5 Tips to win more construction contracts amid COVID-19
During the Covid-19 crisis, contractors need to protect themselves from possible legal action by adhering to the provisions of current projects, lawyer advice. The virus and its economic impact will almost alter existing plans for owners, developers, general contractors, subcontractors, and everyone else down the chain. Many of us are worried under these circumstances, still there are ways to ensure you are protected going forward. In the current situation, you need to work more smartly to get more projects. You need to bid smartly with fewer proposals as due to Covid-19 you do not have a lot to explain and many proposals to show. Few of the ways to bid smartly and get more construction projects in this situation are given below.
Approach the quality construction projects:
Opting for the right project to get associated with is extremely important. Do not try to jump over every project open for bid. Be aware of what you can deliver with best in this current situation with all the things in mind that what are your powers and what is profitable enough to keep your firm running smoothly. Construction projects usually demand a lot of investment in terms of time and resources. Better than getting stuck in a project and regretting it later is to take a sufficient amount of time to consider every aspect of the project. Spend a sufficient amount of time to study the project details and requirements and do the math if it is profitable to you or not in this viral situation.
Take a site tour and talk to authorities:
Reading the site conditions properly can help a lot of nuances and complications that otherwise may catch you off-guard and disturb the number balance midway. Noting down the obstructions, accessible and inaccessible routes, availability of equipment, additional investments could further help you crunch the numbers and help you decide the worth of the project. Meet the authorities and seek clarification relevant to the plans and site conditions. This is extremely important to hold as you might get to know about some obscure details regarding the project which you might not be able to obtain just through reading the specifications. You have to have such details so that you can create an estimate as precisely as possible. A site tour will help you know the area and more about virus spread in the area. So, you can prepare to work will all the health safety measurements.
Review Profitability:
Once you have ascertained all the job costs, material, labor, bonding, supplies, and equipment accurately, put your profit margin on the table and see if you are getting the desired profits. If your profit margin is not what you expected, it could be either because of your imprecise estimate, or the productivity issues on the job site which is causing job costs higher than your estimate. Regardless of whatever the reason is, you should work to resolve the issues to get the profit margin where they need to be. John Smith from QTO Estimating says that construction companies are outsourcing material takeoffs during these hard days.
Understand the market Fluctuations:
Fluctuations in the costs and availability of materials are inevitable. Therefore, construction contracts usually come with a provision for fluctuations that may allow for the changes in the cost of labor, transport, taxation, material, and access of material, cost and availability during the construction phase, so you should prepare your estimate accordingly. Delays in the delivery of material and eventually the project would increase the project costs and may have serious political or business consequences. Effect of inflation in large scale projects may have a significant impact whereas, in the small-scale projects, the contractor is assumed to have considered it in the estimate.
As in this COVID-19 situation, there are a lot of difficulties regarding the material purchasing and transport. One should have better ways of controlling all these matters so that the project should easily be assigned to the contractor.
Underline the Qualifications and skillset:
If you are an experienced contractor then you would have surely held a list of successful projects and achievements. Do let the project owners know about your accomplishments and how you have tackled critical situations at different sites. This helps the owner to know your skills in the hard times and he would have a strong belief in you and your team. He would be assured that you can work better for him in this viral situation with the best without wasting time. In case you are an amateur contractor but you are confident enough about the successful execution of work, brandish your skillset, your staff, and equipment you possess. Be clear with your ideas and explain to them how you can make the job successful and are ready to face any challenge that may come. Bidding, apart from making precise estimates, is also a bit about persuasion. Convince the project owners that you are the one with all the skills and repertoire to execute the work.
