Tell me about Port Commercial Properties and the work you do.
Port Commercial Properties is a brokerage specialising in commercial property marketing, including development marketing. Our current commercial project is the marketing of The Pinnacle Building — a high-rise in the Cape Town CBD.
What are the biggest challenges facing your industry?
Load-shedding poses a significant threat to all our commercial clients as it hampers their business operations. We find in the office market that buyers and tenants are gravitating towards buildings that are not on the load-shedding schedule, given that they are on hospital grids and the like.
Buildings that are not on the hospital grids are subject to decreases in demand for space.
How did you end up doing the work you do?
I started working in residential development after university. It wasn’t what I expected at all, but I have found that there are many exciting things happening in this sector that I hadn’t anticipated but enjoy thoroughly.
In 2015, I founded Port Commercial Properties and haven’t looked back since.
One of my proudest moments was launching the sale of The Pinnacle Building due to the large scope of the project — about R250m in sales.
What are your thoughts on the work-from-home trend?
I think it is multifaceted. It can be a tug of war between business owners who want to have control over their staff and employees who want to cut travel time and office distractions.
Where the individual business lands on this continuum depends on a number of factors, such as how competitive the market for employees is in that particular industry.
Take coding, for example, where there is a skills shortage and consequently competition for good coders in this market. Working from home is seen as a perk that employers are happy to use as an incentive, whereas administrative businesses don’t have this problem and owners have more power to cut down on work from home.
Other factors that business owners will point out is that it is hard to create a work culture without office time, and training staff in terms of juniors watching and listening to how seniors operate is also difficult.
My overall view is that businesses have to take a considered view about what will be best for their businesses in the long run, and not be caught up in the owners’ need for control or the employees’ need for a more leisurely lifestyle, which I think usually involves a hybrid model of working from home some days of the week and in the office on others.
What do you look for when recruiting people?
A good attitude in general. They have to have the value of customer service, but also an eagerness to learn and a good work ethic.
What is your go-to career advice?
Focus on making one customer happy at a time — when those add up you will have a successful career. If you disappoint a customer, which you will, try your very best to make it up to them. Learning what customers want will be pivotal to success in your career.
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