- Location
- Kalamazoo
First ever discussion posted here, so thanks for taking the time to join in. I'm in Michigan and work for a ~$1M/year full service tree company. We're small and we like it that way! I've been taking the lead on several of the last municipal RFP's that we have bid on. Most of this work is sub-$250k projects, and it's almost always for a county road commission, not MDOT. What I've noticed is two distinct characteristics of the contractors that tend to be bidding against us on these projects, and its honestly kind of discouraging. First, there will always be those excavation companies, or construction companies who are throwing out numbers that are stupid low, like BELOW my cost low. That's a total pain in the butt for me, because we take the time to go out and actually make a site visit, drive the proposed project site and take the time to build a competitive number. It sucks to do that just to be cut in half on your price by some yahoo with an excavator, a couple laborers and a dump truck.
The second thing that stands out about some of these guys is the blatant lack of worker's compensation insurance. We all know that that is glaring problem throughout the tree care industry, but it astounds me that these fools are landing sizable contracts with state/local government agencies. They're not correctly vetted, and no one seems to raise any concern about that! I find that to be a total slap in the face of the guys trying to earn it playing by the rules. Maybe you all can chime in with your experience with this type of deal, but I see it as a rash on the industry, and a strike against these agencies who knowingly hire these underqualified contractors. We all know that it won't change, if anything, it will get worse as the general cost of doing business continues to rise.
Overall, the bidding process has been interesting as I've come to terms with our true costs, that has been a huge benefit of crunching the numbers for these larger proposals. I'm still eager to chase these contracts when they make sense for us, but I'm wondering if there's a something I'm not seeing or a tip/trick that you guys have found helps to find and land some of these larger municipal jobs. I think that it's a tough road for those of us who have a higher fixed operating cost, and that just isn't going to change.
I'm interested to hear your thoughts, and it can certainly be related to anything surrounding this topic. Thanks. Have a good night, guys.
The second thing that stands out about some of these guys is the blatant lack of worker's compensation insurance. We all know that that is glaring problem throughout the tree care industry, but it astounds me that these fools are landing sizable contracts with state/local government agencies. They're not correctly vetted, and no one seems to raise any concern about that! I find that to be a total slap in the face of the guys trying to earn it playing by the rules. Maybe you all can chime in with your experience with this type of deal, but I see it as a rash on the industry, and a strike against these agencies who knowingly hire these underqualified contractors. We all know that it won't change, if anything, it will get worse as the general cost of doing business continues to rise.
Overall, the bidding process has been interesting as I've come to terms with our true costs, that has been a huge benefit of crunching the numbers for these larger proposals. I'm still eager to chase these contracts when they make sense for us, but I'm wondering if there's a something I'm not seeing or a tip/trick that you guys have found helps to find and land some of these larger municipal jobs. I think that it's a tough road for those of us who have a higher fixed operating cost, and that just isn't going to change.
I'm interested to hear your thoughts, and it can certainly be related to anything surrounding this topic. Thanks. Have a good night, guys.
