# Submitting my first commercial bid



## MIZZOU (Nov 18, 2012)

I've poured over blueprints every night for a week and triple checked my numbers. Any advice (besides run away!) before I press send? My biggest fear now is payment. Advice for verbiage on payment schedule?


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## Andyman (Feb 21, 2009)

A couple things that come to mind. 
All doors and frames counted. 
Ceilings or soffits accounted. 
Touch up policy vs back charges. Get signatures before. 
Payment schedule
Reasonable attorney fees and court cost and interest after x amount of time once job is deemed finished. Lein possibilities/waiver. When is deemed finished.


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## kmp (Jan 30, 2011)

If you filled out a schedule of values you will get paid draws based on that, if not payment is on 30 day billing cycles. Nothing you put in your proposal about a payment schedule will make a difference because you get paid when the g.c. gets paid. Retainage is the big killer and that can take longer. I finished a project in April last year and got retainage in November. That was a govt. job and they take longer but it was way too long. Forget about interest on anything.


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## richmondpainting (Feb 24, 2012)

Don't worry to much...if your number is too low they will disqualify you any way..they know how much it takes to get the job done...some bigger national guys will mess with you tho....call all the gcs and say "I just wanna run through this with you to make sure I'm covered" then throw y our number out there...they will...either say...high..low.."competitive" or we can't release that information yet....good luck...I'm sure once you get into the commercial...you will love it.....and hate it..lol


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## Paradigmzz (May 5, 2010)

richmondpainting said:


> Don't worry to much...if your number is too low they will disqualify you any way..they know how much it takes to get the job done...some bigger national guys will mess with you tho....call all the gcs and say "I just wanna run through this with you to make sure I'm covered" then throw y our number out there...they will...either say...high..low.."competitive" or we can't release that information yet....good luck...I'm sure once you get into the commercial...you will love it.....and hate it..lol


Bid low and make exclusions. Hit em for the change orders. Lolz.


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## amcraft (May 6, 2014)

If it is a government job, don't take too long on the pricing... but don't expect an immediate response. Our company has bid on projects that took a year or two to complete - it all depends on what phase they are in for the project.
Price fairly (to yourself and to the customer), but also account for follow ups to see what phase the project is in. Keeping note of this has helped us win several bids in the past and present  

Good luck!

www.amcraftindustrialcurtainwall.com


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## waevans10 (May 1, 2014)

Like any other industry there's a lot of different strategies out there for selling and marketing. I think the most important part is understanding who your customer is and their intent for the project. I can turn in bids all day, but unless I am bidding to a customer that wants the job done right at a fair price; I am going to be high and won't get the job. If your bidding on a government on a regular commercial job expect it to be based strictly on the lowest responsive bidder (when I say responsive they sometimes will accept a bid 50% lower than the other 4 company spread, just because they think they are getting a deal; in real life we call that capricious) and we all have heard the saying "the lowest bidder is the guy who made the most mistakes." 


Sent from my iPhone using PaintTalk.com


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## Gough (Nov 24, 2010)

waevans10 said:


> Like any other industry there's a lot of different strategies out there for selling and marketing. I think the most important part is understanding who your customer is and their intent for the project. I can turn in bids all day, but unless I am bidding to a customer that wants the job done right at a fair price; I am going to be high and won't get the job. If your bidding on a government on a regular commercial job expect it to be based strictly on the lowest responsive bidder (when I say responsive they sometimes will accept a bid 50% lower than the other 4 company spread, just because they think they are getting a deal; in real life we call that capricious) and we all have heard the saying "the lowest bidder is the guy who made the most mistakes."
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using PaintTalk.com


That sounds like the epitaph for lots of companies.


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## darrpreb00 (Aug 31, 2008)

Thanks for asking the question mizzou. I just turned in a large commercial bid myself. Many times I have sat down with blueprints and stared at them for hrs and hrs to just give up! After weeks of research and with the help of a buddy who works at an engineering firm, we ironed one out last night and sent it off. I figured out a lot of prices which is quite priceless. Next one should be twice as fast and so on. Good luck to you and keep us updated. Today I emailed and signed up on every bid list for the local commercial gc's I could find in 10 hrs on the internet. Exiting to think this may be the start of something different (Good or bad who knows) I decided it probably wont kill me.


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## akrause (May 18, 2010)

Unfortunately your contract won't matter much. If they like your price and want to use you then they will send you *their* contract to sign and return which supersedes yours. To make matters worse, their contract will have dozens (sometimes hundreds) of pages of lawyer terms that are custom designed to strengthen their ability to not pay you until their good & ready. I would *at best* expect to wait 60 days to receive checks from a large GC.


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