Nicolene Schoeman-Louw is an admitted Attorney of the High Court of South Africa, Conveyancer, Notary Public and Mediator; with a passion for entrepreneurs and helping them reach their most ambitious goals. She has enjoyed the confidence of many successful entrepreneurs. As a trusted advisor she has actively contributed to the successes of many businesses.
In 2007, Nicolene Schoeman-Louw, moved to Cape Town from Bloemfontein in the Free State. She started the firm SchoemanLaw Inc (“SchoemanLaw”) when she was 24 years old (in 2007). Her journey in building a medium-sized law firm (i.e. 0 – 50 employees) as a sole practitioner in a male-dominated industry has been a great adventure.
‘Reflecting on my journey now; I remember the days where from around the 15th of the month I became concerned about my ability to pay the rent. As I started to employ staff, I was aware of the fact that their fate was in my hands. I also recall the isolation frequently felt and found that many of my family and friends; simply could not relate to some of the stresses and worries I was experiencing’, Nicolene states.
At least one thing she did not have to lose sleep over was the legal side of her business. She had that covered, being a lawyer after all. ‘I am pretty good with numbers and have a talent for research as my curious mind is always looking for answers. Everything else in building a business was damn hard work, especially when money was tight’, Nicolene said.
She started looking for online tools to make her life easier and found and used many over the years. Eventually, her law firm, SchoemanLaw Inc. became one of the first law firms to be paperless in South Africa. As her client base grew to include more entrepreneurs, first the more established and later start-ups and small businesses, she realised that how she felt over all the functions, except for the legal side, others experienced all of plus the legal side. She also started experiencing the true impact of not dealing with the legal side. Conversely, she realised that those who saw to the legal components from the start were more successful sooner. She saw in many instances how successful businesses improve lives.
They tried many things to make law more accessible and by doing so, to help more businesses succeed. It was only in 2018, when they launched what is now known as Contracts4Biz, that Nicolene believes they started shifting the needle on this issue.
Contracts4Biz is South Africa’s first contract builder tool supported by a law firm. It provides people access to contracts that would sell for thousands of Rands for under R400 per document. It is instantly available to keep up with the time demand of business and more accurate than a human can ever be.
SchoemanLaw Inc. support entrepreneurs to effectively establish legal foundations in their business for optimum growth and overall business success. They at SchoemanLaw Inc. apply their first-hand understanding of the challenges facing entrepreneurs to develop proven, practical solutions incorporating legal compliance, risk aversion and business sense.