A small firm cannot bid for everything, and should not try. A serious tender response takes days of senior time. Spread that across contracts you were never likely to win and you lose twice: the time, and the bid you rushed because of it.
Deciding not to bid is a skill. Here is a checklist that makes the decision quickly and consistently.
Can we win it?
- Do we pass the gates?
- Turnover, insurance, accreditations, years trading. If the minimum turnover is several times yours, stop. Government guidance has long been that a turnover requirement should not normally exceed twice the contract value, so a test far beyond that is worth querying, but not worth betting a bid on.
- Is there a lot or a size we can deliver?
- Look at the value per lot, not the headline figure.
- Do we have the evidence?
- Recent, comparable work with named clients and outcomes you can describe. If the questions ask for three examples and you have one, the score will show it.
- Who holds it now?
- A long-standing incumbent that has delivered well is hard to displace. A specification that reads like a description of one company's service is a warning sign.
- Does the scoring suit us?
- Heavy quality and social value weightings favour a firm that can write well about real, local delivery. Price-dominated scoring favours scale.
Can we deliver it?
- Capacity
- If we won, could we mobilise by the start date without letting existing clients down?
- Geography
- Can we service every site, or is this realistically regional work in a national wrapper?
- People
- Does TUPE apply, and do we understand what taking on the current workforce would mean?
- Cash flow
- Public bodies must pay undisputed invoices within 30 days under the Act, but mobilisation costs come first.
Do we want it?
- Margin
- At a price that could win, is there a profit?
- Strategy
- Does it open a buyer, a sector or a region we want, even if the contract itself is marginal?
- Risk
- Penalties, unlimited liabilities, or KPIs we cannot control.
A simple scoring rule. Score each question 0 (no), 1 (partly) or 2 (yes). Any 0 on "do we pass the gates" or "can we mobilise" is an automatic no. Otherwise, set a threshold that fits your win rate, and write down the score for every decision. Within a year you will know which kinds of tender are worth your time.
How Bidwire helps with the first pass
Each notice in Bidwire carries a small-firm flag and, where one applies, a plain list of reasons it might not suit a small firm: a very large contract, a stated turnover requirement over £5 million, or a need to cover the whole country. Those are worked out from the notice's own figures, not guessed, so you can see exactly why.
Where a notice lets us, it also names a possible incumbent drawn from the buyer's previous awards. Treat that as a lead to check, not a fact.