Tweet

What Do You Need To Do Before Tendering For Business?

Written by:

Article Overview: You now have a business large enough to go out and look for more business. You’ve found some great RFP (Request For Tender) and you want to go ahead and bid for some more work. So what should you have done before hand?

What Do You Need To Do Before Tendering For Business?

You now have a business large enough to go out and look for more business. You’ve found some great RFP (Request For Tender) and you want to go ahead and bid for some more work. So what should you have done before hand?

An old adage that I try and remember is that preparation, preparation and preparation make a great job seem easy. It is a sad fact that many companies jump into bidding or tendering for more work and they are simply not ready. So what should you do before you write that all important tender?

Most importantly you have to ensure that your business can actually undertake the project and complete the work whilst making a profit. Seems simple doesn’t it – but even very large companies have bid on and won projects that have lost them millions of dollars/pounds. Look up the Post Office Pathway project in the UK and see how that nearly bankrupted both the Post Office and the companies undertaking the work.

Secondly you need to understand where your company stands with respect to your competitors. Are they more likely to win the project? Can you work with one of them in order to have more chance of winning the project?

Now look at the risks and rewards appertaining to the project? List your strengths and weaknesses and see if the RFP plays to your strengths. You need to be 100% certain that you are going to be able to make a profit, and hopefully advance your company, should you win the bid.

Next you need to prepare your bidding environment. Most proposals require some standard documentation such as company and product information and staff CV’s/Resumes. You should have these to hand.

Lastly prepare your company. You need to know what bidding strategy you will be using. Are you going to bid low and provide a minimal solution or do you want to provide a great solution with all the “bells and whistles” and bid correspondingly high? Not all bids are won by the lowest bidder – many look at the quality of the bid itself.

Now read through the RFP in detail and ensure that you understand it and have enough staff and resources to not only prepare the proposal but also complete the winning project. Good luck.

Related Articles
  SME's - Is tendering harmful to SME's?
  SME's - why tendering is bad for business
  Handling PQQ’s in the Correct Manner
  MERX: An Evolution to a Broader Market (MERX Profile)
  SMEs - a South African perspective on SME start up and growth

Article Tags: cambria, compatibility, endif, gb, gte, math, mso, priority, true name, xml, zoom



Related Forum Posts
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Exclusive: Interview with Results - Hi Forum Members, I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles). As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business. This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business. I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months. At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews. I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum. If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM. Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
Re: HOw to market a B2B consulting company - [quote="zohahunt77":428owzbi]Hi, I was wondering if anyone can tell me the difference between B2B and B2C. I don’t know about b2b marketing but I have done marketing so know things about it. I will suggest you to take online services which will spread your business all over web network. Online marketing is the best way to market any business.[/quote:428owzbi] B2B = Business to Business - You are marketing to other businesses. B2C = Business to Consumer - You are marketing to consumers.
English teachers learn Japanese as Interns - Yasunori, what about the many students that leave N. America to teach English in Japan. They may want to learn Japanese (maybe Business Japanese is a bit different) and the Japanese Business Culture.
New Study - Women prepare better business plans - I found an article in Business Week and I found this quite interesting. [quote:ka7lg35i]Who Prepares Better Business Plans, Men or Women? A new study based on four years of data from men and women in a training program for microenterprises finds that they come out the same in quality scores. "However, women scored significantly better on the presentation of their plan to judges," conclude the study's authors, Ronald G. Cook, Paul Belliveau, and Christine Lentz of Rider University, in a paper presented at a recent meeting of the Small Business Institute. [/quote:ka7lg35i] What do you guys think?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Leading from Authenticity is a Beautiful Thing

RULE YOUR BUSINESS LIKE A SHINE STAR

The Digital Diet by Daniel Sieberg

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.