Guides / Pricing and writing the bid
Should you bid? A bid or no-bid checklist for small crews
Decide in 15 minutes whether a public tender is worth bidding: fit, capacity, compliance, competition, price and the strategic reasons to bid anyway.
Short answer
Bid when you can meet every mandatory requirement, the work fits your trade, crew and area, you can deliver it for the whole term at a price that makes money, and you have a real chance against likely competitors. Skip tenders you can only meet by stretching. Bidding fewer, better-fitting tenders wins more than bidding on everything.
Every tender you bid costs you hours, sometimes days. A small crew can't afford to spend that on tenders it was never going to win. A short, honest check before you start saves more time than any template.
The 15-minute check
Answer these from a quick read of the tender. If any of the first four is "no", it's usually a no-bid.
1. Can we meet every mandatory requirement?
Licences, certifications, insurance limits, WorkSafeBC, bid security, a mandatory site meeting you can attend, references. If one is out of reach, can you fix it before closing, or ask the buyer to change it? If not, stop.
2. Is it our kind of work?
The same trade, at a scale you've done before, with the equipment you have or can reliably get. A janitorial firm that's never cleaned a hospital should think hard about a health authority contract with infection control standards.
3. Can we deliver it for the whole term?
Count the crew hours per week it needs and compare them with what you have free. A three-year contract that needs three new hires is a growth opportunity, but only if you can hire and train them by the start date.
4. Is it close enough?
Travel time eats margin on service contracts, and response times are often scored. If the site is two hours from your yard, price that honestly and ask whether you'd still win.
5. Can we make money at a price that could win?
Look at past awards for this buyer or similar work. CrewBid shows who has held similar contracts where we know it. If the going rate is below your cost, the answer may be no, or it may be a different way of doing the work.
6. Who else will bid, and why would we win?
Is there an incumbent who's done it well for years? Are larger firms likely to bid? Your advantage might be local presence, specialist experience, or simply caring more about a contract that's big for you and small for them. If you can't name a reason you'd win, that's useful information.
7. Is it worth it?
Weigh the contract's value and length against the time to bid. A five-year contract can justify two days of work. A one-off $8,000 job probably can't justify an RFP response with 12 attachments.
Reasons to bid anyway
Sometimes a no-bid on the numbers is still a yes:
- To get known by a buyer you want to work with long term. A professional bid and a debrief are an introduction.
- To practise on a smaller, simpler tender before a big one you care about.
- To build references in a type of work you're moving into.
Be deliberate about it and cap the time you spend.
Make it a habit
Write your answers down for every tender you consider, and note the result. After a year you'll see which kinds of tenders you actually win, which is the best guide to which ones to bid.
CrewBid's fit check does a first pass for you, flagging requirements in each bid that your business profile says you can't meet yet.
Where to go next
If it's a bid, start with how to read a tender. If it's a no-bid because you're not quite ready, subcontracting is a way into the same work.
Sources
Rules and forms change. Check the official page before you rely on a detail here.