Construction Bidding: Look Out For These Factors Before Sending Your Proposal
- Monday, 25 July 2016
Whether it's a commercial, private or public construction project, construction firms and stakeholders need to be very thorough about what the project involves so that the resulting bid makes sense, and has the firm covered under any circumstances. This article will help you build a checklist you ought to have handy every time you are about to bid for a project.
Thoroughly check the project plans or existing property
Before putting pen to paper - or fingers to keyboard - make sure you have thoroughly checked the construction project plans or existing property. If it is a physical inspection, you should grab a small team and inspect the property for yourselves. Don't just rely on previous reports made by owners, or any other stakeholder. If there are existing reports, you can go through them and compare your findings to these documents.
If what you are looking at are just project plans, make sure to have a thorough chat with the architect, designer or engineer that created these plans. What kind of materials do they have in mind? Any details the architect shares before moving forward are golden.
Access and services
Visit the construction site and make sure to check ways to get to and from there. Also, what kind of access to services does the property have? Perhaps you'll be breaking ground in a new area that does not have access to utilities and other services yet. Check the plans at the public records office. Add any extra costs to your bid.
Talk about scope, budget and resources with property owners
In an initial meeting with the property owner or sponsor, make sure you talk about the timeline they have in mind, as well as a budget baseline. Evaluate these factors against the information you have collected prior to the follow up meeting.
Slack & Plan B
There will always be contingencies. Try to plan accordingly. Leave enough slack for your prices to still make sense. Specify a limit to your pricing. Should anything extra happen: extra features, more resources required, a shorter time span or whatever other factor, extra costs will be applied.
Be specific on your bid
Be very specific about what you are including in your bid. Anything else that is not included should have an extra cost, make sure to explicitly mention this on your bid.
Your bid should make sense for you according to this information, your work quality and resources. If for some reason your client rejects the bid, make sure to talk it over with the owner, and negotiate about factors that make sense. Don't sell yourself short, it will only hurt your bottom line and business, and the value perceived by the client.