canesfan
Member
- Location
- United States
im working on starting my business, any pointer on bidding?
business input.
- Thread starter canesfan
- Start date
- Status
ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
Be High.
Do some homework.
Know what your costs are.
Expect not to be paid for 60 to 90 days.
Rake in the profits.:angel:
zbang
Senior Member
- Location
- Roughly 5346 miles from Earls Court
including those hidden/indirect costs that usually get missed (insurance on everything, the business cell phone, maintenance on the truck, depreciation, finance costs, etc etc).
Look at the Nolo Press books on starting and running a business; they're pretty good.
1- never believe a builder
2- get all your billing systems in place, get paid on the spot for service work from everyone no exceptions. I Have paper invoices and CC payment system.
3- don't low ball everything to get work and think I'll go up on the next one. People who shop only by price will always do that and will dump you in a second for a lower price.
4- know your cost of doing business, this will keep you from doing #3
2- get all your billing systems in place, get paid on the spot for service work from everyone no exceptions. I Have paper invoices and CC payment system.
3- don't low ball everything to get work and think I'll go up on the next one. People who shop only by price will always do that and will dump you in a second for a lower price.
4- know your cost of doing business, this will keep you from doing #3
controlled
Senior Member
- Location
- Bowmanville, Canada
- Location
- Massachusetts
Certainly you can choose to do that and many guys do, however you are in fact limiting the work available to you if you go that route.
That can work with homeowners and small businesses but will never fly for large companies.
growler
Senior Member
- Location
- Atlanta,GA
First off figure out what type of work you are going to do and know something about it.
If you do a big box store you are not going to get paid right off but if you don't have the money it's crazy to even think about doing large jobs.
Are you going to bid a kitchen remodel or a nuke power plant?
- Location
- Massachusetts
:thumbsup:
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
- Occupation
- EC
Many times if on a site owned by a company with multiple locations - the local site is not even able to pay you, you have to go through accounting dept at another location for payments.
canesfan
Member
- Location
- United States
Thanks guys. If i may ask, i know it comes down to location, whats the going rate for new construction and service call being used, how can i go about find a rate a being competative.
1793
Senior Member
- Location
- Louisville, Kentucky
- Occupation
- Inspector
One method to answer your question would be to call what will be your competition and ask them questions as if you are a potential customer. Then you need to figure out what your costs to do the same work would be.
I should have added that. This works only for service calls and small price jobs where your in and out quickly.
keith gigabyte
Senior Member
- Location
- New Kensington, Pa
bid high If you get every job you are too low..
- Status