F.A.Q

The following criterion is used when evaluating a business:

• The business must have a large black shareholding and management structure.
• The owners must be involved on a day-to-day basis in the management or operation of the company.
• The owners of the business must be part of the local community where the business operates.
• Loans need to be repaid in good time.
• The business must have a scope to grow and be sustainable.
• The business should care for the environment.
• The owners of the business need to contribute to the business form their own financial resources.

1. Choose a meter stick or metric tape measure. Select a meter stick ruler or tape measure with meters (m) or centimetres (cm) printed on it. These tools will make it easier to calculate square meters, since they were designed in the same system of measurement.

• If you can only find a ruler with feet (ft) or inches (in), measure with those instead, then go to the section on converting to square meters.

2. Measure the length of the area you’re measuring. Square meters are a unit for measuring area, or the size of a two-dimensional object such as a floor or a field. Use your measuring tool to measure one side of the object, from one corner to the other. Write down the result.

• If the object is longer than 1 meter, remember to include both the meter and centimetre parts of the measurement. For instance, “2 meters 35 centimetres.”

3. If you can’t measure the entire length at once, do it in stages. Lay out the measuring tool, then put down a rock or other small object exactly at an easy to remember mark (like 1 meter or 25 centimetres). Pick up the tool and lay it down again, starting at the small object. Repeat until the entire length is covered, and add all your measurements together.

4. Measure the width. Use the same tool to measure the width of the same area or object. The side you measure in this step should be angled close to 90º away from the length of the object you measured earlier, like two sides of a square next to each other. Write this number down as well.

• Unless the object you’re measuring is much smaller than 1 meter, you can round to the nearest centimetre when making your measurements. For instance, if the width is slightly past the 1 meter 8 centimetre mark, just use ‘”1m 8cm” as your measurement, without using decimals or millimetre measurements.
• If you want to measure an object that isn’t rectangular or square, read the Complex Shapes section instead.

5. Convert from centimetres to meters. Usually, the measurements won’t divide evenly into meters. Instead, you’ll have a measurement in both meters and centimetres, for example “2 meters 35 centimetres.” Because 1 centimetre = 0.01 meters, you can convert a centimetre measurement into meters by moving the decimal point two digits to the left. Here are a couple examples:

• 35cm = 0.35m, so 2m 35cm = 2m + 0.35m = 2.35m
• 8cm = 0.08m, so 1m 8cm = 1.08m

6. Multiply the length and width together. Once both measurements are converted into meters, multiply them together to get the measurement of the area in square meters. Use a calculator if necessary. For example:

• 2.35m x 1.08m = 2.538 square meters (m²).

7. Round to a more convenient measurement. If you get a long decimal as an answer, for instance 2.538 square meters, you’ll probably want to round it to a number with fewer digits, for instance 54 square meters. In fact, since you probably didn’t measure correctly down to the tiniest fraction of a meter, the last digits probably aren’t accurate anyway. In most cases, you can round to the nearest centimetre (0.01m).

• Whenever you multiply two numbers with the same units (for instance, meters), the answer is always in the form of that unit squared (m², or square meters).

• Price is king – ensure that you price your product or service as low as possible in order to stand a chance of winning a tender.
• Be precise; when the product supplied is R101-26 then state it in the tender response as R101-26 and not as R101-00 or even R102-00. Small differences like these can result in large amounts that can be lost, depending on the size of the tender.
• Ensure that all the costs of delivering the product is taken into consideration; double check your pricing – omitting something small can come back and bite you later on.
• Confirm prices of goods with your suppliers – prices can change very quickly due to increases in fuel prices or exchange rate fluctuations.
• Always remember to add Value Added Tax (VAT) at 14% to your price especially when it relates to Government tenders. Most tenders state that the price must include VAT.
• Ensure that all other applicable taxes are included in the tender price.
• The most important piece of advice on Pricing: never bid too low or too high;
  • Bid Evaluation Committees are well informed and they will know if a bid is too low or too high;
  • Bidding too low or too high might lead to a tender response being disqualified or marked as non-responsive;
• Pricing can be influenced by law as well – there are several industries in South Africa, such as the cleaning industry, which has minimum wages payable to employees;
• A suggestion is that if your usual mark-up is 25% then tender perhaps at 18% to 20%. Remember that you are going to save on direct costs as well as on other expenses such as advertising, telephone costs and much more. Use these savings to lower your price.
• Remember that in Government tenders you are going to be scored on your price and currently price counts for 80 out of 100 points for tenders less than R1 million and 90 out of 100 points for tenders with a value of more than R1 million. The bidder with the lowest price receives the most points.