1-900-Buy Info: selling information or professional advice over a 900 phone line is a good way to expand a business - Business Opportunities

Home Office Computing, March, 1993 by Alan Rider

Selling Information Or Professional Advice Over a 900 Phone Line Is a Good Way to Expand A Business

Once known solely as sex lines, 900 numbers are now being used for all kinds of legitimate business purposes, from TV talk-show polling to customer support to providing professional service-as attorney Cheryl Meade does.

Meade, an 11-year veteran of the Los Angeles County courts, opened a 900-number phone line called Law Line last April, through which she dispenses legal advice at $3.65 per minute (most professionals charge between $2 and $4 a

minute). "It's a whole new way to access the legal system," says Meade, 42, who lives in Lancaster, California. "The callers I get are people who need legal advice but would never show up in a traditional law practice because of the expense, the inconvenience, or the stigma."

The 900 number has been around for 10 years, but only recently have advances in technology and reductions in pricing made its use practical for the individual professional. For any consultant who sells services or advice, setting up a 900 number can be a way to expand the business. Because callers are automatically charged when they call, there's no need to bill or collect fees. Professionals can serve a large area, since 900 calls can be made from anywhere in the country. But starting and developing a 900 business on the side takes time and energy, as Meade found out.

CLEARING HURDLES

After hearing a radio interview with another lawyer who was experimenting with the concept, Meade spent nine months sorting through the wildly varying programs, terminology, and restrictions of 900-number service providers.

In the end, Meade's service provider, MCI, asked her to clear two final hurdles before approving her 900 application. "MCI was concerned that I would have law clerks or unlicensed individuals picking up the phone and answering calls from states other than California and South Carolina, where I'm licensed to practice," Meade explains. Of course, for other kinds of professionals, such as computer consultants, the ability to offer service to people outside their local area is a major benefit of 900 phone lines.

For Meade, circumventing these problems was as simple as writing a letter stating only she or another licensed attorney would take calls, and allowing the phone company to block calls from other states. Resolving problems with proposed programs isn't always that easy, however.

"When an information provider tries to deal with these phone companies they get only little bits and pieces of their particular rules, and it's difficult to judge what you can and can't do," says Toni Moore, a San Diego-based specialist in setting up pay-per-call programs. "Every program has to be submitted in detail, and there are certain ones that are just red flags. If the provisioning phone company feels that the program doesn't have value or is a scam, they won't approve it and implement service."

Moore claims that even after cutting through the red tape to activate their numbers, a very high percentage of 900 entrepreneurs will fail because of an ill-conceived product or poor advertising.

"Since it's a fairly new concept, it's really hard to second-guess what the public will or will not pay for," says Moore. "I've also seen some very mediocre programs do extremely well with good marketing, and I've seen some very good programs fall flat on their face because of poor marketing." A feasibility study that explores alternative information sources for the public, their cost, and the difficulty of obtaining them is a vital first step, according to Moore. "People say, 'Well, maybe I could get that information for free somewhere else, but how long would it take me and where would I go?'" she says. "For example, a lot of government information is free, but you have to figure out where to write and wait six weeks to get it."

24-HOUR-A*DAY SERVICE

Law Line averages two or three calls a day, seven days a week and has been turning a modest profit from day one. It is, of course, just a side business to Meade's regular law practice.

Meade answers calls from her home office or on the run via her ever-present handheld cellular phone. Though she has another attorney lined up to cover for her in a pinch, she's fielded calls single-handedly 24 hours a day since the beginning, even while vacationing in South Carolina.

Rather than trying to keep callers on the line in order to run up the bill, Meade feels it's both good business and ethically sound to keep things short and sweet. "I try and keep it focused--people actually want to talk more than I feel they need to, so I try to guide the conversation so it doesn't get off on tangents I know won't be valuable."

People know what Meade looks like, since her name and photo are prominently featured in small display ads in the local Antelope Valley daily newspaper, but the relative anonymity of her Law Line clients presents a unique and potentially ticklish problem.

"I always try and get a caller's name for my files because ethically I can't be on both sides of a dispute," she explains. "I had one situation where I was talking to a tenant and I had to stop her and say,' 'I've already advised your landlord about his rights in the matter' and tell her I was writing her a refund check for the time we'd spent on the phone."