Best time to bid commercials?

[Victor]

Hey guys. I'm going to take 2 weeks off of my full-time job to submit bids on desirable commercial properties in my service area. I'm trying to figure out what the general consensus is, as to when the best time to take those 2 weeks of would be.

The way I see it is that if you submit a bid too early. It will be set aside, and have a greater chance of being lost, or forgotten about by the time comes for the management to make a decision. Wait too late, and the decision has obviously already been made.

Up until this year, I've targeted, and serviced mostly residential accounts, and wanted some opinions on this. Thanks in advance for the help.

Vic

[Metro Lawn]

The problem with wait is this. I have already sent out my contracts for 2004. I like to get them out early and get them signed. Then when the other swarm of bids roll in, they are not even looked at because they have already signed for the year. If you wait too long, it gives the customer more chance to shop around and end up with the lowest bidder getting the job.

[proenterprises]

metro makes a good point. it is best to get them signed while the other guys are still :sleeping: you dont want to end up in the situation when the prop manager is just rifling through bids just to find the lowest number on the bottom line.

that is no way to do biz....but if you wait for the last minute it is what happens.

[little green guy]

I usually start bidding commercial in late september for the next season all the way till about the end of Feburary.

[iski3d]

When you guys bid commercial, do you only send bids to properties which have advertised such as in the newspaper stating that they are accepting bids for maintenance, or do you send bids to any property that looks like a decent job? Around here, companies never advertise that they are accepting bids. So shuld I just look at properties and then send a proposal hoping to spark there interest?

[iski3d]

Just wanted to bring this back to the top.