http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/states/now-log-in-to-avail-tax-legal-services/article7198387.ece
Want to get your PAN card made or a mortgage deed drafted? You don’t need to run after any professional. The service is just a click away.
The 34-year-old chartered accountant Divakar Vijayasarathy, along with 35-year-old MBA professional Rajesh Inbasekran, in July 2014, founded MeetUrPro.com, a Chennai-based online marketplace for around 500 kinds of professional services.
The portal facilitates buyers and professionals to meet online, negotiate and firm up engagements. Details on description, scope of service, delivery timeline and pricing are clearly stated. Buyers can choose the seller of the service based on geography, past user ratings, and price. As present, 500 kinds of services are available which will subsequently be expanded to 2,000.
On the idea behind the start-up, Founder and CEO Vijayasarathy says, “In these professions, price discovery is a challenge and the element of negotiability is an irritant between the buyer and seller of the service. Moreover, there is not enough work for professionals in tier II, III towns. We wanted to bridge this divide.
“Tax planning and tax structure are the most sought-after services on the platform,” he said. The portal sees 350-400 transactions a month with the average price of service ranging from ₹1,000 to ₹1,500.
“Buyers need to pay the fee upfront which we pay to the seller only if the buyer is completely satisfied with the service,” he says.
The idea is to create a level-playing field for professionals. Usually, what happens is legacy firms grow bigger while smaller start-ups are targeted for acquisition, Vijayasarathy says, adding that sellers who wish to register have to submit documents, post which their membership with the respective statutory bodies is verified.
Vijayasarathy’s wife Kavitha Divakar joined the team in December 2014. “Women who stay at home can freelance at their own pace and decide the amount of work they wish to go for,” says Kavitha, a 29-year-old lawyer by qualification.
Almost ₹1.5 crore has been invested in the start-up and the founders are not looking for any funding in the near future. It will soon start a customer-awareness drive apart from launching a B2B service model for services for real estate players. “Currently, our operations are in India. We are planning to expand to Singapore and Dubai soon and to the US and UK later,” she says.
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