Its our wish for our members to graduate from small businesses to medium and big businesses. One surefire way to the top is through access to tenders and winning bids! Here are some basics you need to master.

The First Rule=Meet set requirements on tender advert.A look at most tenders reveal the following requirements;

1) Registered company

2) Tax compliance,

3) Evidence of ability to deliver

4) Office premises existence,

5) Other legal requirements.

First Stage of Review

1) Do you meet set advert requirements? Submission on due date, submission in correct format, registration and compliance issues etc. Pretty basic box ticking exercise which thousands of bidders meet.

2) If yes you go to second stage Second Stage:

Quality Review

The over view of tenders is the ability to deliver advertised services or products at the best value. You need to provide proof of your abilities through references. You should also be of good standing in society.

1) Value for money analysis: Can you deliver value for $? Cost & price models. Have you bid with the least reasonable costs? The least cost does not necessarily mean value as someone with a higher price than yours can be selected.

2) Risk Analysis: Are you not a briefcase company? Can we visit your site and case studies too?

3) Presentation: How are your papers presented? Although not part of most checklists, still plays an important role.Remember for each tender advertised, there are thousands of bidders,Some more experienced than you!

4) ISO Certification: Although not a requirement on most bids, but in some cases may hep you earn a few points ahead of competition.

So you have to go the extra mile to win it.This is Olympics Stuff…You vs Serena Williams on a tennis match,Or you vs Lewis Hamilton on a formula 1 contest,Odds heavily stacked against you,

Prepare for tenders

The starting points~

1) National Budgets

2) Company financial statements

3) NGO websites

4) You can add more

You should not wait for newspapers to flight ads, its too late to respond,Later this year, Minister Prof Mthuli Ncube will allocate funds for 2022 expenditure ~ Do analyse allocations and start preparations!If 500 bridges are to be constructed, then be ready,The direction of funds flow is as follows;

Strategy,

Budgets,

Tenders,

If you skip strategy and budget then you have missed the train.

Prepare to fail 1000x Yes you will be rejected countless times but its part of the game,You gain experience although it comes at a cost of time, stationery and stress,After submitting a bid, always ask for feedback ~Who won? Why? Why did you lose?Most tenders have a briefing session where losers are addressed. Newbies often ignore this important feedback session~So how do you learn?

Tenders & Innovations

1) We have covered how to look for information before tenders arrive,

2) Secondly consider partnerships in bidding for tenders~very innovative as it can plug gaps in your entity,

3) There is growing interest in promoting new businesses, youth owned business and gender considerations. So irrespective of experience ~you may dribble seasoned players to the top.

Corruption

As a seasoned reviewer of tenders worth more than US$300m, Iam yet to bump into corruption as I have been part of teams where we have done our best in terms of transparency,However from as far back as 2003, heard of stories of 20% kickbacks… I won’t talk of something I have little knowledge of. I however strongly advise members to avoid kickbacks!

Disappointments

Zim businesses highly regarded across the region and yet few take interest.In one tender worth €9m across the borders, we had a Zimbo firm coming up as the top candidate.Impressive presentation,But when I checked compliance with audited reports submission, they had just submitted a financial report!So €9m went up in smoke for an audit that costs $5000? Unbelievable….I have also been on the side of preparing tenders and its a laborious and time consuming exercise.You can work 22 hours per day non stop, doing so for a week or so and still lose it,Every detail matters; words, grammar, page nos, images, font colour and size etc.

And if shortlisted, cleanliness of premises, staff clothing and demeanor, location, your presentation style etc. This is Olympics Stuff, preparation over years pays off.References:Look for how Strive Masiyiwa won the Mascom licence in Botswana.Weeks and weeks of preps,Tonnes of rehearsals,Kutsanya nekutsanya

Young adults say Its no kid’s games.

So prepare your business for future tenders. Look at basic requirements for tenders and tick them against your current business.

All the best

One of the advantages we enjoy as a forum is the ability to carry out researches and getting assistance from thousands of our members. We paused the following question;

Is mining success a spiritual matter?

We cover unedited responses from our members below;

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This is a big question because everyone who is doing gold nowadays have to do the rituals to get the metal, but it defies science because when you do an assay report it will state that your place have 0.75g per tonne but once you do the spiritual you can get as much as a kg from a tonne, saka izvi zvinhu zvine chivanhu chakasimba ,in chegutu we hear they is a woman there who is helping the gold miners but her condition is you suck her breasts and the results are overwhelming but the repo effect is that at a certain time the pit will curve in and kill someone then the process starts again. Gold is spiritual for us blacks but for our white investors they put in a lot of millions and they achieve their desired targets

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This is real chief I once encountered a similar case wr someone had a dream was forewarned and coached on what to.say to the snake he will encounter but being human as he was after retrieving +/-2kilos a huge snake appeared as he ran for dear life he dropped the loot and it was picked up by a small boy.

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Yaaa after doing all that sango rine varidzi. Kana kuMasvingo harurwa chaidzo tinototenda kuvadzimu. Kkkkkkk

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Isusu we were(and still) doing explorations mumakomo. One funny thing is when we were growing up taitombopinda muninga pasina chataisangana nacho but izvezvi when we are doing explorations togona kusangana nemapere kana nyoka but were just advised kuti tisadziuraye kana kudzinga mapere. Leave them in peace . I am Christian handiiti zvekukumbirira more so the problem with kwaNyashanu these days is most of the elders who knew about kukumbirira varidzi venzvimbo kwacho they are now Christian’s so totoshaya kuti unokumbirira uchitii…

I was relieved when one of our elders said wagara uri Nyashanu so there is nothing too spiritual that may deter you to explore or mine. Ndagara ndiri muridzi wenzvimbo

. So I think it depends nekuti ndirikupi…I can’t do the same in Dotito or Nyanga though. So my point is gold is spiritual reason being you move a tone of dirt to extract something precious which is the opposite with quarry or limestone

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Even the prophets who are into mining are doing the rituals, they just sponsor the bira and they wont attend the ceremonies but in my view sponsoring those ceremonies you are also partaking in the rituals

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Gold is very spiritual.. kune chinonzi chibhachi in mining… Kune vanhu vekutoti mukashanda navo hamubati kana cent, i have had such encounters

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Minerals have always been spiritual. Was at Murowa Diamonds at some time. Kuchiitwa Bira ne the mines because mvura yanga isisaperi. Whites invest millions but chivanhu kana chapindira they take the traditional route

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Brian MathonsiKuti ma China nevarungu vanofunga kudaro futi?

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There is a very big misconception with rituals or traditional practices associated with mining which are regarded as kuromba…Im sure we are all zimbabweans and growing up there are things done which we still do not understand to this day in age, however those things are done anyways and they have no biblical meaning to them or rather a christian pass in their conduct.Kunorohwa makuva, chenura, nyaradzo, vamwe vanoperekwa, mwana anokweshwa nhova, kurapa buka nekuisa mwana nepamusoro pembariro dzepamukova etc…Hausi hurombwa uhu. Sometimes zvinhu kuti zvikufambire unonzwa kuti enda unotsika pachivanze chekumba kwenyu, meaning just go home…The so called rituals or mabira and the like that are attributed mukuromba can be fruitful or not

… Sometimes mines collapse pasina kana ritual, at times mines make money pasina ritual… Its all about what you as an individual believe when you go forth. Chero ukaita mukristu unogona kutova murombo well because as christians you lack nothing in christ saka thats another debate for another day.Chamunomboti kuromba chiii chaizvo? Ndikaenda kubira ndaromba? Tikabika doro remvura taromba here? Tikasuma varidzi venzvimbo taromba here? Hameno

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I will comment on this from a Christian perspective . Wealth on its own is very spiritual. Chanetsa manje with our modern day Christian anoita zvinhu at average kkk not full throttle . Kana wafunga zvegold or making money in general kana uchinamata unotogara uchipisa . And then vaya vanoita zvemushonga zvinhu zvacho zviri organised that yu continues coming back to renew power. It’s never a once off deal. ZvemaAncestors I might not be very informed about it and I wouldnt want to call my forefathers demons but zvemari in general zvine maspirit behind. That’s why as Christians before going into a new market yu need to pray so you r dominant in that territory coz ukasvika imomo nyangwe wakarongeka sei asi mune madominant spirits unoshamisika business richitadza kufire .whatever yu do do it well 

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Kerita Tawana ChogaJust be a buyer simple you don’t need that

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Tendai Shumba MhaziI will write in Shona so I can best express myself. Nyaya ye mining inotoda kukumbirira varidzi venzvimbo. Some go to the extent yekubika doro rekuzodira pa mine pacho kuti mukwanise kuchera nekuwana zvicherwa. Izvo zvekuyamwana mazamu zvave zvemushonga yakaipa.Pazvicherwa panosangana vanhu vakasiyana. Kune vanongo decider kuti ndave kuda kuita zve gold because ndine mari yekutenga equipment etc plus zviri kuunza mari. Kozoita vane mashavi avo echivanhu anosanganisira mashavi euvhimi etc, mashavi awa anotori pavari kuti avashavire gold vagare zvakanaka. Ava strictly follow zvarehwa nevashavi vavo saka munoona vanototenga zvechivanhu zvinoenderana nenzvimbo yacho yavari kunoshandira eg chambwa chavo, fodya etc voenda kunotaura nevaridzi venzvimbo kuti ndini nhingi ndauyawo munzvimbo menyu kuzochera zvicherwa. Vanenge vachitokumbirira kuti zvavafambira zviitike nekuti dzimwe nzvimbo dzamunosvika dzine mweyayakaipa inoda kusudurudzwa or varidzi venzvimbo vanodawo respect. Haungosvike pa yard pemunhu woita madiro ka, unototaura kuti ndiwe ani uye wavingei. Ava vanoita izvi hauvawani mu class yemashurugwi nekuti zve violence nekuurayana havaite izvozvo nekuti vanotevedzera magariro echivanhu chavanenge vave kuita panzvimbo iyoyo. Ndine hama yangu ari kuita mari kuma mines kwake simply by following mitemo yechivanhu zvisina mushonga mukati. Imi munogona kuenda kunotsvaga gold asi mugokundwa kuita mari neane mashavi ake anongomuudza kuti chera apa unoriwana gold. Imi muchingochera pese pese blindly. Munokundwa nekuti pane vane chipo chacho chinovaudza kuti apa pane gold saka chera ipapo. You are right when you say it’s spiritual even though most will deny that simple fact. I’ve seen it with my own two eyes and know what I’m talking about. Hazvina kuromba mukati, just simple chivanhu back to basics.