Just had a site visit from a potential client regarding a nice big project that is scheduled to take 12 months to complete – with the possibility of much more further down the line.
My tender document was [apparently] spot on (thanks Geoff) and I think our price is right also.
BUT my business is small and operates out of some converted barns at my house. To give you an idea of the office size there’s me and two other staff at the moment but this could be, and has been in the past, up to six people working here.
I may be being pessimistic but I have this niggling doubt that, just because we’re not in a ‘proper’ office on a business park, the client will think we can’t do the job regardless of the fact that we easily can and have a track record of completing bigger tasks.
Although I know that I cannot have done any more, I’m going to be very very pee’d off if we don’t get the job. 🙁

fingers crossed for you. similar position here, we don’t do proper offices either. No point when there’s only two of you, but trying to get contracts with blue chip companies and public sector, there’s an expectation of fanciness.

I don’t know anything but hope you get the work.

Good luck!

Edit:
Just clicked on your name / link and now double hope you get the work as Mrs Tiger is from Alpraham and we have friends in Duddon. Good karma your way fella…

Get a serviced office somewhere?

I work in one and there are loads of small businesses in here. Means there is a secretary at the main desk, professional looking rooms, and conference/meeting rooms.

If I were selecting possible vendors/partners the place of business is not in my criteria. Past experience of delivering similar projects, company profile etc on the softer side of things are the key attributes for me.

Although it depends on the client, if they have decent supplier engagement processes then you’ll be fine.

“Get a serviced office somewhere?”

My old man does that. He works in his spare bedroom, but holds meetings at a posh office in central Manchester. The secretary there answers the phone with his company name, and puts the call through to his mobile. Having a business card with a central Manchester address and phone number is probably quite useful to the business…

we have friends in Duddon.

nice one…. only 1 mile away. Some of our best freinds live there also (I ride with the husband)

A friend of mine runs I think the commercial dept of some web design outfit in Cardiff. She said that people would be happily dealing with them until they said ‘oh can we come to your London office’. They don’t have one, and that apparently put a lot of people off.

Not really many ….

….mountains round there though

1 hill at Beeston

The furthest you can normally see is the next hedge, close to Wales though 🙂

1 hill at Beeston

….and you can’t even ride there!! Clwyds is only 30 mins away though and Delamere is fun on a Sunday morning.

If you’ve completed similar projects in the past I’d be more likely to give you the job as you show enough confidence not to buy into corporate showy bollox, and that.

What iDave said – fingers crossed!

What iDave said too.

If they can’t see that you’re good enough to do it, then **** ’em.

(Which of course is easy for me to say)

Best of luck!

I ran a firm from my shed and nailed a number of large government contracts. HMRC was one and they came for a site visit. They seemed to like supporting a small business. Dont get dragged into the company image mire, just do good stuff at good rates for happy customers.

less of the location, more the value of the company with respect to the value of any potential contract. if the company value is much less than the contract; this is difficult………….

For what its worth, the barn location would not be a problem for me (I know a few companies like this). In fact I prefer something different to the usual boring tech park.

Good luck….

@sharkbait – I don’t know what you’re industry is, but if it’s fairly creative ie design or something, then working out of converted barns could be seen as quite innovative and arty. For me it would certainly not put me off, as long as people had a good track record. And you could always say that you work best in a more relaxed environment. It depends how you kind of play it. But you could hike the PR factor and make them feel that this is kind of the new way to do things, which it genuinely is for a lot of people.

Just adding to this, you could something like working where you do cuts down your commuting time and your overheads so that you can devote far more time to your work, and you can price your tenders whatever more competively …. ;))

A decent set of accounts (which can of course be cooked) can also make the difference. Plenty of ‘bigger’ firms operate with big losses and weird cashflows, whereas some smaller/boutique types sometimes run things tighter.

Update:
God I hate being right…. didn’t get it 😥

You could ask for honest feedback to find out what the reason was.

Feel for you – lost tenders to the tune of about 12 months total business running costs in the last month.

There will be others.

I run a business from home, we have had some big contracts (not sure how big you are talking though).

Quality of pitch and relevant experience/who you know are far more important than where your office is.

Try not to worry so much!

See if you can get some feedback, if you’re blaming it on the location but it’s something else you could fix then it would be good to know.

Have you got reference sites/projects/clients who will testify to your compitance or allow a site visit (depending on what your business is obviously). It may help or not but could be worth a punt.

Personally I’d be more likely to go for your company not being in a massive complex… does you business no harm.

I am a massive fan of people doing stuff out of their sheds.

I commend thee! and good luck.

According to the letter the successful bidder quoted 10% less than we did – that’s a very very cheap price and my consolation is that I was already questioning the price I’d submitted.
At the lower price I’d a have been a busy fool!

S2A: Yes they did a site visit and I did include references for long standing clients.
Just got to get my head down and find some more work but it’s a rare commodity at the moment.

According to the letter the successful bidder quoted 10% less than we did

It is tough isn’t it?

Back in June we had a competitor quote 60% LESS than us AND promised the project would be completed within 6 weeks. The project isn’t live yet.

I hate this sort of thing – we could have promised silly deadlines then not meet them but we prefer to be upfront and honest.

@ sharkbait, what do you consider to be the USP of your company?
@ mastiles, I trust you left the client with a good impression of your willingness to pick up the pieces when the 60%meister fails.

Sharkbait what do you do?

Sorry to hear the news fella – as you say though if you were sceptical about your price 10% less or more wouldn’t be any good for you. Would you have been able to service other contracts too. In the current climate maybe small jobs “at cost” may be worth taking to keep money coming in but 12 months with no payback is a risky strategy.

Onwards and upwards mate!

Sharkbait what do you do?

http://www.targetmedia.net

🙂

I guess that if there’s no difference I’ll go to the cheapest option.
😕