Bidding a Job Bigger Than Your Crew Can Handle

The bid is a question about staffing, not ability

Most operations that pass on a bigger job could do the work. What they cannot answer on the spot is whether they can put six people on it for three days starting the fourteenth.

That is answerable, and it is answerable before you quote, which is the whole point of this post.

Price the labor line honestly

Work it out the same way you would for your own crew, then add the parts people forget.

• The going rate for that trade in your metro, which the Daily Pay Finder gives you.
• The hours, times the people, times the days.
• A margin on the labor, because you are carrying the risk and the supervision.
• One extra person for the days that cannot slip.

Check that the people exist before you sign

Post the job before you commit and see who answers. It costs nothing, it takes an evening, and it turns a guess into a fact.

If four qualified people answer for the fourteenth, bid it. If nobody does, you learned that for free rather than at the customer's expense.

Get the classification right at this size

A day here and there is one thing. Six people for three weeks, on your schedule, with your tools, starts to look like employment to a state agency regardless of the paperwork.

Read the guide on employee or independent contractor before a big job, and have the five minute conversation with your accountant. Getting this wrong on a large job is where the real money is lost.

Insurance before the crew arrives

Ask your agent what covers somebody you bring on for a project, and whether the customer or the general contractor requires anything specific from you.

On commercial work you will often be asked for a certificate. Knowing that before you bid rather than after you win is the difference between a profitable job and a scramble.

Staff it in layers

Put your own people on the parts that need judgment and bring in help for the parts that need hands. That is how a two person operation delivers a ten person job without losing control of it.

Name one person in charge on site, and give everybody the finished picture at the start rather than a task list.