Article provided by TradeWorld Business and HowToTender.com
There is a misconception that if you have a registered business you are ready to tender. This could not be further from the truth. People think that if they have a registered company, a tax clearance certificate and a B-BBEE certificate they are bound to be successful in responding to tenders. Unfortunately, there are other requirements that you have to comply with in order to be ready to tender.
During our training sessions, we always say that there are three things that a business must have or do in order to be a legal entity in South Africa. These three things are:
- the business must be registered with SARS for Income Tax purposes
- the business must have a bank account, and
- the business must have a fixed address.
These three items are only the beginning. Once you comply with these, you must actively start doing business. In other words, your business must be a running concern.
Other items that you will have to take into consideration to determine if you are ready to tender include:
- Will you be able to deliver on time? Once a tender has been awarded to you, there is no room for non-delivery. If you miss a delivery, the contract can be terminated and that could mean the end of your business. Government entities want to see that you will be able to deliver.
- Do you have enough financial resources to fulfil the contract? It might be that in order to deliver you will first have to invest a great deal of financial resources in stock.
- Is your work force up for the task? You will always find that government entities ask for CVs of employees that are going to be involved in the tender. Only if you have enough capable employees are you ready to tender.
- Is your business registered with a statuary body? Many industries in South Africa have statuary bodies and you have to be registered with these bodies in order to conduct business. Find out if your business falls into such a body and if so, register.
These are just some of the requirements that government entities will look at in order to decide if your business will be able to fulfil the requirements of the tender. Ensure that you have at least these minimum requirements under your belt before attempting to respond to tenders.
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