Loney Stewart Holland Case Study
By Alistair Stewart
Please could give a quick overview of your company?
We run a law firm called Loney Stewart Holland. We do solely commercial litigation work. We are a specialist litigation practice. There are seven of us now, four Partners and three staff. We have been going for six years.
"Where we spend our time now is on much more productive things."
Where were you in your business before you started working with Kellie Simpson Ltd?
We probably started working with Kellie three years ago. Up until that point, we were very much in the start-up phase of the business. It was the three partners that set up and we were probably at a point where we were dealing with things quite inefficiently between ourselves. We were all getting involved in things and being quite inefficient. Spending too much time on ops things that we shouldn't be. Probably like a lot of businesses really.
What challenges/problems necessitated a change?
I think the fact that our biggest factor is time. We sell time, in essence. Particularly as a small business, as partners, we were trying to do the work, run the business and grow the business. We were very time-poor. We were spending a lot of time on tasks that were better done by other people. We very much hit that point. What highlighted for us was that Sarah was going on maternity leave. This was around the time of the first lockdown. Sarah had picked up an awful lot of the ops-based tasks and with her going on maternity leave, it really forced us to think about where she was spending her time and where we were spending our time and how should we reorganise or reallocate that work.
What were you looking for in a solution?
Good question. I don’t think we really knew to be honest. We had kind of got as far as identifying the problem, I think. We came across Kellie around that time actually. We’d known Kellie loosely through previous connections because she was in the Bristol market. We knew she had set up on her own and thought that’s probably a good solution for us. What we certainly didn’t need was someone full-time to come in as a PA or Office Manager. But what we had identified was that there were various tasks that someone could help us with on a more flexible basis.
"The investment was totally worthwhile. And actually, there was very little in terms of initial investment to onboard Kellie. "
What were the major pain points of your process prior to using our service?
We had identified a lot of tasks that we were spending time on where we could have better spent our time on other things. It was a mix of things from finance stuff through to marketing tasks etc.
By using our service, can you measure any improvements in productivity or time savings?
I think we probably could measure it. I couldn’t put my finger on it right now. We log our time and where we spend our time. What I can certainly say is where we spend our time on now is on much more productive things. Either doing client work or business tasks that we should be doing. I can certainly if I needed to, drill down and show that. It’s the opportunity cost of doing things that we shouldn’t be doing, that we can spend on more profitable enterprises.
has the investment been worthwhile?
Yes.
would you recommend us?
Yes!
What’s been the biggest impact/advantage in using our service?
Freeing up our time. It's as simple as that. Freeing up our time and having someone who is flexible and available to do jobs. To some degree, that’s stuff that you can predict and other times it's, oh crikey I could really do with some help on this particular task. Kellie’s always been great at being able to pick that up.
Would you recommend the services to a colleague or a client?
Yeah, absolutely. I have recommended her to several people.
"You help make us a better business. It's as simple as that."
Would you say that the investment in the services has been worthwhile so far?
The investment was totally worthwhile. And actually, there was very little in terms of initial investment to onboard Kellie. She understands law very well. She understands how legal practices work. So, it didn’t take much to explain to her how we work and how our systems work. She’s got a good familiarity with legal software which is great. I wouldn’t class it as much of an investment at all to get Kellie on board. The temptation with outsourcing a task is, well is it going to take me as long to explain it as the benefit I am going to get. Well actually, no. Kellie has always been user-friendly. She has got the industry knowledge and where she needs further information, she’s very. Not just Kellie, but her team as well. They are very good at asking the questions they need to get the information they need to deliver on it. Its actually a low-investment outsourcing
Alistair Stewart, Partner at Loney Stewart Holland LLP
Why do you do business with us?
Because you help make us a better business. It's as simple as that. As I say, for a business like us, the expertise that you offer is exactly what we need. The flexibility is great. As much or as little as we need. And excellent value for money. As simple as that. Going back to the value of our time and what it would take us to do certain jobs, it’s certainly money well spent.