If you’re a tradie, it isn’t surprising if you think of the process of bidding for projects as a numbers game. You certainly are not alone in this thought, as most businesses within the construction industry typically win around a fifth of all the jobs that they produce bids for. This line of thinking, while understandable, can limit you into thinking that producing as many job bids as possible is the only way that you can grow your business, which isn’t the case.

Another way that you can grow your business is by aiming for much larger projects than you’re used to, as they are likely to be increasingly effective at bringing more cash in. If successful, such projects can bring your business better rewards, but they also present additional risks when compared with smaller jobs.

The risks presented by larger projects are often due to the intricate client requirements and bidding processes that such projects often introduce. These factors can be risky if your team are unaware of how to handle such complex processes, so it may be beneficial to ensure that your colleagues undertake training to upsurge their knowledge of these processes. On the other side of things, bigger projects usually command higher budgets and can greatly benefit your reputation within the industry because working on such jobs shows that your business can complete challenging work.

Why bidding for larger projects is so complicated

Bidding for bigger projects is completely different to bidding for small projects, this is due to the difference in the number of decision makers involved as small businesses will have one or two and big projects will have an entire team that can influence the decision. Large jobs usually have a variety of stakeholders involved as they are often for much bigger clients. The stakeholders involved in such projects usually includes architects, engineers, investors and supervision committees.

As each stakeholder that is involved in bigger projects has their own job role to complete, they all have their own individual priorities and thoughts on the project. For example, an engineer and a supervision committee will have completely different views on the project.

This is where the bidding process becomes complicated, as it’s important that your bid is produced with all the individual stakeholders and their priorities in mind. This is important because all of the stakeholders will be involved in deciding whether you win the job. At this stage it’s imperative to make sure you’re flexible, this is because you will likely have to attend several meetings and make any suggested amendments to your bid.

What you can do to win bigger jobs

#1: Reduce the probability of human errors

While you can often get lucky and work through errors without too much difficulty when you’re working on smaller jobs, you probably won’t be so lucky with larger projects. Making mistakes on your bids can unfortunately have serious consequences for your business in multiple ways. Mistakes can not only cause your profit margin to be slashed, but they can also be damaging your business’ status within the construction industry.

Human error is a significant risk during your bidding process if your business is still estimating and taking off using manual methods. While human error is normal, such errors can be expensive for your business if some materials are missed or counted more than once on your bid as this will cause your material and/or labour costs to be incorrect.

RapidBid’s software can minimise the likelihood of human error, this is because it allows you to take-off on screen and automatically builds an accurate list of the labour and materials required to carry out the job.

#2: Tailor your bids

In addition to ensuring that your bids are accurate, tailoring them is another great way to help your business target large projects.

Tailoring your bids to suit your client’s requirements is key to your success because it will give you an opportunity to include content that is relevant to all of the different stakeholders involved in the decision. In addition to including relevant content, you can also tailor your bid by ensuring that it is produced in the format that is preferred by your client.

#3: Make the most of your resources

Finally, another great way to help you win bigger projects is to find ways to get the most value out of your resources and save a few bucks at the same time. Identifying areas where you can achieve this during the bidding process will impress your client as you will show that you are capable of recognising such valuable opportunities and that your client’s best interests are important to you.

The following are great areas to review when looking for opportunities to get the most out of your resources and save some cash:

Your Project’s Schedule
Reviewing the schedule for your project will enable you to see if there is any way that you would be able to complete the job sooner than anticipated. When you’re looking over the schedule, if you find that you will be able to finish the project sooner, you can then work out how much cost can be saved on labour and/or materials.

Your Materials
The materials you need to carry out the job is another key area that you could potentially reduce your costs. When reviewing your materials, you could look at other products and investigate if any lower priced options could be more durable than your current choice.

Labour Costs
The costs you’ve allocated for labour is another area you could look at. Your spend on labour could be reduced if you bring in skilled workers that are able (and willing) to complete multiple job roles that are needed on site. This could reduce your costs as building an entire team of such workers will enable you to carry out all the necessary work, without the requirement for additional staff.