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Bobcat Introduces TL623 Telehandler
Jessica Schwartz
Six Ways To Improve Job Bids
Creating better and more accurate landscape bids should be a top priority of your sales team. Accurate and timely bids based on precise job costing data can put you on track to building long-term relationships with your clients—and lead to more profit. Here are six keys to making your next bid a winning one. 1. Be Consistent Bidding better is all about consistency—consistency in the way you’re measuring your job sites and consistency in the job cost data that you’re referencing. Whether you’re heading out and walking to your sites with a hand wheel or using GPS technology to measure off satellites, your consistency and accuracy in counts and measurements is how the bid starts off the right way. If you’re not using job costing software to track your cost data, Excel is the most common tool. If you’re already using Excel, it’s essential that all your estimators use the same spreadsheet and the same version. Whatever your method, the spreadsheet or software should accurately reflect your labor and materials costs. 2. Know Your Costs Know your actual job costs. As mentioned above, the job costing spreadsheet or software you use should include accurate costs for labor and materials. For materials costs, which can fluctuate depending on where and when you’re purchasing, make sure you’re capturing your costs as accurately and as often as possible. A job costing software may have the capability to track how much you’re actually spending, average your costs, and calculate your costs automatically. There are ...
Six Ways To Improve Job Bids
Creating better and more accurate landscape bids should be a top priority of your sales team. Accurate and timely bids based on precise job costing data can put you on track to building long-term relationships with your clients—and lead to more profit. Here are six keys to making your next bid a winning one. 1. Be Consistent Bidding better is all about consistency—consistency in the way you’re measuring your job sites and consistency in the job cost data that you’re referencing. Whether you’re heading out and walking to your sites with a hand wheel or using GPS technology to measure off satellites, your consistency and accuracy in counts and measurements is how the bid starts off the right way. If you’re not using job costing software to track your cost data, Excel is the most common tool. If you’re already using Excel, it’s essential that all your estimators use the same spreadsheet and the same version. Whatever your method, the spreadsheet or software should accurately reflect your labor and materials costs. 2. Know Your Costs Know your actual job costs. As mentioned above, the job costing spreadsheet or software you use should include accurate costs for labor and materials. For materials costs, which can fluctuate depending on where and when you’re purchasing, make sure you’re capturing your costs as accurately and as often as possible. A job costing software may have the capability to track how much you’re actually spending, average your costs, and calculate your costs automatically. There are ...
Should You Consider Municipal Work?
If you’re a landscape contractor looking to extend your revenue stream, then you might be considering municipal and other government contracts. However, even if you’re an experienced commercial landscape professional it’s important to recognize that this line of work can be quite different. Before transitioning into municipal/government work, you must first determine if you even qualify for it. According to industry consultant Fred Haskett, head harvester with The Harvest Group, municipalities, as well as state and federal agencies, often have a very clear set of specifications that a landscape company must be able to meet in order to qualify for the work. Bonding is usually part of that process and may require you to consult with legal and financial advisors. Surety bonds guarantee that your company will live up to its contract and legal obligations. Another key difference with municipality work is that it often requires adhering to prevailing wage, something that many landscape contractors are not accustomed to doing. Prevailing wage is defined as the hourly wage, usual benefits, and overtime, paid in the largest city in each county, to the majority of workers. Prevailing wages are established by regulatory agencies for each trade and occupation employed in the performance of public work, as well as by State Departments of Labor or equivalents. “Oftentimes, the government sets these jobs at a prevailing wage that is significantly higher than what local jobs are bidding out at,” Haskett says. “If you understand prevailing wage and are prepared for it, it’s not ...
