BlueBook???

[Sam Moore]

The Blue Book/BB Bidding, Im new to commercial bidding and looking at jumping in there with about 400 other contractors competing for the same jobs... any tips, do or dont's on BB? Figure there has to be users on here

 

[jmellc]

I had a free listing in BB for awhile, started to do a paid one. But it finally dawned on me I was already getting no work from it, just ITB's. I spent lots of time sorting out the e mails, getting prints, doing quotes, etc. But 1 GC told me I'd get very few jobs, as I had to ask for deposits & few GC's will pay them. I'm a very little guy with little cash flow. So I cancelled out with it.

If you have cash reserves, you may be able to get some work with this. See if they will give you a trial free listing.

 

[sameguy]

I do not know what blue book is; but what is happening around here, all you have to do is take your bid cut it in half and send that price in. You could still be high how ever!

 

[nhfire77]

For me lots of ITB, lots of time wasted reading them, IMO.

If you are a large shop with estimators on staff, that would be different.

 

[jmellc]

I do not know what blue book is; but what is happening around here, all you have to do is take your bid cut it in half and send that price in. You could still be high how ever!

Blue Book is a sort of registry for contractors. when GC's seek bids, they send them to Blue Book registry & we get ITB's on the projects. With a free trial listing, nothing to lose. But I didn't get a single job, even from free listing. Many of them were too far away, too big for my small firm, too expensive to do without deposits, etc. I was told that with paid membership, customers can access any listed contractor who also does service work.

 

[roger]

I had a BB in my office (we were in it) for years and never opened it, I think this is pretty much the norm for everyone.

Roger

 

[Sam Moore]

Sounds like it may be a waste of time... I've seen one project i wanted to bid on (local one) and there were 388 other ECs already bidding on same project and most from out of state...it wasnt even electrical, it was trenching in 8,000ft of waterline...