PHX1 Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 I was curious to see if anybody out there bids on public things such as schools or offices? If so how do you about creating a bid? Any tips or pointers on how to make a bid stand out more then others would be greatfully apreciated! Is it true that if the business is owned by a women that they are more likely to be picked? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 In order to bid on any public, city, county, state or federal contracts you need to be listed in their database of approved bidders. It used to be that they would actually go to the yellow pages and send RFPs to vending companies if they didn't have enough respondents to a bid but now that doesn't happen. You can't just send a bid in when you feel like it. You have to wait for them to put a contract out for bid, then indicate your interest so that you will receive an RFP (request for proposal). There is usually a pre-bid conference where you might ask questions and possibly gain access to the location(s) to view what's currently being offered. You can request a copy of any existing contracts and possibly the current commission records as well, though I'm not sure if the commission records are considered public record or not. When you fill out the bid forms there will be a place to mark if you're a Woman-owned business or a Minority-owned business. You might have to substantiate that with your certification to that effect which you would need to have from the state. One thing you need to realize is that many cities and all of the state and federal contracts are first offered to Services for the Blind based on the Randolph-Shepherd Act. This give first refusal to the Blind program before a contract actually goes out for bid. This means that many offices/locations you would expect to go out for bid may never do so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHX1 Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 Thanks for the fast reply AZ, I can tell you know a lot just by reading all your posts through out the site. So lets say one does come to the private sector for bid, do you think that it would be worth attempting to get? I know camelback gets a lot because a women owns it. The reason I ask is because I have my wife as the owner, and she also helps with the books. Should I expect to be offering new machines? With your experience are the commissions usually based off gross or profit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 I believe you would need to be a certified woman-owned business first, then bid with that certification noted. Whether you need new machines will be dictated by the RFP. You can usually offer rebuilt used machines as they are always looking to get good equipment and only occasionally do the require all the bells and whistles. Used machines can be outfitted with aftermarket logic boards that give you a guaranteed vend option as well as MDB coin mech and validator which then allows a card reader to be installed. You can also put LED lightning in any used machine. Commissions are almost always off the gross sales. I have never seen an RFP that gave the operator the ability to pay commission off the net sales or net profit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHX1 Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 Ok. thanks for all the tips! I'm going to message you later about some parts too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 I was curious to see if anybody out there bids on public things such as schools or offices? If so how do you about creating a bid? Any tips or pointers on how to make a bid stand out more then others would be greatfully apreciated! Is it true that if the business is owned by a women that they are more likely to be picked? In a open bid process like this, the RFP should include the categories that the bid will be evaluated on. Experience, years in business, references etc. Most RFP's will work on a 100 point scale with a category like woman/SBDE or HUB certification maybe being worth 5 points, but it also not just ownership you must also be able to prove if asked that she plays a significant role in the business. In one bid I was involved in it made the difference in getting it. I got out of doing schools about 5 years ago, to much hassle with restrictions on what and when machines. Could be used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.