Estimating Software to Change Gears for Contractors
Let’s face it – when you’re bidding for every potential construction project and still not getting enough projects to keep everything moving, it’s tough. Here is a scenario all contractors can relate to, you spent days scrutinizing the plans and designs for a construction project. You get your invitation to attend the pre-bid meeting, you complete all your estimation, get all other things lined up, you verify your figures and finally, seal everything and submit it. But somehow you couldn’t win the bid. Then what exactly went wrong?
To win any bid; you need to set yourself apart from the competition. But how to win more projects without spending all your time in the office completing the drafting work?
Competing in the construction industry today means being able to spawn volume of bids as fast as possible. But if this entire work is to be done manually, there are more chances of errors in the spreadsheets. According to experts, more than 94 percent of spreadsheets contain errors. If the quantities of material and required labour are underestimated or even overestimated, the businesses incur losses even after scoring bids, i.e., winning the low bid, but losing money on the job.
Due to constraints like low margins and financial fragility, bidding for a project becomes challenging. If bidding is not done flawlessly, it may lead to a financial failure for the company.
Challenges Faced while Preparing a Bid:
• Insufficient time
• Insufficient Information
• Assessment of risks
• Assessing commercial viability
• Responding to the Bid Effectively
The low winning rate implies that you might be frequently bidding for the work you’re not qualified to, or you couldn’t convey the grounds that you can outperform your competitors. It’s troublesome for you to precisely figure out which ventures you should bid on since your workflow are inadequate, and data compilation takes up much of your time. Thus, under-evaluating the bidding work you do just to attempt and compete.
Related Read- Steering the Preconstruction to a Benefiting Arrangement with a Better Workflow
GOLDEN RULES OF BIDDING
Start with highly accurate cost estimates:
Since all bidding begins with estimates, you must set up successful procedures to guarantee that the rates, structure, and assumptions used to ascertain the estimates are legitimate and exact.
Making great estimates is a key in winning the bids. The estimates manage the extent of the project, financial plan, and process for completing a project. In the event of any blemishes in the estimating procedure, you will encounter financial troubles from overrunning the budget.
Start differentiating between estimating and bidding. To estimating is to calculate internal costing of the firm including labour, material etc., while bidding means quoting a final price to the customer which include your profits. Estimates should be precise from ballpark to a square foot, assembly, and final estimate. Estimates must give clear visibility of net cost accurate information about sub-contractors and suppliers.
The resistance to technology in the construction industry is real; therefore, there is a need to familiarize the effectiveness of “using estimating tools” in estimation. Become a pioneer in transforming construction from a field-based industry to an industry of digital modelling, lean methods and efficient technological solutions that will positively help you to manage time.
Responding to the Bid Effectively:
It may be frustrating to craft a proposal, just to have it rejected. Drafting a reaction to a job requires a decent comprehension of the project’s prerequisites and your capacity to successfully showcasing your own abilities and skill to pass on that you are most ideally equipped suited for the project. Zone in on what your customer demands and exhibit your comprehension of their needs and how you intend to deliver the project.
Estimating software will allow you to make most of your time and make your bidding successful as well as produce the right amount of revenue or profit for your business.
Summing Up
Mistakes in estimating and bidding can lead you to miss out on a prized project. To help you get started bidding like a winner, with a focus on building a foundation of improved speed and accuracy; Estimators Group helps you build bids faster and get you to a winning path.
