The lawyer living the South African dream...and urges you visit

Name:  Simon Charles Kneel
DOB:  16 May 1966 (age 43)
Born:  Exeter, Devon

You practiced as a lawyer in a top City firm.  When did you decide to take the plunge, give up law and set up your own business?

In 1990 I joined Freshfields (now Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer) as a trainee solicitor where I qualified in 1992. I then stayed on with them for another 8 years working on large-scale commercial litigation, mostly insurance and reinsurance disputes. Towards the end of this period I was starting to have doubts about a long-term career in the law and thought about other options including setting up in business. I had really enjoyed my time at Freshfields – excellent work, great people – but I was in need of change and with the possibility of partnership coming up in the next year or two I felt I had to make a decision before I became too committed to the firm.

I believed that if I didn’t succeed in business fairly soon I could always re-enter the law, perhaps back in the South West as I felt I had had enough of the City lifestyle (and stresses!) by then.

In 1999 I had met my now wife, Helena, whilst on a trip to New York with Freshfields and she soon moved to be with me in London. We started talking about setting up in business together and more generally finding an alternative and more relaxed lifestyle than seemed possible if I was to continue working in such a demanding job in a top City law firm.

How did you come up with the idea for Cape Portfolios (www.capeportfolios.com)

When I left Freshfields in March 2000 Helena and I took time off and travelled round Southern Africa for two months. Our original idea had been to look for a business to set up together in England and ironically we only included Cape Town on our itinerary to meet some Swedish friends who had moved there and set up a tourism business some years before. We both immediately fell in love with Cape Town ourselves – the natural beauty, the climate, the friendliness of its people and also the wealth of opportunity we felt here.

We returned to Cape Town in November 2000 and gave ourselves six months to look around for viable business ideas. We had a blank sheet of paper and very few contacts so we just started looking into ideas involving interests of ours – for me, my passion for wine and for Helena art and design. So we initially considered setting up a niche wine export business (I studied for exams locally, almost up to Master of Wine level) and we also considered various ideas with local art and crafts.

Neither worked out for various reasons and instead we soon came across the idea of combining luxury holiday rental properties with a high level of professional services, which is not something that anyone was offering at the time in Cape Town. It was much more the traditional “rental agency” approach of handing over keys and letting the tenants get on with it; whereas our goal with Cape Portfolios from the start was to offer clients all the independence and flexibility that comes with staying in a private villa together with the concierge and other services of a hotel, such as private chefs, nannies, and access to tours and travel arrangements. So Cape Portfolios was established in late 2001 and here we are!

Do you have any regrets about leaving your job at a top City Firm?

No, I have never regretted it at all, I have learned such a lot and enjoyed the experience of setting up my own business hugely, it has also been a lot of fun too. Having said that, in hindsight it was an enormous decision when I told the Freshfields partners that I didn’t want to pursue a chance of partnership in one of the best law firms in the world and to have left like that after 10 years hard work without any prospects or firm ideas of what to do! 

The partners were surprised but supportive and one or two even admitted to being a bit jealous of me too! I really believe that change is very important in life and sometimes you have to embrace it and just “roll the dice” and believe in yourself, and great things often happen if you do. Other aspects of my life had also made me think about my priorities and I was always brought up to believe that I never want to look back and feel there are exciting opportunities in life that I haven’t pursued. 

What are the most positive aspects of owning your own business?

Most of all there is a huge sense of pride and achievement in having set up a business from scratch in a foreign country and grown it successfully into a market leader. At the outset it was just my wife and I working from the small house we were renting here and we now work from prime beachfront offices in Camps Bay where we employ 25 staff and create work for many more, with nearly 200 rental properties on our books in South Africa and Mauritius, and plans to extend to other destinations next year.

What are the worst aspects of owning your own business?

The other side of the coin with having complete control over your own business is of course that the buck stops with you and there is noone else to blame if things go wrong! In the early years of our business it was stressful at times putting all our finances on line to set it up and it took a while to develop the right contacts especially to market the rental properties overseas and to put together the team we needed to run the business to the very high standards we have set ourselves.

But then again this has just made it all the more rewarding as things have come together for us so well as the business has become established and gone from strength to strength. When you set up a small business after years at a law firm you also desperately miss simple things like being able to pick up the phone to the inhouse IT department night or day when your computer has a problem!

(Slightly better than the Central Line, dare we say...)

What did your typical day look like when you worked as a lawyer and how does it differ from your typical day now?

Any stressed-out City lawyers reading this in the English winter may want to skip to the next question! My typical day has changed enormously since I was a senior assistant at Freshfields when I regularly worked very long hours all week and often at weekends too, with very little time to pursue interests outside of work and often having to cancel personal commitments at the last minute.

Nowadays my day will often start early with a bike ride along the spectacular coastal route from Camps Bay where I live or walking our dogs on the beach near our house just a minute or so from work. Our office hours are from 8.30 to 4.30 weekdays, which is fairly standard in Cape Town and although our team is on call around the clock to look after clients over our very busy summer season, I rarely work long into the evenings or at weekends myself. 

After work we will often meet with friends or enjoy more outdoor activities in the early evenings, or get away into the mountains and winelands close to Cape Town over the weekends. I have so many more interests now outside work compared to my Freshfields days and feel much healthier and more relaxed. I cycle competitively, kayak and practice yoga twice weekly and I have also learned to cook whereas back in London I rarely exercised and was a disaster in the kitchen!  

Did you have lots of support from friends and family or were they skeptical about you leaving such a well-paid, established profession?

Yes certainly family and close friends were very supportive of my decision, they knew I had doubts about pursuing a long term career with Freshfields and they also knew that I wasn’t the kind of person to take a decision like this lightly and had given it a lot of thought.

Do you think your legal training and experience helped you be where you are now?

Absolutely, the skills I learned as a lawyer have been hugely helpful through this process and not just the legal knowledge and expertise but so many other skills you learn over many years as a lawyer which translate across so well into being a business owner, from negotiation, management and delegation skills to basic interpersonal, planning and communication skills. On another level, I have also found that clients and property owners have always been more willing to impart trust on me and my business, whether by renting an expensive holiday villa from Cape Portfolios or by an overseas owner giving us full management responsibility for their property simply because of my background having worked for so long in such a well-respected and internationally recognized firm as Freshfields.

More generally, I believe that so many lawyers who would be interested to step outside the profession and try their hand at something else are held back by the self-limiting belief that they only know about “being a lawyer” whereas my experience is that so many of the skills you learn as a lawyer are directly applicable and hugely valuable to setting up in business.

Any good deals for those traveling to the region for the World Cup next Summer?

Cape Portfolios www.capeportfolios.com has lots of availability from now on right through to the World Cup in June and July 2010 with some really excellent offers available over the World Cup period, with rates often coming out at half the price of a night in a luxury hotel. Just as an example Villa Bay Vista in Camps Bay which sleeps 6 and has a private pool is available over the World Cup for £3900 per week (£93pppn). The eyes of the world are going to be on Cape Town in 2010 and we are very excited about the year ahead and the opportunities it will bring for Cape Portfolios.

  Finally, how do you rate our chances in the World Cup?

I am glad you say “our chances” as nearly a decade after moving to South Africa, and loving my adopted nation as much as I do, I still find myself cheering for the English national sporting teams at times like this! I think England should do really well in this World Cup and may even win it, the conditions here at that time of year should suit them compared with some of the other favourites and their group draw was certainly very favourable. England last won the World Cup in the year I was born so nothing would make me happier than it finally happening again here in South Africa in 2010!

Interview with Vanessa Wozniak

OFFER!!!

Over 50% off Cape Portfolios’ V&A Waterfront apartments during The World Cup
 
 
Cape Portfolios’ V&A Waterfront Apartments offer a wide selection of luxury one, two and three-bedroom apartments in a secure, fully managed complex with 3 swimming pools.  Overlooking the yacht marina, waterways and shops and restaurants of this popular location, Cape Town’s new Green Point Stadium is just a stone’s throw away.
 
 
Rates during The World Cup cost from £245 per night for a one-bedroom apartment, a saving of £355 on the original rate of £600 per night
 
 
Rates include daily housekeeping. Internet available on a pre-paid basis.
Call +27 (0) 21 438 3416 or book online with www.capeportfolios.com