Civil Engineering September 2021 | Vol 29 No 8

52 September 2021 Civil Engineering engaged with other companies to include them in their workshops and training sessions. Pink Africa also looks for avail- able training courses to upskill these young professionals. In addition, I try to bring in experi- enced individuals on specific projects to help with reviews and to mentor our young engineers, especially in areas that are not my speciality. What is your message to young engineers? NN I remember starting out in the industry, feeling nervous and unsure of the direction I would like my career to move in. As a young professional it can sometimes become discouraging, especially at present given the challenges facing both the industry and the country. I would like to remind young engineers that you don’t need to have it all figured out right at the beginning – I certainly didn’t. It’s important to stay focused and re- member why we chose this industry in the first place – civil engineering is a noble profession and we have the ability to make a huge impact on society and improve the quality of life for so many people. I would encourage young engineers to get involved in the industry as much as they can through organisations like SAICE and CESA so that they can grow and make a difference. It also helps to build a network of other engineers that you can liaise with and form a support structure for each other. Identify ways that you can be part of the solution and create hope for others. What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learnt in starting a business? NN The biggest lesson for me was learning to say no. I’ve wasted a lot of time and money because I felt like I had to take every job that came my way without weighing up how it would impact on my time, cashflow and other projects. Being a small company you inevitably end up having a client base that extends into the smaller private sector, some of whom can be unreasonably demanding of your time and input. In these cases, it is very important to weigh out the work commitment expected from you against the remuneration you are receiving and risk implications. The second lesson I learnt is that time is money, so it is vital that you find ways to work efficiently, both in terms of general operations and project output. You must ensure that you have all your systems in place to maximise the time that you have. Inefficiency costs you money and as a small company every cent counts. How do you think other industry players can help support SMEs? NN A lot of big corporates struggle with overheads, and smaller companies are able to put out small sections of work much faster at a lower cost. It would therefore ben- efit large companies to partner with SMEs in order to be able to tender at competitive rates while also providing those SMEs with work opportunities and exposure to their systems and technologies. By contracting work out to SMEs when needed, these large organisations don’t have to bear the cost of keeping a fulltime skilled employee. Pink Africa has been fortunate in that there are a few companies that assist us in this way. Members of the Pink Africa team on site Pink Africa employs four fulltime staff members