[drive surgeon]

looking to apply for a tender. how do you go about pricing  it?  how do i know how much work they will be needing doing?  it does not sound easy pricing a contract. you could end up doing yourself. it would be ok if they said they will need you for 3 days a week but if its just a 3 year contract to remove graffiti on the spot at their beckoning call how the hell do you price it/  :

[Pristine Clean]

Tenders generally get handed out, advertised on site.

They will have alot more detail than a standard cleaning of a driveway.

You also need to know how to cost everything. From chemicals, insurance, disposables etc effectively.

They will generally give you an area size that is to be cleaned. i.e. 8 jobs per year in such and such an area. So if they have not provided this, you can give them an estimate for square feet to be cleaned.

For example

5 square feet of graffiti £150
10 square feet of graffiti = £250

You must have some kind of formula for working out costs, labour and thats how you would price. If its an all in area then you have to work out on average how much you would be cleaning.

I hope this helps a little


Dave

[drive surgeon]

thanks dave. i do graffiti removal ar schoold etc so i know how to price but have never tendered.

[Adam P]

can someone explain what tenders are, how they works, and how i can start finding them? 

[cleaner-exteriors]

tenders are a contract which is open to anyone to tender for, you are given details of the job and you price up. A lot of local authority work comes up this way and depending on the size of the contract there is usally criteria for being the winning company ie most councils will only consider you if you have 3 or more years of books and also a good cash flow so they know you can afford to work the tender for the length of the contract.
Have a look at www.publictenders.net its free and updated daily

[Blast Off Stoke]

tenders are upcoming contracts usually with a council.they can be for 1 year and extend to usually 3 years or similar.
The tender states what services are required and the responding companies put in their bids,they say that they dont just go on the lowest price but on various factors like years of trading ,experience ,h&s etc.

Low value tenders ( about £25,000 and under) dont usually require you to show any book keeping and are more accessible to the smaller company.
Your local county council website may have a list of current tenders availabe it may be listed under procurement too.

For other tenders you can google for them ( try 'supply2gov' ),usually bringing up websites to which you have to register and even may have to subscribe to to get decent results this option may not be suitable for the small contractor.

[drive surgeon]

to be honest i have just turned down a council contract as its too much hassle. and if you build your lifestyle around the contract when they cut it your screwed!  loads of my mates have gone bust after the council have cut their contracts.   your better off finding the work yourself and your not losing out on each job.

[cleaner-exteriors]

not sure i agree with that ds for a start if you had a big contract with council you would still have your normal work so would probably employ some one to help, then if you lost the contract you would have to lose your employee but you hopefully wouldnt go bust, remember business is about taking calculated risks, for example on this forum one company could make it very big ie m-clean, he only has two clients but if he had not taken the risk he would probably be sitting at home scraping a living, but instead he has a chance to really make some good money and grow his business.
My personal opinion is that there are vast opportunites in pressure cleaning, it is still a reletivley untapped market but we all need to get past relying on the domestic trade and just plug away to get the commercial contracts, make them the bread and butter of your business and treat domestics as a nice bonus

[Andy Foster]

to be honest i have just turned down a council contract as its too much hassle. and if you build your lifestyle around the contract when they cut it your screwed!  loads of my mates have gone bust after the council have cut their contracts.   your better off finding the work yourself and your not losing out on each job.

If it is in fact a contract then it will be for a specified length of time and provided you did not do anything to cause the contract to be terminated then you would have that work until the end of the term period.  I don't understand the worry of losing the contract and being 'screwed'?

[drive surgeon]

well i turn over in excess of a grand a week working on my own so is a contract where i have to employ someone else worth the risk?  i dont trust anyone to do the work as good as myself.  i have been warned about taking on staff by lots of people and its a big worry/ 

[Andy Foster]

If you get the contract, then it is not a risk as the work is there already for the extra member of staff, also if you train them well and have regular checks in place then quality will not be an issue.

If a grand a week is what you want then why are you even considering it?

[BDCS]

Over a grand a week  You must be a millionaire, I don't even get near that   

[drive surgeon]

im sure you do bdcs or you would not be in the game. 

[drive surgeon]

i just dont know whether to risk expanding. the bigger you are the harder you fall.

[gordonswindows]

And that is exactly why I started employing

What if i fell? became ill or whatever there would be no money coming in

A local w/c had an operation and was unable to work for six weeks, me and a couple of other locals covered his work while he recovered, we didn't charge him anything and this meant he could meet his bills etc

But

so many of the others wouldn't lift a finger and one even tapped up his customers

A grand a week for yourself is fine but god forbid something happens and you are unable to work for a while...what would you do? what would your customers do?

Employing is a pain and you are right nobody I don't care how good they are nobody does it as well as you do.

What happens when you have too much work for one and you begin saying no to customers this soon gets around that you don't need or worse don't want their work and they soon start going elsewhere perhaps to a newbie or a competitor

Not my place to say what you should or shouldn't do, just how I see it

Gordon

[BDCS]

Would you want DS as your boss  He turns down council contracts - something people would give a limb for  People run their business how they see fit and none of us are the same

[Andy Foster]

How did you get to be in the position to turn down the contract if you hadn't already tendered for it?
I'm confused.

[stalwart]

Would you want DS as your boss  He turns down council contracts - something people would give a limb for  People run their business how they see fit and none of us are the same

Been trying for one with my local council for 3 yrs now,join the very long Q,if it does come up i'll rip there arms off for it

[drive surgeon]

because it involved removing fly posters also and i have no experience in that field and it was a good way from my home, few reasond really.

[Andy Foster]

because it involved removing fly posters also and i have no experience in that field and it was a good way from my home, few reasond really.

So did you turn it down or did you just not apply or it?
If you applied for it and were given it but decided it was not for you then you must have had to put in some sort of tender.