Passion cements company’s future
Quantity surveyor building an empire
AMBITIOUS and driven, Inga Vanqa, has fast-tracked his business from a humble garage to a R200-million government building in just three years, to make it in the highly technical world of quantity surveying and project management.
While still relatively at the beginning stages of what he hopes will be a long and fruitful entrepreneurial journey, the 33-year-old owner and managing director of Queenstown-based Inga Vanqa Quantity Surveyors and Project Managers, is intent on scaling new heights in the construction industry.
And to help him in his cause, Vanqa won R1-million in loans and grants to help get him there after he was crowned 2016 winner of the South African Breweries (SAB) KickStart Boost programme two weeks ago.
To add even more significance to his achievement, he was named winner in Sandton during Global Entrepreneurship Week.
And participation in entrepreneurial developmental programmes is one of the keys Vanqa ascribes to the growing success of his company, which offers quantity surveying, construction project management and green-building consulting services.
“The company has considerably increased its capacity – and ability – to procure more capital work since my participation in the programme,” he said.
Vanqa, who was born in Mthatha and moved to Queenstown at the age of 10, said he had started his business from the garage of his parents’ house in 2013, from where he had managed to endure a very tough first year in business – and still record some growth.
“That first year after I opened the business it was extremely difficult, as with all new businesses, clients are often reluctant to work with someone who they are not familiar with in a particular industry. However, things have gotten better as the company grew,” Vanqa said.
Vanqa, the sole owner of the company, employs five permanent professionals and four part-time employees – most of whom are young people, which Vanqa appreciates as he says it creates a youthful environment in his workplace.
He matriculated from Queen’s College Boys High in 2000, and immediately set about building his career.
In 2001, he moved to Port Elizabeth, where he enrolled for a BTech in quantity surveying at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), which he completed in 2004.
He spent the next few years working for two quantity surveying firms in East London and Johannesburg, before moving back to the Bay, where he enrolled at NMMU to do an MSc in project management, which he completed in 2012.
Vanqa said the company was currently working on a few projects, including two office blocks in Aliwal North and Queenstown, with construction on both projects ongoing, while at PE’s Coega IDZ, he is working on a project to construct a warehouse, which is in the design stage and construction set to commence next year.
In Aliwal North, he is leading the construction of a state-of-the-art department of public works building valued at R200-million and his firm is both the principal agent and quantity surveyors for the project.
Vanqa offered five tips to aspiring self-employed quantity surveyors and entrepreneurs. Firstly, he urged them to study as much as possible in order to become qualified and an expert in the field and to gain as much experience as they could.
“Have a vision for you business, your career and your future and develop the ability to persevere and to never give up, especially when conditions are tough.
“Constantly keep an eye open for opportunities, such as the SAB programme, and where you find them, make the most of them,” Vanqa said.