[TN Cleaning Services Ltd]

Hi Everyone,
Can anybody give me some useful advice on how to tender for work?
I haven't really bothered with it in the past but think should start.
Do people consider you more if you are a LTD company?
Thanks,
Tim

[Denise l]

Hi tim

Depends on what you want to tender for. If its council or government work they want 3 years accounts history to look at or a letter from your bank stating your banking history, this puts you lower down on their points system. You would have to pass the PQQ questions first before you were invited to tender but you can find tenders available on Publictenders.net or Sell2Wales and you can put your postcode in for your area. If its builders work you can tender anyway, you just have to pass all their H&S questionaires but be prepared to wait 60 days for your money and have CIS deducted. In our area the Welsh Government run tender workshops for small business free, don't know about your area though. Its expensive if you pay for courses.

Denise

[TN Cleaning Services Ltd]

Thanks Denise.

[Mike_Boxall]

Hi Tim

It can be very difficult for smaller sole traders or partnerships to win some of the public sector tenders eg schools, council buildings, etc. Anything over a certain value, has to be openly advertised in the Official Journal of the European Journal (OJEU) which many companies keep track on through the websites already mentioned. This means you can often get in excess of 100 contractors applying for it and is generally difficult for smaller contractors to compete on.

Again, talking generally, bigger clients offering bigger contracts do prefer dealing with Limited companies because it is easier to check their accounts to make sure they have the resources to deliver the contract. To get into some of the public sectors contracts it's often easier to try and do one off bits of work for them first and build your contacts like that.

Regards

Mike

[TN Cleaning Services Ltd]

Thanks for that Mike

[Nick Vassilev]

Also don't forget many companies/public bodies would only deal with contractors having certain accreditations and turnover.