I just sent off the largest bid I’ve ever sent to a huge catholic church. Not being a particularly religious guy I still felt kinda bad about the 5 digit number I arrived at, but this is the kind of job where I’ll need to buy another machine and hire two more people for at least 7 days unless I want it to take 2 weeks. The kind of job that goes through a committee to get approved and I have to have a lift for 3/4 of it.
I kinda don’t want it based on nerves alone, but they apparently only had 2 people call from their homeadvisor request so it sounds like I have a 50/50 shot unless we both blow it and they call other companies.
Anyway, my questions are:
What’s the biggest job you’ve done and what did you learn from it?
What would you do differently if you had the chance?
I am new at this…but I turned in a large bid last Friday. I am a bit anxious about the thought of having to do it…but it will just have to take me about 2wks as I am not hiring anyone… I was the only one they were getting a bid from…but I don’t care whether I get it or not…probably rather not as it is really more work than I want to do on one job. I really prefer for my large jobs to only take a day or maybe two at the most…finish them and move on.
I’ve done $75 gutter jobs and $30k apartment jobs. They are all the same. Some just take longer to finish. Don’t sweat it. It’ll take 20% longer than you thought it would and your profit will be less than you hoped but you’ll learn from it and be more efficient and profitable on the next one. It’ll ne a confidence booster
Update: I got an email from the church maintenance fella and he said they were surprised at the size of the bids so they’re 1. Going to try to figure out how to pay for it. 2. Pursue other options. (There aren’t any really unless I’ve missed something along the way here)
I offered to split labor up over 3 payments, but materials are required up front and first labor payment is due at the completion of the job. The only downside I see here is not getting paid, but it is a church. Any other downsides?
I also offered splitting it into phases which we’re doing with two apartment complexes/townhome communities so we’re there every month for at least 5 buildings. These actually turned into “perpetual maintenance” contracts with no real end which is nice until they say they don’t want it any more.
Nope. At least 30 of my apartment properties have no contract. I just show up twice a year to clean breezeways and once a year to clean the buildings. With the exception of an email to let them know to put out notices there are some managers I have spoken to in 5 years. Doesn’t matter when you get paid as long a you get paid. Get enough like that and everyday is payday
It’s got to be tough to keep track of those accounts when they just pay eventually! @Innocentbystander can you give me a little insight on how I would go about bidding an apartment or commercial building? Do I just email the owners, speak to them in person, or do you just got them connects ;)?
