The Government wants to give more of its money to small businesses in the form of public sector contracts. Have you thought of putting in a bid to secure a piece of the action for your business?
So keen is the Government to reach its goal of spending £1 in every £3 on SMEs by 2020 that it appointed a “guardian angel” in the form of Emma Jones MBE, Crown Representative for SMEs. Emma – an entrepreneur herself – is working away to streamline and improve the tendering process, determined to assist the small guys in getting a hearty slice of the big pies out there.
Whether your small business is involved in manufacturing, retailing or servicing there will undoubtedly be a niche for you somewhere in the public sector – from window-cleaning to providing protective clothing or designing letter-heads. The trick is in finding the right contract to tender for, and then jumping through the “red tape” hoops before putting in the perfect pitch.
TIPS FOR TENDERING
Although the process has been simplified in recent months (Pre-Qualification Questionnaires for contracts under £100,000 have been abolished, for example) make no mistake – tendering is a complicated and time-consuming process.
Tell yourself, if you find yourself becoming a bit frustrated with the process, that “if something’s worth doing it’s worth doing well”! Be prepared to be painstaking when it comes to meeting rules, information requests and deadlines. It helps to ensure that before you even go out there looking to tender that your firm has all the relevant requirements for things such as health and safety, equal opportunities, environmental and quality standards, in order.
If you find it all too much, hire one of the many expert consultants out there who specialise in helping businesses prepare tender bids.
Make sure you can deliver 100% on the contract you are bidding for, and be ready to prove it. Believing in yourself is as vital before you can make others believe in you!
A good starting point for finding the right opportunities to bid for is the Government’s online Contracts Finder. https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder. You can also send out feelers in your area to ascertain when local authority contracts are likely to come up for renewal, and keep your eye on newspapers and the trade press. There are numerous portal websites to explore which allow you to search for contracts, set up alerts and/or post your profile.
When deciding what to bid for, weigh up whether the job is financially worth the trouble, factoring in how much it will cost to prepare the bid, and how much it will impact on your other work. Do you have the required skills and other requirements to fulfil the contract at your disposal? Carefully study and make sure you understand all the specifications of the job you are bidding for. If anything is unclear, don’t be afraid to ask for clarification from the Council or whichever body you are tendering to.
Of course one of the most important aspects of your bid for a contract is the price. In a competitive market don’t be tempted to undersell yourself in an effort to win, and live to regret it. Instead of bidding cheaply, make sure you are bidding convincingly that you are offering the best value for money, bringing something extra to the job that makes your product or service better than the rest. Also make sure you demonstrate that you can manage the job cost-effectively.
If you’re looking for that springboard that can turn your small business into a larger enterprise, why not look to the public sector and make that bid on your future?