Have you ever been stuck waiting on proposals, bid numbers to come in from your subcontractors?
Getting numbers from subcontractors is almost just as bad as pulling teeth. It
could prove to be a real challenge to get numbers from your subcontractors
to bid on opportunities you know you have a shot at winning, which is why in this video,
I'm actually going to share with you some steps you can take to increase your chances
of getting bids submitted from subcontractors and getting those numbers on time.
Hey, welcome back. I'm Felicia over at feliciastreeter.com,
where I help small and minority-owned businesses
win government contracts. If you're looking to grow your government contracting business,
take it to the million dollar year and million dollar contracts as a government contractor,
make sure you subscribe to the channel and turn on the notification bell so you don’t miss
any of the trainings that we drop right here on this channel for you.
Today, we're going to talk about what most face when they're putting together
bid numbers, why this is a problem to begin with, and what you can do to minimize the obstacles in
your bid process. Now, if you need help and you want to take what you're learning here to the
next level as you're implementing and get some support, I'll definitely put the link down below,
how you can have a conversation with me about my government contractor accelerator program,
and me and you partnering together on your journey to becoming a government contractor,
getting to the million dollar year and those million dollar contracts.
Can I tell you a story? I remember a time when my company, we were submitting on a bid,
and we had sourced it out for numbers from subcontractors. Okay? Now, this opportunity in
particular, we were able to submit the proposal in person. Okay? I think the ride was like,
maybe two or three hours here in Texas, Texas is huge, but I think it was two or three hours to
where we had to go to submit the bid, so not a problem. We get up early that morning. We're going
to drive down and submit the bid. Now, here's the thing. We were still waiting on numbers from
some subcontractors, and we needed those numbers because we couldn't get them in house. Okay?
That means that the subcontractors that we were going to put on the project with us,
that portion of the work we were not able to self perform, and we didn't have the ability
to estimate that cost in house, so we had to get those numbers from subcontractors. Anyway,
we drive down early that morning. We're waiting to hear back from our office as to what those
bid numbers are from the subcontractors that we're still waiting on. So, we get to the little town,
it's a little town, and you think most places, they're going to have an Office Depot or Office
Max, a Staples, something like that. Not the case. This is a really small town and they did
have a small office store, the name off brand. I don't even remember what it was. Okay?
But anyway, we got there really early in enough time to make this all happen,
but here's the thing. They didn't have Office Max, Office Depot, Staples, Kinko, FedEx,
Kinkos, anything like that, where they usually open 6:00, 7:00 in the morning. No. This place,
I think they opened up 8:30, 9:00 in the morning. It must have been like 9:00.
So, here's the thing. That little office store was not down the street from the place we had
to submit the bid either, and it was in the country, so you know what that means.
Long roads, country roads. Okay? So, we found the place, so now we're waiting on them to open.
Here's another thing I want to make you guys understand. When you're submitting proposals
and you're getting numbers from subcontractors and things like that, you never want to take numbers
over the phone, because you could transpose a number incorrectly. We always want it in writing,
hence we needed the office supply store so that our office could fax over the numbers
from the subcontractor, so we could physically and touch it tangibly, and then put those numbers
and include them inside of the entire bid process to get to the final number.
Okay. So, we're waiting on them to open up. Okay? They open up, we get the numbers faxed over to
us. Now we still have to do the calculations, come up with the final numbers, add our markup, all of
that. Then, most of the time they want more than one copy, so now we have to make copies as well.
All of this we're doing last minute. Why? Because our subcontractors did not get us the numbers
by the deadline that we gave them. So, we're doing all of that, we get it together,
I think it was at that time, I think it was four packets we had to give them.
So, we made all the copies, they're individually packaged, just like how they wanted. Then we
have to still get over to the location where we're going to submit the proposal. Okay?
So, we get there, and the bids were due by 11:00 AM. You know how when you work a job and they have
a time stamp where you stamp your time card? I never had to do that, but I've heard. Okay? So,
you time stamp your time card. They had a machine like that where you would stamp
your proposal to show what time it was submitted. Okay. It is 11:01. I kid you not, 11:01. Bids are
due at 11:00 AM. It is 11:01 AM. Guess what? They would not accept our bid. So, can you imagine the
wasted cost associated with what I just told you? A lot. I don't want you guys to be
stuck in that position. It only happened once to us, let me tell you, but that one time,
it was horrible. It was a bad feeling. Can you imagine driving two to three hours to turn
in a proposal, only to get there and everything does not fall into place, and then you can't even
submit on it, but you knew you had a good shot at winning it. I don't want that to be your story.
Here's what we're going to talk about here today, how to get these proposals from these
subcontractors. The first thing is you need to know your timeframes. All right? How long does it
take you to put together the proposal? I'm talking the full package, numbers and everything. You need
to know that, as well as when is it due. From that, you can back date the time as to when you
want your numbers from your subcontractors. What I'm telling you is if the bid is due May
21st, do not tell your subcontractors they have until May 20th or May 21st to submit.
Give yourself at least a week, if you can, because let me tell you, they're still going to turn it in
late, but we want to get to the point to where we can have them turning it in by the deadline that
you provide them. Here's how you want to do this. Information to your subs. This is what you want to
tell them. When you send over the opportunity for them to bid, also pick up the phone and call them
and let them know you've sent over an opportunity that you would like for them to bid.
I say this because in working with my clients, they'll tell me a lot of times that they've had
opportunities in their emails and they didn't see them. Why? Because they're working on other
projects, they're busy, and they just didn't check their emails today or in the last couple days.
Then when they check it, your bid numbers from them, you want them, say, in five days,
but they didn't even look at it until three days in, and maybe it takes them three or four days to
put together their numbers. So, you have to think about that and make sure you allot enough time
for how long it's going to take them to put together their number in addition to
giving it to you, and then you taking all of the numbers to put together the final numbers.
So, pick up the phone and call them and let them know you've sent over an opportunity. Then also
make sure you're telling them the timeframe that you need those bid numbers returned to you.
Yes, you're going to put it in the email, but also, when you do that phone call,
just reiterate that and let them know. A few days before the bid numbers are due from them,
check back in with them. You can send them an email. That's cool. But if you don't get a reply,
what do you want to do? Pick up the phone again and reach out to them and just remind them that
those numbers are coming due. Then you also want to make sure that they're actually going to bid
it. So, you should be asking that as well. Then if you don't have it, say they said, "Yes,
we're going to bid the opportunity," you checked in a few days in, they said, "Yes,
we're working on the numbers," then the day before those final numbers are due from them,
pick up the phone, give them a call again just to make sure they have everything they need
and they plan to submit those numbers. So, you want to be in a place of service to see how you
can help and support them in getting those bid numbers done and to you on time. I want you to
comment below, do you have a hard time getting your bid numbers in from your subcontractors? Let
us know in the chat yes or no. No or yes. Let's dive a little bit deeper into the
subcontractors bid due date. The date you give your subcontractors should not be the date that
the bid is actually due to the government. Okay? Remember, back date that. If you can go back seven
days or even 10 days, that's cool. It just depends on how much of a lead time you have in submitting
the bid yourself. For example, if you find an opportunity, and say they're giving you 30 days,
which is really great, not the norm, but say they do. You have 30 days to submit this proposal.
Then now you can maybe give your subcontractors 15, 20 days to submit the numbers to you,
which then will still give you 10 days to put together your final proposal.
Let me just say this. When you find that you have a long lead time, just know that bid is
more extensive than the norm. Okay? So, you know, based on the type of service that you provide to
the government and the work that you do, you know how long it takes to put together a bid,
or you should know. All right? That's something we talk about inside of my accelerator program,
for sure, because we have to know how long it takes us to put together these proposals, and I'm
using the word proposal and bid interchangeably. Okay? Here's the other thing. You're going to also
need time to go through all of the bids that come in from all of the subcontractors.
Here's the thing. You're not going to just... say it's plumbing. You're not just going to send
out the plumbing scope of work to one plumbing company. I hope you're not doing that. You want
to send it out to multiple companies, one, because some of them may fall off and don't have time,
that kind of thing. So, you want to send it to multiple plumbing companies. Okay. So,
say you get it back from three to five plumbing companies. Well, which number will you go with?
You have to go through each one of those bids, one, making sure they didn't leave anything
out as it relates to how they priced, and what the scope of work is for that part of the project.
That's going to take time, so you have to allot enough time to get those bids back to you and
then go through them to come up with your final number for that portion of the project.
Then after you get all of that together, you still have to put together your numbers, your direct
cost, your indirect cost, your markup, and then bid out any other work that you're going to do
yourself. You have to put numbers to all of that, so make sure you give yourself enough time to do
that so that you can submit your bid on time, because they don't take late bids. Okay? Then
you want to make sure you go through it a couple times just to make sure you haven't left anything
out. I always suggest having a second set of eyes look at your proposal packet before you submit it.
There you have it, how to get proposals, bid numbers from your subcontractors.
Now, getting this right will determine whether you're able to take your business from where
it is to you sitting in the prime position as a government contractor and taking your business
to those million dollar contracts, because let me tell you, when you get into those million
dollar contracts, those multiple million dollar contracts, you're going to be subbing out some of
that work. Most of the time, you're not going to self perform on all of the work, because when you
do that, let me tell you what else happens. Now you're building your team, you're going
to have in-house employees and a whole lot of other things going on. So, even in that case,
as you get into getting into multiple projects, expanding on your capacity and resources,
and working those multiple projects at one time, you're going to sub out some of the work.
You're only going to have so many people in house to where you're able to do
all of the work in house. Okay? Now, if you want to play small, stay small,
maybe you'll be able to do that. But if you're looking at getting into these multiple million
dollar contracts, these multiple year contracts, you're going to have to start subbing out some of
the work, and also understand, on some of the larger projects, you are required to sub out
some of the work to small businesses, and you will have to submit a subcontracting plan within your
proposal. Now, that's a different conversation, but we talk about that in the accelerator. So,
if you need help taking your business into the government marketplace, taking it from getting
your first government contract to that six figure year onto the million dollar year and
then those million dollar contracts, definitely check out the Government Contract Accelerator.
I would love to support you in that and get you to those million dollar contracts.
I want you to do something today. Share this video out with three people that you know.
Maybe they're already in government contracting, they're looking to do government contracting,
maybe they're working in the private sector right now. I know you know three businesses
that you can share this information with. So, go ahead, share this video out, and
if you haven't subscribed to this channel, make sure you do that. Then lastly, like this video.
All right? Remember, you're just one contract away. Bye for now.