I just submitted the biggest proposal of my life, and I'm nervous!!

[thefed]

I own an air duct cleaning business in Ohio. So far I've done 2 schools for a local district, I just put my bid in on the 3rd one....it needs to be completed during xmas break.


I feel I was reasonable on the price, but the price I gave is the highest bid I've ever given (about $15k). I'm essentially doing 3 times the amount of work as the previous school, but for only double the price. I figured that out using per-unit price (19 rooftop units in this school vs. 6 interior units on the last one).

They are really happy with our work so far...the guy I deal with directly is always complimenting us, and I recently met HIS boss, the business manager, and HE complimented our quality work. I was at his house giving him an estimate on cleaning his ducts! TO MY KNOWLEDGE, they've never gotten any estimates to compare to mine for either school. He just seemed to like me 100% based on his impression from our website. The guy talked like we had the job(s) from day 1.

But even though the repoire is great, I'm nervous...mainly because of the $$ amount....it's very high for me. I could do the job for half of my estimate and still be satisfied with my $$ per hour, but I'd be cheating myself. I've been slowly raising prices til I see resistence on these commercial jobs...we'll see if this does it!

In March, I should be officially putting in my estimate on their biggest school - 360,000 sf!! After much thought, I think it's going to be about $50k or so....but I'll have to walk through again.


Regardless, this relationship looks to be very solid, but I'm very nervous. Just thought I'd share

[Grizz]

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it needs to be completed during xmas break.

As a customer, I expect to pay a little more during this time of year.

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I'm essentially doing 3 times the amount of work as the previous school, but for only double the price.

If your customer has any problems with the price, then repeat the quote.

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I was at his house giving him an estimate on cleaning his ducts!

Any chance he's looking for a freebie (kickback?)

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He just seemed to like me 100% based on his impression from our website. The guy talked like we had the job(s) from day 1.

Maybe it's because you present yourself well, and he trusts that you are good at what you do.

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I could do the job for half of my estimate and still be satisfied with my $$ per hour, but I'd be cheating myself. I've been slowly raising prices til I see resistence on these commercial jobs...we'll see if this does it!

Good, find out what the market will bear, and never ever be a lowballer. It can lead to you needing to cut corners, and that'll catch up to you and your good reputation every time.

[Texas Proud]

Do you have all the insurance you need?? I know my company required $1 mill and I think they just upped it to $2 mill...

Also, companies are used to paying more than residential... but you are correct... keep upping your bid until you get a 'sorry' and then lower it back down a bit... never expect to get all your bids or you are bidding to low...

[chinaco]

Fed,

TP is correct, you will have to fish for the competitions price.

One thing I was wondering was if bids for publicly owned organizations are made public? It seems to me that I have seem bids that have been awarded in the paper on certain types of jobs. Is there a way you can get historical information? It may be that I am thinking about construction projects.

My father had a construction contracting businesses. He was a small business owner and had less overhead. He could produce low bids and win jobs and make quite a it of money because he had less overhead.

You are getting business, and it sounds like you are making money... Good Job!

[Scrapr]

fed

is this Davis Bacon work? Prevailing wage? Might explain why they are happy with the price.

I know that when we have worked on schools it was DB. Higher costs, different work rules.

You don't want to have to go back and pay your employees more $$$$ 1 year after the job wraps up

[thefed]

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Originally Posted by Scrapr fed is this Davis Bacon work? Prevailing wage? Might explain why they are happy with the price. I know that when we have worked on schools it was DB. Higher costs, different work rules. You don't want to have to go back and pay your employees more $$$$ 1 year after the job wraps up

No, it isnt. I never have even heard of that til I just looked it up. Seems we charge more like 5x prevailing wages!

Texas Proud: We're at about 1.6 mil .

Chinaco: Im sure these things are public info, but not newspaper public. These jobs are being paid for out of 'slush' funds. They haven been getting other estimates because they are under the magic $$ amount. Once it hits xxx dollars, they have to get bids (they wotn tell me what xxx dollars is). However, they suggested I separate my bid for the big school coming up into multiple bids to ensure it slips under the limit.

[Texas Proud]

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Originally Posted by thefed However, they suggested I separate my bid for the big school coming up into multiple bids to ensure it slips under the limit.

Well, that would get them fired in my company without question.. won't even let you pack, they will send your stuff to you....

I don't think that the company was punished by being removed from the acceptable list, but if it looked like you were involved with it then it might...

[Scrapr]

fed

I'm not sure you understand prevaling wage. Generally, it is based on union wage rates for the area. Each job will have a large binder with job functions and the set wage rate for that particular job. There are strict requirements on meeting the pay requirements. But the deal is they don't audit for it until sometime after the job is done. It's called certified payroll. (I think) If they determine that you have not paid prevailing wage then you get to make it up. And then the funds go to the workers.

If you are paying 5x's union rate for payroll that is impressive.

it sounds like you are comparing Gross Sales to Prevailing Wage requirements

watch your back