Evaluate projects before the bid

Costs to contractors preparing bids can be large. Prior to expending time and money preparing a bid consider completing a set of questions to determine if the project falls into your firms sweet spot. These evaluations can assist you in bidding work where you stand the best chance of winning a bid, and one where you can realize a profit. Do these evaluations in writing and file them for future reference on similar projects. Use questions that are important to you, such as,

• Cash Flow Implications
• Competition on Bid List
• Manpower Availability
• Number of Bidders
• Reputation of the Engineer and/or Architect
• Reputation of the Owner
• Size of the Project
• Review of Site Conditions
• Quality of Bid Documents
• Type of Work
• Job Schedule
• General Contractors on Bid List
• Historical Performance on this type of Project
• Location of Project

The list of questions is up to you, the more questions that genuinely impact your firm the better. Use a sliding scale of 1 to 4;

• 1 equaling the most desireable
• 2 equaling the desireable
• 3 equaling the undesireable
• 4 equaling the most undesireable

Completing this type of form can benefit you by not wasting time and money on bids that you have little chance of winning, bidding on projects that you have no business getting, a reminder when your halfway into a project and wondering why you bid this project in the first place and an assist for future similar projects.