Posted on Mon, Feb. 15, 2010

Sharing your idea can make it stronger

By NANCY DAHLBERG
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Jerome Poliacoff has this advice for budding entrepreneurs: Don't be so secretive!

It's unlikely others will steal your idea because you are the one with the passion and energy to make it a success. ``If you promote and share your idea, you'll get feedback like `Why would you do it that way?' It makes you think about things differently,'' said Poliacoff, who won the Business Plan Challenge last year and has been sharing, listening and tweaking his model ever since.

The idea behind WeAgree2.com is to provide tailored parenting plans, now mandated by state law, at a lower financial and emotional cost than if divorcing parents had to resort to litigation to decide how their children should be raised.

Contest judges liked Poliacoff's clear mission statement, well-thought-out plan and low launch costs. They were also impressed with the management team: Poliacoff and partner Michael Epstein have more than 50 years in child psychology.

First, Poliacoff and Epstein tested the idea with prototype families and were satisfied the process worked.

Next, Poliacoff sought the help of the University of Miami's Launch Pad, an entrepreneurship career center. Launch Pad helped him obtain bids for a website and find resources for creating logos and mailing materials. Now it is helping him revise and expand his business plan to seek external funding.

``I'm so enthusiastic about the Launch Pad that I must have sent them 20 people to help,'' Poliacoff said.

Getting out and talking about his idea resulted in his meeting Gabriel Bodner, a family law attorney who's also well-versed in all things tech. Bodner launched his own website, MyDivorceLawyer.com, which seeks to offer divorcing couples a lower-priced alternative to costly legal fees.

Now they are partnering to better serve those in need of parenting plans, too. With help from Bodner, Poliacoff tweaked his business model, including adding a streamlined version of his service for people who need less handholding.

As Poliacoff explains it, parents will be able to log on and use templates to create a parenting plan at an affordable set fee that includes a consultation with a child psychologist. If they want further detail or ongoing consultation throughout the parenting plan process, they can opt to choose an enhanced service.

``We liked to think face-to-face service was the way to go, but we are now learning a lot of people want to do a big portion of the process online. So we're moving in that direction,'' Poliacoff said.

His original model depended largely on referrals from divorce lawyers, but he found that many of them wanted to keep that business for themselves. Divorce lawyers are pressed these days because clients want to spend less on divorce in this economy -- or even put it off.

``It used to be funding divorce was easy -- home equity. Now the question is not who gets the house; it's who gets rid of it. This has affected the attorneys in numerous ways,'' Poliacoff said.

Marketing and promotion costs have exceeded Poliacoff's estimates, and he now knows he needs to cast his net wider. He has tried targeted marketing materials, advertising on JustAskBoo -- a runner-up in last year's Business Plan Challenge -- and joining the Collaborative Family Law Institute.

Business is slow but steady, although it's not enough to warrant expanding WeAgree2.com beyond Miami Dade without more funding.

Still, Poliacoff said seeing it come together is rewarding: ``It's no longer just an idea. We were able to pull it all together -- the plan, the marketing, the research, completing the circle.