Houseman General Contractors Limited
CORPORATE SCENE
By Marketing Africa Crew
Marketing Africa crew held a discussion with Mr . Evans Onyancha , Chief Executive Officer , Houseman General Contractors Limited on the company journey from inception and how the company is coping in the face of the pandemic . Here-under are the excerpts .
Kindly share with us a brief on Houseman General Contractors . When did you set the ball rolling and what motivated you to take such a bold move ?
Houseman General Contractors Limited is a construction firm dealing with all aspects of construction , including excavations , building works , interior finishes , and renovations . We provide affordable building solutions under one roof .
Houseman was registered way back in 1996 , driven by the fact that people were struggling to get honest multi-talented technicians who could handle several aspects in solving common home problems like leaking taps , simple electrical problems , noisy beds , leaking roofs , and broken gates among many other challenges . There was dire need to conveniently provide all these solutions under one roof , and that ’ s the gap we moved in to fill .
Construction of anything substantial is actually a hard tackle especially if it is not your regular line of work . Mobilizing money , assembling materials , technicians , and supervising works can be a nerve cracking experience and very costly if not well heeled . We therefore come in to help make construction an exciting journey for our clientele . Together with relevant consultants , coupled with over 25 years ’ experience in construction , we handle all requirements in a project from start to end . Just show us the land , provide approved drawings ( where applicable we assist in follow up on approvals ), there-after just make site visits to witness progress . And you only pay us for fully approved and executed works ; we undertake turnkey projects !
What was the company dream at inception ? In your view is this dream being actualized ? What plans do you have in the pipeline for the future ?
At inception the company dream was to become a household name in providing home repair solutions . The dream has however evolved and taken a new turn considering challenges associated with repair and maintenance services . The biggest challenge in repairs is monitoring works . In most cases as the contractor you are literally at the mercy of the technician diagnosing a machine ’ s fault or whatever it is that needs fixing .
One of my cheeky technicians diagnosed a pump as completely burnt and beyond repair , information I quickly passed on to my client who then approved the quotation for a brand new pump . We bought the new pump and instructed the very same technician to install . He instead refurbished the old one with neatly done paintwork making it look as good as new . We invoiced for the work .
Soon the client was informed about the outright lie after the technician failed to keep his ‘ promise ’ with his accomplices , among them my clients ’ own employees , who let the cat out of the bag . It was a very embarrassing moment as I was refunding cash for the new pump with my technician having bolted .
This was the turning point on equipment repair business for me . Henceforth I became the fundi on the ground not trusting anyone with diagnostic work , getting overwhelmed in the process for lack of delegation , a model I could not sustain . This forced me to move into full construction as the product is tangle and easy to account for irrespective of the numerous challenges there-in . And now I can say yes our dream is being actualized , though we have room to do much more .
Our envisioned future is to be an established real estate developer where we acquire land , subdivide , construct and sell quality finished homes at affordable rates to our people . Towards this end , we have concentrated our effort on establishing the necessary infrastructure to handle such mega projects . We noted excavation , transportation , and carpentry take a very huge junk of the budget in any construction project . We therefore decided to buy all necessary equipment to help reduce on construction cost and become competitive in the ever fluid real estate industry . For now we are concentrating on construction work as we await the right moment to pounce .
You have been around for quite a while now . What would you say about the business ecosystem in as far as SME ’ s are concerned . Would you say the landscape is more enabling ? Suffocating ?
We started business in the era of typewriters , phone booths , manual mails among many other inhibiting old school habits and gadgets . Boda boda ’ s were a preserve of agricultural extension officers , Kenya Power , and city council water meter readers . The landscape has now tremendously changed . With digitization in the industry , solutions for
18 MAL39 / 20 ISSUE