Attorney Marlon Shevelew shares his story
By EDITOR
Self-employment is not an easy thing – but it can be extremely rewarding. That has been the experience of local attorney, Marlon Shevelew, who gave the lowdown on his personal entrepreneurial journey at a recent ORT Jet Cape Town Business Networking event.
Marlon makes the point that one may be in a comfort zone while working as an employee – and that’s absolutely fine. There isn’t necessarily a reason to give up a secure job and go off on your own, unless you have a burning passion to be your own boss.
And his own story proves the point. It was just a few months after becoming a partner in an established and solid law firm in Cape Town in 2005 when Marlon took the plunge and started his own firm. “Two strong passions guided me into this,” he explains. “One was that I really wanted to be my own boss. I wanted to move away from being responsible to other people, and be responsible only to myself. The other is that I was very keen to specialise in a field of law that the firm I had been with didn’t give me the opportunity to do: rental property law.”
19 years later, Marlon Shevelew and Associates Inc. is a leading firm in the rental property law field, with Marlon often being called on by members of the media to assist with queries relating to rental issues from the public. Today, his firm has grown to six lawyers, three legal consultants and two administrative support staff.
Marlon was realistic about what moving into his own business would mean – most importantly as regards making the public aware of his firm and what services he offers. “I understood how important networking is to get a business off the ground,” he explains. “So, I joined various business networking groups; used social media to post on LinkedIn and Facebook; and I contacted numerous people from the law profession whom I had met in my previous work life. All these steps helped to bring the clients in, and get my business off the ground.”
In addition, through developing a niched legal focus in rental property law, which was, he says, “a very understated and neglected area of property law”, he was able to approach other people and businesses. He explains that, “I knew that, if a person has a property that they let, they have money to afford legal assistance for the various problems that landlords invariably encounter, such as disputes with tenants, the need for properly drafted lease agreements, non-payments by tenants, and so on.” Armed with this information, he then approached property agencies to offer his services to the landlords they represent, software companies in the property management technology space, and credit bureaus who list defaulting tenants.
Having established a name for himself in the industry, Marlon subsequently identified gaps in the services available in the rental property market. And that put him on a path to develop disruptive legal services. This has resulted in three new services:
The Rental Retainer Club
This allows rental agents and landlords to sign up to receive rental law advisory services for a small monthly fee. In addition to advice provided for particular scenarios, members receive a monthly newsletter that provides information about recent cases relevant to landlords, as well as a Question and Answer section, providing practical advice for landlords and agents.
Rentdoc
Landlords often have to send Letters of Demand to non-paying tenants. This can be a costly exercise, so Rentdoc is an online service that provides for the automated generation of a Letter of Demand for a landlord or an agent directly onto a Marlon Shevelew and Associates Inc letterhead. The only cost incurred is R60 +VAT plus postage.
For the law firm, the big positive is the revenue that follows. As Marlon comments, “When the person has used the Rentdoc portal for the Letter, there’s a strong chance they will consult our law firm for the next steps, such as debt collection and eviction.”
RentLaw
Marlon has partnered with a listed insurance company and a reputable insurance broker to market an insurance policy to cover the costs of eviction and of amounts owing by a non-paying tenant. This type of policy is not a new concept but marketing is notoriously difficult as the low premium for the policy and the even lower commission for brokers to promote this is negated by the marketing budget needed. With his extensive database, Marlon is able to do this far more productively and is able to zone in on those agencies and landlords who need this incredible product.
The firm is on the panel that does the eviction work, and the bill for the legal work then goes to the insurance company, rather than
to the landlord.
All in all, Marlon’s transition from employee to being his own boss has been hugely successful. And he is constantly innovating and addressing new opportunities so there’s plenty yet to come from him!
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