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@flga-2-2 word, brother, no bad, all good.
why not specify dates?
Simple. On 8/3 you send a proposal promising delivery on 8/31. The client delays giving NTP until 8/25, but your proposal still specifies delivery on 8/31. Now you are behind the 8 ball. Instead, say delivery will be 4 weeks after NTP. Then when he gives the 8/25 NTP, you have until 9/22 to deliver. Knowing all this, the client is motivated to not delay the NTP. Without this, the client pays no penalty for shopping things until the last minute.
we anticipate completing the survey (weather/workload dependent) on or before 08.31.2023
Suppose you take your truck to the shop for maintenance. The mechanic says it will be ready at 5pm, workload dependent. You show up at 5 and he says, “we got busy, your truck isn’t ready. Tomorrow doesn’t look good either”. Are you going to use that shop again?
@mightymoe I actually had several previous contracts with the USFS. The best was a 3-year with Dennis Mouland as the C.O. Very profitable, educational and downright fun.
How do the good people of the board respond to potential clients that are in a big hurry, but they’re price shopping?
When people say they are in a hurry, then ask for anything at all other than T&M, “Let’s get going!”, they are lying to you. Flat out lying. (Don’t feel offended, they are lying to themselves as well.)
-All thoughts my own, except my typos and when I am wrong.In another life, I worked for a mid-sized engineering firm. We spent at least 80 man-hours developing a scope and budget for an 80 mile RR ROW job for the Navy, in Bremerton. Shelton to Gorst; they gave the job to somebody else.
I once wrote an elaborate scope and fee proposal for interior building survey of over 3,000 points inside multiple multi-story buildings for a government agency to test building interior navigation systems for first responders.
The engineers I wrote the proposal for were then told by purchasing that they couldn’t sole-source the project and had to issue it publicly. The RFP specification language looked very similar to my original scope. AND it was issued as a small business set aside contract and we didn’t qualify.
The happy ending is no small businesses submitted proposals due to the technical complexity and when it was issued as an open solicitation nine months later, I eventually got the job.
If the scope gets too complex, I have often considered being like our engineer cousins and charging for that sort of work.
-All thoughts my own, except my typos and when I am wrong.@norman-oklahoma maybe you missed this detail in my post earlier, underline added here:
“If we receive the signed contract and non-refundable 50% retainer fee on or before 07.31.2023, then we anticipate completing the survey (weather/workload dependent) on or before 08.31.2023.”
And regarding (weather/workload dependent), this has not hurt my business yet.
Sometimes I feel all I do is try to manage expectations for a living.
My system works well for me. I shared it here in hopes it might help someone else.
As our friend Dougie says, I hope you have a good weekend, I know I will.
Happy Friday!
Instead, say delivery will be 4 weeks after NTP.
I prefer to nail these down to current timeframes, when I have a better handle on current workload. I don’t want a proposal hanging out there with an estimated (not promised or guaranteed) timeframe of say 4 weeks. Then when the client finally issues the NTP months later, who knows what my workload will be then?
Instead, say delivery will be 4 weeks after
“If we receive the signed contract and non-refundable 50% retainer fee on or before 07.31.2023, then we anticipate completing the survey (weather/workload dependent) on or before 08.31.2023.”
The part of that which I have trouble with is the “(weather/workload dependent)” statement. I might even be able to come to terms with the “weather dependent” part, seeing in that is something you have no control over. But the “workload dependent” part is a non-starter, for me. You know what your workload is when you propose, and you will know what it is when you make future proposals. Manage accordingly. And yes, managing expectations is a huge part of that.
Price shoppers don’t bother me at all, but… I throw out what I think are pretty fat numbers since it would be weekend work for me and I really enjoy my free time.
My favorite response to the query for a “ballpark” figure is 56,300. That’s how many people Dodger stadium holds (I think).
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