricing.
LoA spoke to founder Taryn Blignaut about her entrepreneurial journey so far, and her ambitions for Legal Ninjas in the future.
What does your company do?
Legal Ninjas provides legal support to SMMEs using flexible pricing depending on the business's preference, with options of a fixed hourly rate or fixed price per project or a monthly retainer based on hours needed per week (for slightly bigger businesses needing ongoing legal support). Our focus is on assisting start-ups with setting up their business properly including company and trademark registration, shareholder agreement, privacy policy, and terms of service. Once set up, we shift focus to ongoing compliance such as annual filings, employment contracts, company policies, and all manner of commercial agreements such as service level agreements, sub-contractor arrangements, funding agreements, joint ventures, and much more. Until a business has the resources to hire a permanent lawyer, Legal Ninjas offers the legal support required as well as general guidance for small businesses, such as providing details of other affordable SMME service providers including accountants and business consultants.
“Our focus is on assisting start-ups with setting up their business properly including company and trademark registration, shareholder agreement, privacy policy, and terms of service.”
What inspired you to start your company?
I've always been entrepreneurial from selling ice lollies on the Hermanus beach as a child, to starting an online eco-friendly decor store as a side hustle. So I knew that I wanted to move away from big corporate and forge my own path. Having been a founder of a start-up myself, I know how tough it is and how little support there is for smaller businesses with smaller budgets. I wanted to focus my energy on helping SMMEs to grow and survive in the tough economy of South Africa. I also wanted to educate founders that legal services are not a luxury but an absolute necessity to aid business survival and growth.
What makes your business, service or product special?
Legal Ninjas is a legal consultancy and not a law firm. Because we are consultants, we are more affordable that the typical law firm. We do not have overheads as all our ninjas work remotely and this means that we can charge lower fees and offer flexible pricing to suit the needs of all clients from start-ups to bigger businesses in need of fractional legal support. We can work on an ad hoc basis or we can source a legal consultant to dedicate 1 day a week to a business, depending on the client's needs.
“I wanted to focus my energy on helping SMMEs to grow and survive in the tough economy of South Africa. I also wanted to educate founders that legal services are not a luxury but an absolute necessity to aid business survival and growth.”
Tell us a little about your team
Because we launched recently, our team consists of Taryn, our founder and commercial ninja, and Sena, our trademark ninja! We want to ensure that we grow sustainably and will grow our legal ninja army as the demand for our services grows. All legal ninjas will have a minimum of 5 years experience as an in-house lawyer to business, to ensure they have a commercial mindset and understand the different priorities of a business.
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And, do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
I've had an interesting and varied career ranging from working as a practicing attorney, to managing a non-profit organisation in Zululand, to working for dual-listed asset managers with a global reach. I always felt that I would start my own business and my entrepreneurial journey started with a side hustle online store selling locally made, eco-friendly homeware and gifts. Although I really enjoyed the venture as it gave me an outlet for my creativity, it was not a good business from a profitability perspective and so I decided to marry entrepreneurship with my core skills being legal services.
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
There is a big trend happening offshore called fractional legal counsel, meaning that more lawyers are opting to trade in their big corporate career for a more flexible, work-from-anywhere job, offering legal services on a fractional basis to more than one client. I think Legal Ninjas will capitalise on this trend and grow our ninja army so that we can become the 'one-stop-shop' for businesses needing legal support in South Africa.
“Adding value to my clients' businesses is really rewarding. Most of my clients do not know what they need from a legal perspective and being able to guide them and ensure that their business is protected from the risks that they didn't even think about is fulfilling.”
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
Adding value to my clients' businesses is really rewarding. Most of my clients do not know what they need from a legal perspective and being able to guide them and ensure that their business is protected from the risks that they didn't even think about is fulfilling. Founders are focused on sales and marketing, for obvious reasons, and the legal stuff is often put on the back-burner. Seeing a client realise the value that we add is all the motivation that I need to keep growing this business.
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
Don't pour money into starting a business before you have tested your business idea in the market. Start small and test the market to make sure that people want the product you are selling before you really invest in it as a business. There's no point having a fancy website if you have a product people don't want. Once you are sure the business has promise, then hire Legal Ninjas to assist you in setting up the business properly from the beginning!
Find out more
Email: taryn@legalninjas.co.za
Website: http://legalninjas.co.za
Why LoA loves it…
Getting great legal advice and support as a startup is absolutely essential, but being able to get that support from a niche business that really understands the entrepreneurial journey is special. Taryn Blignaut brings all her 15 years of experience as a corporate attorney to the table, whilst at the same time combining it with her own insights and knowledge as an entrepreneur. She understands SMMEs, their challenges, and their needs, and has created a legal advisory business that is able to respond in an agile and affordable way to truly help her clients. — Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo, Lionesses of Africa