Five Minutes with… Helena Naaman

Five Minutes with… Helena Naaman, General Manager, Sedinvest Enterprises Ltd

Sedinvest Enterprises Ltd was established almost eight years ago. What was the main idea behind it?

The main idea behind it was to provide exposure to service branches such as doctors, lawyers and accountants which faced difficulties in promoting their services, especially in printed form, due to local regulations. Internet marketing and listings of these professions on online portals were clearly exempt from those regulatory restrictions. Our broader mission was to promote Cyprus internationally as a business centre and so attracting visitors from all over the world became our main goal.

Was it an immediate success or have you been refining and changing your business model over the years?

Our success was immediate; the legal and accounting sectors, in particular, embraced the idea from the very first moment. Doctors, on the other hand, were and still are more cautious, as the majority focus on providing their services locally and believe more in promotion by word of mouth. When we began in 2007, conditions were very promising. International interest in Cyprus was strong, due to the beneficial tax system, the stable economic situation and, of course, the strategic location of the island and its EU membership, so it became an even more important gateway for many investors. Of course, a company always needs to refine its business model to stay in line with the increasing demands of its clients and keep one step ahead, particularly with developments in the IT world.

What kind of people make up the main visitors to your three Cyprus-based portals? Do they tend to based here or is the interest in lawyers, accountants and doctors in Cyprus coming from abroad?

Our visitors are, especially, from Russia, Ukraine, the UK and from the Arab countries, with different legal or accounting enquiries. We have also noted that, more recently, many more Cypriots have begun to search online and communicate with lawyers and accountants for answers to their enquiries. Also, many foreigners based in Cyprus, such as people from the UK, India and other jurisdictions, choose to search online, and lately we have also seen great interest in a variety of business services from Canada and the USA. Our subscribers have shown great confidence in our services over the years. The visibility they get from our targeted markets, the enquiries they receive directly to their e-mail from people all over the world, the ability to use our sites to present their services, announce news updates and publish business-related articles, and coming up first for almost a decade now among significant legal and accounting keywords on the major search engines, have led to the majority of our subscribers renewing year after year.

Does the recent setting up of a Maltese legal portal indicate plans to expand to other jurisdictions?

We have always had plans to expand and develop our services. However, such steps need to be taken only after careful research and when the time is right. For the time being, our main goal is to develop, update and grow our Cyprus portals and, of cours,e our newly launched LawyersInMalta. Being partly Cypriot, I would love to see our small contribution lead to the gradual transformation of Cyprus into one of the most important business centres in the region.