From time to time I see posts or questions about writing tender submissions, and as we know depending on your industry, but submitting for tenders can be a vital component of operating a business as if we are successful in tenders it helps improve our cashflow.
One thing to remember when applying for tenders, some of the companies who use this format may pay 30-45 days from the end of the month of the invoice date, therefore you need to be sure that your cash flow can sustain this sort of payment process.
One thing I advise Business owners to do is register on their local Tender site, and most states will have one, from this site you can download the documents from a couple of tenders -probably a good idea to look at your industry, but does not matter and check out what companies are looking for, as far as documents which need to be uploaded and supplied during the tender application process.
It will probably take 3-6 months, depending on where your business is at, for you to either write or at least find the documents and prepare everything you need to apply for the tender.
The sort of information they may ask for,
- Company details- including ACN/ABN, directors information, etc.
- Insurance details- so you might want to obtain a certificate of currency or similar from your Insurance company/ Broker
- OH&S Policy/ Mission Statement
- If you are registered with any Professional Bodies,
- To ensure you have licenses and registrations you need to complete the work, some may want copies of employees licenses
- Standard Operating Procedures or Policies in relation to something
- Quality Assurance certificates or policy statements- e.g. how are you going to ensure your work is of a high quality
- Price of the tender- please read the document to ensure whether it is said GST inclusive or Exclusive if you get this wrong it could be costly to yourself
- Basically, they want to know how are you going to do the work, can you do the work, and how much will it cost them
- Some might want to know if you plan to use contractors to help you complete the job, and they might want to know the names of contractors, and how do you ensure they provide quality work
- A copy of Your Business Continuity Plan, or what plans will you implement should something go wrong.
Above is just a shortlist of what might be required, as I said it all depends on the industry as to what they need and request during a tender process.
However, this now gives you something to consider, and to start preparing the required documents or writing the policy and procedures, etc in which you might need in order to prepare for writing a tender submission.
The actual writing of the tender submission really requires you to answer the questions and to supply the relevant requested information at the right time. remember a tender if often just a larger quote.
Good luck with your tender preparations and submitting, we are all against a range of competition and we need to ensure the potential clients want to use our company and not someone else.
