Completing a project on time and within budget is a difficult achievement in the notoriously variable construction industry. Doing it 54% under budget is an astounding feat and an indicator of some serious project management skills.
The quantity surveyor contracted by Business Partners Limited, which financed the completion of the Winvest Business Park in Hartbeespoort Dam, couldn’t believe it, says Jabulani Tshabalala, the entrepreneur behind the project. Jabulani is the owner of the WinVest Africa Group, which bought a one-hectare plot for R2,5 million in 2018, and proceeded to turn it into a fully tenanted business park worth R55 million at its latest valuation. He had used his own resources to build the first two phases of the office park and needed outside finance for the last two phases.
Even though a bank had agreed to lend him the money, Jabulani went with the offer of a loan of R9 million from Business Partners Limited. He liked the thoroughness with which they evaluated the project and saw in them a valuable future growth partner, especially if he could impress them with his ability to come in under budget.
Jabulani tackled the project with very specific strategies to achieve just that. First, he took charge of the project management himself and kept the involvement of outside professionals to a minimum. Relying on his very experienced foreman allowed him to bring in a construction engineer right at the very end for sign-off only, for example.
As project manager he maintained obsessive focus on the timing of the various stages of construction so that there was never any idle labour on site. Materials were brought on site just-in-time so that it would be used on the same day, thereby avoiding the risks of pilfering.
Jabulani kept hiring costs down by using his own plant and equipment and saved huge amounts of money by engaging in “serious negotiations” with material suppliers with whom he built solid relationships. He worked hard at cutting out middlemen and negotiating a 15% discount at a local hardware supplier.
Such project-management skills do not develop overnight, says Jabulani, who, at 44 years old, describes himself as a serial entrepreneur. Having grown up with the family lore of his grandfather, a renowned livestock farmer in KwaZulu-Natal, Jabulani knew he wanted to become a businessperso n from an early age.
Growing up among the mining towns of the present-day North West province where his father worked as an artisan, Jabulani thrived at school and developed his leadership skills by becoming the Student Representative Council (SRC) president for his last two years at school. At the time such a position meant not only representing the student body, but actively fighting for change within the education system.
After school, Jabulani studied mechanical engineering at a college in Pretoria and later commerce at Wits University, where he obtained a master’s degree and later an MBA. His first of many tries at building a business was supplying tools to the mining industry. Jabulani describes his style of entrepreneurship as “ a feat of marginal gains” – starting small, building up slowly and learning as much from his mistakes as his successes.
He also actively seeks out business opportunities in industries that have high barriers to entry, and so in 2015 managed the difficult feat of obtaining a pharmaceutical distribution license. This brought him to Hartbeespoort Dam, where he rented a warehouse for his growing distribution business.
His entrepreneurial eye was caught by the many opportunities for property development at the popular holiday resort and regional centre, and he bought the one-hectare site as his first foray into property development. The more he looked into it, the better the opportunities seemed in property compared to the cut-throat pharmaceutical industry, where an increasing number of manufacturers were distributing directly to their market, cutting out distribution companies.
In 2021, he decided to divest from pharmaceuticals in order to focus on property. Currently, WinVest has four property development projects on the go and if the success of the Winvest Business Park is anything to go by, there will be many more to come.
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