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Tag: masonry tenders

A Guide to Finding the Best Construction Bid Sites

Posted on by John Hudson

How to Choose the Best Construction Bid Site for Your Business 

Using the best construction bid sites is a vital step in finding relevant tenders and growing your business.

You might be wondering, what is tendering? And why is it important to the construction sector? You’re not alone – many construction businesses miss out on construction leads simply by not utilising the tendering process. In short, tendering is the most common way in which a buyer finds the most appropriate supplier for goods or services. Including tendering in your business strategy allows you to secure contracts from buyers you may never have connected with otherwise. This is invaluable when it comes to growing your business sustainably.

If you’re new to tendering, finding the best construction bid site can seem like a daunting task. What exactly should you be looking out for, anyway? When you search ‘best construction bid sites’ in Google, the results can be overwhelming. Plenty of sites will provide you with reams of opportunities from countless buyers. Job done! Right? Not quite.

You’ll often find yourself wading through tenders with requirements that don’t suit your business in the slightest. Finding a construction bid site with tenders that are specific to your business can become a stressful and fruitless process. Unless you know exactly where to look!

What to Look for In Construction Bid Sites?

What should you be looking out for to find the best construction bid site for your business? We’ve created a quick and comprehensive guide so you can rest assured that you’re looking in the right place: 

Here are the top 7 things you should look for to find the best construction bid site and secure relevant contracts:

  1. The portal doesn’t rely on CPVs.

There’s a fundamental problem with the way most construction bid sites source tenders for businesses – CPV codes.

CPV stands for Common Procurement Vocabulary. A CPV code is an 8-digit code which allows buyers to classify what they are procuring in a succinct way. In theory, suppliers should be able to use CPV codes to source perfect business opportunities quickly and effectively.

Sound too easy to you? You’re right. In practice, this doesn’t happen.

Studies show that close to 30% of CPV codes are tagged inaccurately. It’s easy to make a mistake when tagging a tender with a complex 8-digit code. Many buyers also don’t understand the requirements of CPV codes and so they use them incorrectly, or not at all.

So, what does this mean for your business? Well, this is particularly harmful in a sector as varied as construction with such a broad range of sub-sectors. On most construction bid sites, clients are not finding all of the tenders that are relevant to their specific services. Even if you’re searching via relevant CPV codes, you’re missing out on countless contracts that could grow your business.

For example, imagine an Architecture firm registers to a portal that tracks tenders via CPV codes. To use the portal effectively, the firm would need someone in their team with a comprehensive understanding of CPV codes. Even then, up to 30% of the results they come across could be tagged incorrectly. They could end up trawling through tenders for contracts such as the supply of bedding plants or website development services. Obviously, these tenders would be completely irrelevant to the Architecture firm’s services. This ultimately defeats the purpose of a tracking portal which should save you time when sourcing new business opportunities.

  1. The portal uses manual tracking.

The best way around the shortfalls of CPV codes? Manual keyword tracking.

At Construction Tenders, we don’t rely on CPV codes to source tenders for our clients. Instead, our dedicated team of Opportunity Trackers manually search thousands of sources every day. They read the requirements of every buyer and manually tag each tender with the correct industry-driven keywords. This avoids the problem of sub-sectors being mislabelled with the wrong CPV code. It also eliminates the need for someone in your firm to comprehensively understand CPV codes. We handle all of that for you.

When you sign up to Construction Tenders, you can simply enter the keywords that best describe your services. Search these keywords and you’ll be able to access relevant opportunities instantly. It’s that easy. Every tender you see on our portal is manually tracked, and therefore relevant to the services you offer. No exceptions.

Ultimately, our manual tracking saves you countless hours of searching through irrelevant tenders and gives you instant results.

  1. The system focuses on your industry.

Most bid sites source tenders for all industries so there’s always a high chance of seeing irrelevant opportunities. You could find plenty of tenders for video production, but this is no good if you’re a roofer.

With Construction Tenders, every opportunity is sector-specific. Our focused approach is the most effective way to provide you with relevant tenders.

Our Opportunity Trackers source specific opportunities for a range sub-sectors, including:

  • Refurbishment
  • Building Works
  • Civil Engineering
  • Surveying
  • Demolition
  • Masonry, and many more.

  1. It allows for remote working in teams.

Remote working has changed the way businesses operate in a lot of ways. Tendering remotely is a lot easier when you have access to a portal which allows you to work in teams.

We’ve designed our tendering portal specifically to make remote working easier. Our portal allows you to give multiple colleagues access to your business account. Each colleague can then assign tasks and add tenders to their favourites page.

  1. You’re supported by an account manager.

If your business is new to tendering, we understand that you might need some extra support. With the right support, scouring the web for the best construction bids becomes a much less daunting task.

Via access to an account manager, you will always have on-hand advice and guidance to help you find relevant opportunities. You might waste time applying for a tender that isn’t right for you or that you’re unable to carry out. You might miss opportunities that are perfect for your business by questioning your ability to win a bid. This can all form a stressful process.

But it doesn’t have to be.

With our Construction Tenders portal, you will be assigned a dedicated account manager throughout your subscription. It’s their job to answer any questions you might have, regarding tendering, while using the portal.

An account manager will support you in a range of ways;

  • Maximising the way you use our tendering portal;
  • Advice around tendering and procurement;
  • Connecting you to other Hudson support services;
  • Queries around a bid that you require support with;
  • Alerting you when exclusive opportunities are published that are perfect for your business, and;
  • Ensuring you receive an email alert when new, relevant tenders, are uploaded.

Clients can always contact their dedicated account manager by phone or email, at any time throughout their subscription. This means you’ll always have a solid understanding of where you stand throughout the tendering process.

  1. You have access to virtual learning.

Great! You’ve found the best construction bid site and, consequently, the perfect contract to bolster your business. You now see that the buyer has asked for a technical and in-depth response. Bids can sometimes require over 10,000 word responses with stringent requirements. Even if you have time to do this – which, let’s be honest, who does? – can you show why you’re irrefutably the best business for the job? Do you know how to write a winning bid?

If not, don’t worry. We’ve created Tender VLE specifically to eliminate the confusion around tendering and procurement. Tender VLE is a free service which gives your business expert advice on the ins and outs of tendering. Through video masterclasses, fact sheets, blogs and templates, you’ll learn how to create a winning tender and secure the best contracts.

  1. You can outsource bid writing if needed.

Some people just aren’t natural-born writers. A good bid writer can transform the way buyers view your business – and give you exponential results.

We have developed Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division, to carry our clients through the bidding process every step of the way. Our team are exceptional Bid Writers who assist businesses in multiple sectors to write compelling and technical narratives. With the help of Hudson Succeed, countless construction sector companies have grown their businesses effectively. The team holds an 87% bid success rate and are trusted by over 700 businesses, globally.

How do I get started?

If you’re looking to secure construction contracts UK, Construction Tenders can save you countless time and money that you’d spend manually searching. You’ll instead gain new business opportunities that are specifically relevant to you. Unlike other construction bid sites, we’ve humanised tendering at every level – from manual tracking to account management. This high level of attention to detail secures the best results for your business.

You will receive daily alerts when tenders are released for services in your sector as well as 24-hour access to our Construction Tenders portal. Book a free live demo of the portal today and see how the portal can help your business grow with construction leads. You’ll see all of the current opportunities available and understand how the system will work for your business.

Below are previous construction bids sourced on our portal:

Fender Pile Replacement Works

Fenland District Council- Eastern- Budget: £90,000

Dunnikier Business Units, Kirkcaldy – Steelworks, Roof and Wall Cladding Works Package

Fife Council- Scotland- Budget: Undisclosed

Communal Floor Replacement

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council- Eastern- Budget: Undisclosed

Asbestos Removal Services

Yorkshire and Humber Police Procurement (Y&HPP)- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: £1,500,000

Roofing Repairs (Framework)

Nottingham City Council- East Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

We source tenders for services including:

The Construction Talent Retention Scheme – Protecting workers in Construction

Posted on by John Hudson

The Construction Talent Retention Scheme – Everything you need to know

The Construction Talent Retention Scheme was announced by Chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak. The aim of the scheme is to protect workers in the construction industry as the UK begins to rebuild itself and emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Co-Chair of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC), Andy Mitchell said: “This is a great example of what we can achieve when we work collaboratively with government and we look forward to continuing in this spirit when the proposals and recommendations of our broader Roadmap to Recovery are published. In the meantime, we will work with our members and industry stakeholders to encourage the scheme’s use and success.”

How will the scheme work?

The Construction Talent Retention Scheme is due to launch, formally, later this month. The scheme will be in the form of an online portal that will work to protect those who work in the construction industry. The portal will do this in the following ways;

  • Advertising vacancies

Companies can use the portal to advertise open vacancies and employ workers that may be at risk of redundancy.

  • Help construction projects

The portal will help to place at-risk workers on construction projects to prevent a loss of talent in the sector.

  • Inter-trading with talent

The Construction Talent Retention Scheme system will also allow businesses to “loan” workers to other companies who can utilise their skills.

  • Transfer workers into construction

The system will aim to help workers from different industries to transfer to the construction sector. This means that workers who have lost jobs, or who are at risk of being made redundant, will have a route into a new career.

The foundations

The foundations of the Construction Talent Retention Scheme are based on a tried and tested model. A similar scheme has been used previously to safeguard workers in the aerospace and automotive industries.

The Chief Executive for the Association for Consultancy and Engineering, Hannah Vickers said: “This is a proven solution with a strong track-record in other sectors, cross-industry support and pledges from our leading employers. It is vital we keep the skills in our sector to avoid a talent drain and is the only way we will be able to ramp-up activity to lead the recovery of the wider economy and deliver growth through new buildings and infrastructure.”

Funding for the scheme has been secured until the end of the financial year. The platform will be free for any organisation to use.

Finding construction contracts

Are you currently looking for construction contracts in your field? Our Construction Tenders portal takes the headache out of the sourcing process.

Finding new contract opportunities is a full-time job. We know because we have a dedicated team who do this daily to ensure your business never misses a construction lead.

Below are previous construction tenders sourced on our portal:

West Thames College – M & E Services Tender

West Thames College- London- Budget: Undisclosed

UPVC Guttering, Soffits, Fascias and Accessories

Luton Council- Eastern- Budget: Undisclosed

Replacement or Repair of Existing Over Door Canopies

Raven Housing Trust Limited- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Quick Quote – Ronaldsway Airport Fire Station Slipway Refurbishment

Isle of Man Government- International- Budget: Undisclosed

Quick Quote – Castletown Harbour – Light Column Replacement

Isle of Man Government- International- Budget: Undisclosed

Book a free live demo to tour the system and see how the portal can help your construction business.

We source tenders for services including;

Masonry Tenders

Posted on by John Hudson

Masonry Tenders – How to bid for Masonry Contracts

Are you looking to branch out and start tendering for masonry contracts? Then this blog is for you. We’ve compiled our inside knowledge of masonry tenders so that you know what’s what when it comes to bidding for these.

As you’ll know, masonry tenders will be released by buyers who need to procure stonework or stonework repairs.

What’s different about the public sector?

Public sector tenders are a great way to secure a sustainable income for your company and build up a credible portfolio of professional references

So, what should you expect from masonry tenders in the public sector?

Tender documentation

Tender documentation for masonry tenders will mostly remain standardised across buyers and contract types within the construction industry. Masonry tenders may include:

A PAS 91.

This is a standardised Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) for construction related procurement which is used nationally. PAS 91s are the construction sector’s answer to a typical PQQ you’ll find in public tenders for other sectors.

These ensure that buyers engage companies which are safe and ethical – particularly important in the construction industry.

PAS 91s have the same structure every time for ease of use across the sector. You’ll have to answer questions in the following sections:

  • Company structure and details;
  • Financial data;
  • Insurances;
  • Environmental management;
  • Quality management;
  • Equal opportunities and diversity;
  • Health and safety;
  • Project specific questions.

Don’t worry if this sounds overwhelming. Certain accreditations exempt you from answering some sections of a PAS 91, for example:

  • ISO 14001 exempts you from answering the Environmental Management section;
  • ISO 9001 exempts you from answering the Quality Management section;
  • CHAS or OHASAS 18001 exempts you from answering the Health and Safety section;
  • Constructionline Gold exempts you from the majority of questions asked.

Constructionline Bronze and Silver will exempt you from some sections too. It’s worth looking into obtaining these accreditations as it will streamline your bidding for masonry tenders.

If you’re still stuck, our bid writing consultants at Hudson Succeed could help.

Method statements

Buyers will want to see you demonstrate your competency through written quality responses or method statements. These will appear further down in the tender documentation. These method statements may cover the following subjects:

  • Your service delivery plan. How will you deliver the requirements within the specification? What machinery will you use? How long will it take you to complete each task?
  • Contract mobilisation. Buyers might want to know your processes for how you will ensure that the contract is ready to commence on the stipulated date. Activities to complete here may entail:
    • Any necessary recruitment;
    • Additional training;
    • Ordering of equipment and/or materials;
    • Internal and external meetings;
    • Site visits.

It may be beneficial here to include a mobilisation plan – either a table within the response document or a Gantt chart as an appendix. This acts as a visual representation of which tasks you’ll undergo and how long it will take you to complete them.

  • Your staff. Here, it may be applicable to list your proposed project team, as well as their experience and qualifications. Staff development may also be relevant in this question. Points to cover could include what training (induction and ongoing) staff must undergo. Comprehensive and documented training demonstrates that staff are competent to deliver buyers’ requirements.
  • Health and Safety. Such questions may cover risk management, approach to Health and Safety or live site management. Here you could attach relevant company documentation to show your compliance and procedures. It will be important to break Health and Safety questions down, as they often ask about a ‘theme’ which has multiple elements to cover. Create subheadings here to make sure you cover everything relevant.
  • Quality assurance. Achieving zero defects, maintaining a skilled workforce and functioning machinery, monitoring your supply chain. Some companies struggle to describe concrete quality assurance processes. It’s important to mention ‘real’ or ‘concrete’ processes that can be documented and not concepts that are not anchored in best practice.
  • Environmental considerations. How do you minimise the impact of your service on the environment? This may be your approach to vehicle use, your choice of suppliers or recycling initiatives, to name a few.
  • Business continuity. How can you ensure that you can still deliver your services in the instance of an unforeseen event, such as inclement weather or staff absences? Some companies may have a Business Continuity plan or policy which underpins their approach here. Business continuity is important to buyers because they want to make sure that their suppliers will be able to deliver the work on time and on budget.

A pricing schedule

Masonry tenders will certainly include a pricing schedule. Your success will be determined by a combination of your pricing and method statement scores. It’s important to think carefully about your pricing to ensure that you fill in all fields with appropriate rates. Price competitively, but not abnormally low. Buyers reserve the right to clarify or disqualify any rates they deem abnormally low. Be reasonable and go with your instinct. Remember that you know your business best and are therefore in the best position to price your services.

But which public sector organisations will be procuring masonry work?

It could be councils, hospitals, universities or housing associations. Private tenders could be from a wide range of organisations and could require masonry services on any type of building all across the country.

Masonry tenders may appear in a variety of contract formats. These are reflective of the scope of work and the buyer’s requirements. They could be:

  • Single supplier contracts. One winner takes all. This will be the bidder with the best price and quality score combined. Winning these is harder for start-ups or new companies.
  • Framework agreements. The best proportion of bidders are successful. You’ll then be called off to bid for works, so being successful on a framework doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll definitely deliver work.
  • Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS). The best options for newer companies. DPS’ are like frameworks, but successful organisations are added to the register as and when. If you’re unsuccessful, you can apply again. Once successful, you’ll be called off for work like on a framework.

Things to bear in mind when drafting your responses

  1. Review the requirements

Make sure you look through the tender documentation so that you understand all requirements when it comes to submission. Equally, look over the specification and incorporate it into your responses. Directly addressing the buyer’s requirements is a sure-fire way to enhance your quality score.

Having a robust process for reviewing documentation will also save you time. It will prevent you from being halfway through creating a proposal and then realising you cannot meet one of the requirements.

  1. Check, check, and check again

This goes for the entirety of your tender response. PAS 91s have many fields to fill and certain attachments to append. Buyers have the right to disqualify your tender response if you don’t attach what is requested. Thoroughly review your response to ensure that you haven’t missed anything.

Similarly, if you’re the kind of person who leaves gaps to return to, make sure you’ve not left these blank! It goes without saying that complete tender submissions are the most advantageous, so don’t submit something you’ve not rigorously checked over.

  1. Give detail

For everything. This not only shows that you’ve read the specification, but also that you’ve thought about your processes. Drill down on your procedures and the way you’ll tackle the service delivery. Each sentence should have a point. Generic statements have no place in tender responses and should relate to how you’ll deliver requirements or describe the benefits of your service delivery.

  1. Plan your responses

Creating subheadings from the question will help with this. Planning responses will ensure that you give the best answer you can, while also keeping you on track. This will also give you an opportunity to have your wider team feed in where necessary, as it will identify gaps.

How can Hudson help you with Masonry Tenders?

If you’re searching for masonry tenders, Construction Tenders from Hudson Discover could help you. While other portals rely on CPV codes, Hudson Discover uses real people, Opportunity Trackers, to source daily contract opportunities for our portal customers. You’ll receive a daily email bulletin with all tenders relevant to your service offering. So, if you’re wondering how to find masonry tenders while also running your business, look no further than Construction Tenders.

Sign up to Construction Tenders today and receive a daily construction leads bulletin straight to your inbox. The bulletin contains all the relevant small, and larger, construction tenders that we have uploaded that day.

Below are some masonry tenders sourced on our portal:

Flint and Masonry Repair of Ancient Monuments

In-Tend Shared Services- Eastern- Budget: £100,000

Masonry (Brick and Block) Works Breadsall Primary School

Derbyshire County Council- East Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

Underpinning, Repairs to Masonry and Reinstatement Works – Oakwood Road

London Borough of Hillingdon- London- Budget: £140,000

Masonry Repairs to the Art Block at Taunton Campus

Bridgwater and Taunton College- South West- Budget: Undisclosed

Masonry Repairs St Helen’s Church, Worcester

PCC All Saints, Worcester- West Midlands- Budget: £220,000

Our Opportunity Trackers manually scour and upload masonry tenders from hundreds of sites across the UK. You are able to filter the results by budget, location, keyword and more. This saves you even more time. Our Construction Tenders portal also hosts opportunities across the construction industry.

And if you’ve found a construction contract you like the look of but don’t know where to begin, have a chat with our expert consultants at Hudson Succeed. They have four support packages to help you see success in your construction bids. Get in touch for more information.

Need help writing your next tender?

If you don’t have the resources or time to write a winning bid, why not outsource it? Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% success rate and has over 60 years of collective bidding experience. They offer four bid writing support packages to help you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to tendering, or simply need someone to proof your written response before you submit – we can help.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who have never tendered before. This 4-week programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you’re already tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll give you feedback and guidance on how to improve, helping you to secure your next structural engineering tender.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written a tender and need someone to proofread it – Tender Mentor is for you. A Bid Writer will double-check it’s in line with the specification and free of any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect tender but don’t know where to start – we can help. Send the specification over to us and our Bid Team will do the rest. They’ll let you know what they need from you and provide you with a full breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on your business.

Get in touch to find out more information.

We actively source tenders for the following sub-sectors:

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