This is a vitally important question for companies in the construction industry, now more than ever!
A Private Project is a project which is funded by a private developer which can be a private individual or company as opposed to public or Governmental organisations. You will find that private projects tend to go ahead quicker as there is far less red tape to go through and no corrupt tender processes. These will include projects such as shopping centres, townhouse complexes, private hospitals and schools and the list goes on.
So, you ask…why is this so important?
Running the risk of giving my age away…I am an avid listener of talk radio, which has recently, educated me on just how broke the South African government currently is. Now, of course, we all have opinions on how the government uses our taxes, and that is a whole different blog for a whole different day, but how does this all affect us in the construction industry?
There are a lot of people that I have been speaking to in the construction industry that will tell you that ‘No tenders are being awarded’… and this is exactly the problem that we are facing. Even though work needs to be done, and tenders may even be issued, the actual awarding of Governmental and/or Municipal projects is happening even slower than it used to due to no available budget. This, in turn, means that a lot of companies that rely heavily on public projects are not receiving as much, if any, work as they used to, and let’s face it, there’s not an awful lot that the average South African can do to change this.
Companies do still have the option to focus their attention on Private Projects but what you do need to know is that they work very differently than public projects.
A Private Developer will purchase land with the intention of developing that land, they will have to go through all the regular processes such as EIA, rezoning etc. They will also appoint a professional design team which will include Project Managers, Architects, Quantity Surveyors and so on. The consulting team will draw up the plans and specifications and once they are ready to go ahead a contractor will be appointed and they can start building from there…no big differences yet? Oh! But there are!
Private Projects very rarely go to open tender (and open tender being where the company publishes the tender out into the media allowing anyone to tender), instead, they will be invited or negotiated. This is not only for the contractors or sub-contractors but even for the consultants
How do I get invited?
This really comes down to who you know, at the end of the day. Think of it this way, if you have R10 000.00 and you want to buy a washing machine, are you going to call the first person you find on Gumtree and make an EFT to them and then wait for delivery? Of course not, you will more than likely g somewhere you know, such as Makro, for instance. If you ask yourself why you do this, I am sure the answer will be that you trust them…mostly. If there is an issue you can take it back, if they don’t deliver when they say they will you can hold them accountable.
This works the same for Private Construction Projects. People will always trust people they know more than someone that has perhaps only sent them an email in the past and when, at the end of the day, that person is responsible for making sure everything is done right, they will use service providers that they know they can trust or if something does go wrong, they want to make sure they can get it sorted out.
Anyone that wants to get involved in the project will need to contact the Developer or the key players (depending on what stage the project is at) in order to get invited. Trust me, if you are not meeting with the relevant people, you are very unlikely to be awarded any work from them. Everyone, even you, have your preferred suppliers, whether it be for your cell phone, clothing, medical aid; and I do not dispute that developers will have their preferred consultants, project managers, and contractors will have their preferred suppliers for materials or sub-contractors but this does not mean that you have no hope of becoming one of their preferred suppliers. The key is to make yourself known to them. Make sure they remember you!
As a Leads 2 Business subscriber, you are already a step ahead of everyone else. You know WHO you need to speak to, rather than starting at a receptionist in the hopes that they might know who in their company is busy with something that you are interested in.
During my years in sales, I have heard some outrageous ways to get to see the person they are wanting to meet, but at the end of the day you don’t need to do anything crazy, you just need to get them to realize that they need to see you. Business is tight for all companies now and competition is rife so be memorable.
We get you to the doorstep, you need to knock on the door. Opportunity does not find you, but it is waiting for you! 
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About Joanne Couto
I started with Leads 2 Business in April of 2013 as an Account Executive, was promoted in 2016 to Senior Account Executive, and then in March 2017, I became the Client Liaison Officer, where I now specialise in client retention and assisting the Sales Team in this regard. I believe whole heartedly in the service that we provide, knowledge is king!