Business woman shares some tips with aspirants
Odds including a company that was previously considered too small is what a Rosebank businesswoman has had to overcome over 13 years.
A quantity surveyor and property valuer from Rosebank has set out to pursue bigger things after receiving an award at a graduation ceremony in Melrose Arch. Thirusha Moonsamy of Leeanka Cost and Construction Consultants was part of the women-owned business cohort of 2020 from Growthpoint Properties who graduated on August 1.
Moonsamy shared that the core focus of their business for the past 13 years has been quantity surveying and property valuation and had recently started to break into project management work.
“The difficulties we faced previously were available opportunities in the market in that we were considered to be too small to be given work of a sizeable nature. That essentially was one of the biggest stumbling blocks as to how we grow the business with keeping our overheads low and still able to look as a bigger outfit,” she said.
Moonsamy said cash flow constraints prevented them from becoming bigger but through the challenges that they faced they adapted and were able to find solutions around that through joint venture partnerships, strategic partners, etc.
“Over the 13 years, we have developed a good set of clients that we have serviced. We have serviced work, in construction value, way over a billion rand over the last 13 years,” said Moonsamy.
The businesswoman said being part of the Growthpoint programme taught her not to play small and it was okay to think big and to pursue big things.
Sharing some advice for those who want to pursue the same line of business, she said you should make sure you can generate a salary for yourself. “So you either have to save money up or have someone that will fund you for the year ahead. I think that is important because when you’re trying to service work and you don’t have a salary, it becomes tough. You need to be mentally strong for when your accounts run down to zero and to survive it.”
Moonsamy said the solutions they provide to their clients under tough circumstances make it all worthwhile. Leeanka Cost and Construction Consultants has got projects that were sitting for years and didn’t move off the ground. The company manages the budget to ensure that they don’t go beyond a certain threshold.
Outside the office, Moonsamy is a footballer and loves it. “It is one of my biggest pastimes and I have a little boy who is 12 years old and loves football. So we do lots of fun football activities.”
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