Proposals for tender (eh?)

[miss direct]

AKA applying for a job (?)

I've been involved in a large project as a consultant - Covid sort of halted everything and I haven't done anything since February. Now I've been contacted, inviting me to submit a proposal for a tender (I'm probably wording this wrong, but have no idea). I probably won't get it, but thought I'd try my luck. But I'm confused. I have to name my own price? Does that mean they're more likely to choose me if I put a cheaper price? Should I put a daily or monthly rate? Before tax, after tax? I have no idea, and don't want to contact them asking these sorts of questions.

Would really appreciate some advice. This role could be a really good opportunity for me.

 

[SpookyFrank]

AKA applying for a job (?)

I've been involved in a large project as a consultant - Covid sort of halted everything and I haven't done anything since February. Now I've been contacted, inviting me to submit a proposal for a tender (I'm probably wording this wrong, but have no idea). I probably won't get it, but thought I'd try my luck. But I'm confused. I have to name my own price? Does that mean they're more likely to choose me if I put a cheaper price? Should I put a daily or monthly rate? Before tax, after tax? I have no idea, and don't want to contact them asking these sorts of questions.

Would really appreciate some advice.

Don't low ball your price. Depending on the project, it could be that whoever is making recruitment (or tendering) decisions is spending someone else's money and won't give a fuck about cost. People are also inclined to conflate value with cost and will assume that if you're selling yourself cheap, what you're selling isn't worth much.

As for daily or monthly rates, no idea I'm afraid. Again it would depend on the project, is it a fixed time thing or a fixed amount of stuff that needs to get done? But assuming you're nominally self employed you'd be asking for a gross amount and your tax and other costs should be factored into that.

 

[Athos]

It's unlikely to come down to price alone; there'll be an assessment of cost versus benefits. Also, they'll be suspicious of any bids that are too low. So, whilst you want to be competitively priced, you need to set out clearly what they're getting for their money. I imagine you'll be resounding for any tax etc.

Eta: beaten to it by SpookyFrank

 

[miss direct]

Thank you. On the previous part of the project, we got a daily rate. Should I just put that amount?

 

[Athos]

Thank you. On the previous part of the project, we got a daily rate. Should I just put that amount?

Nobody here will be able to answer that - we don't know anything about the project, or the competition.

 

[miss direct]

As for daily or monthly rates, no idea I'm afraid. Again it would depend on the project, is it a fixed time thing or a fixed amount of stuff that needs to get done? But assuming you're nominally self employed you'd be asking for a gross amount and your tax and other costs should be factored into that.

It's a six month contract. I also have no idea about being self employed and paying my own taxes. It seems unlikely that I'd earn over the threshold for this tax year.

 

[SpookyFrank]

It's a six month contract. I also have no idea about being self employed and paying my own taxes. It seems unlikely that I'd earn over the threshold for this tax year.

If it's a fixed term I would think they'd expect to be quoted a single price for that six months.

Registering as self employed with HMRC is pretty simple.

 

[miss direct]

Is that something you need to do even if you earn under the threshold? (So many questions...sorry...I've only been back in the UK for a few months after 12 years away and I don't know how things work)

 

[strung out]

Is that something you need to do even if you earn under the threshold? (So many questions...sorry...I've only been back in the UK for a few months after 12 years away and I don't know how things work)

If you earn over £1000 you still need to register as self employed and do a tax return, you just won't have to pay any tax on it.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Is that something you need to do even if you earn under the threshold? (So many questions...sorry...I've only been back in the UK for a few months after 12 years away and I don't know how things work)

Yes you have to file a tax return if you make any money at all from self employment. But it's not that difficult, particularly if you've just got the one employer and not loads of cashflow to keep track of.

 

[miss direct]

Wish I knew who else was applying. Assuming they sent the email to everyone involved in the project. There are people with far more experience and relevant degrees/Masters etc than me. I'm so fed up of filling in forms

 

[Athos]

Is that something you need to do even if you earn under the threshold? (So many questions...sorry...I've only been back in the UK for a few months after 12 years away and I don't know how things work)

Yes. Not least of all because you'll want to continue to pay NI so you are entitled to benefits in the future.

 

[miss direct]

Yes. Not least of all because you'll want to continue to pay NI so you are entitled to benefits in the future.

ah, well I've missed 12 years of payments to NI, apart from the odd summer. Don't think I'm entitled to any benefits in any case But yes, good point.

 

[StoneRoad]

miss direct

I have some experience in doing tenders ... but to help I think I need a bit more information.
Stages in tendering have their own terminology, depending on the sector & level of involvement.

Are they asking for a quote, estimate or an expression of (continued) interest ?

 

[strung out]

ah, well I've missed 12 years of payments to NI, apart from the odd summer. Don't think I'm entitled to any benefits in any case But yes, good point.

Off topic, but you might want to check your NI contributions through the HMRC gateway. Depending on your plans for retirement etc. it could make sense to at least ensure you make NI contributions going forward, or maybe even top up previous years so you are eligible for a pension. If you have at least 10 years of contributions, you're entitled to a pension.

 

[salem]

Call them up and ask them if there is an 'invitation to tender' which would answer your questions and likely ask for a shit load more to boot. If it's a more informal process then you can use the call as an opportunity to ask the questions above. They should be happy to give you the information and you'd look far better for asking what are perfectly reasonable, essential questions.

 

[miss direct]

Going through all the documents now and found the pricing section in the file called "supplier response".

Please submit your Pricing Approach with the cost items including detailed breakdown for:

1. Monthly fee for work described under 7.2

Any additional costs (if any)

 

[miss direct]

This bit's interesting: may also reject any tender response where the Overall Price for the goods and/or services is considered by the ------ to be abnormally low following the relevant processes set out under the EU procurement rules. A maximum offer score of 10 will be awarded to the tender response offering the lowest “Overall Price”.

 

[bimble]

miss direct i haven't got any useful suggestions but just to say that i'm trying to do a negotiation about money right now and notice (by talking to other people) that I have a strong tendency towards being afraid of asking too much, all my instincts basically make me a crap negotiator likely to get less out of whatever final deal is reached than I should.
Some of this will be just me but some i reckon is that women are not often encouraged to drive a hard bargain/ value what they have got highly, whilst men are rewarded for it. Try to avoid the instinct to 'not be too greedy' if you can.

 

[miss direct]

Good point. It's not so much about being greedy, more that as I'm younger and less experienced, and don't tick every single box in the other criteria, I feel I have to have a competitive price to stay in the game at all. They paid well before and it was a daily rate - I'll play with the numbers and try to come up with a monthly figure that makes sense.

 

[Winot]

Tenders are dreadful things. Even within our specialised industry the language the tender is written in often makes no sense at all. So don’t worry if you don’t understand what they’re asking; it’s unlikely to be because of any lack of knowledge on your part.

 

[trashpony]

This bit's interesting: may also reject any tender response where the Overall Price for the goods and/or services is considered by the ------ to be abnormally low following the relevant processes set out under the EU procurement rules. A maximum offer score of 10 will be awarded to the tender response offering the lowest “Overall Price”.

So is it under OJEU? This might help: Things to Help you Tender Successfully | Tenders Direct

Also there should be an indication of their scoring system in the tender. Read the document VERY carefully - they are likely to want things submitted in a particular format with restrictions on length etc. Have they sent a spreadsheet for pricing?

 

[StoneRoad]

paging equationgirl

Sorry, miss direct - I have a long standing aversion to the OJEU tendering process. Also many local authority "tendering / procurement" portals are so bureaucratic that they give me the screaming willies.

I would suggest you look at the scoring criteria very carefully indeed, there are usually hints in the documentation. IME this process & the rules often unfairly penalises individuals and small companies.

 

[miss direct]

Penalises individuals? They are only looking for one person for one position, from what I can tell. I hope.

 

[equationgirl]

paging equationgirl

Sorry, miss direct - I have a long standing aversion to the OJEU tendering process. Also many local authority "tendering / procurement" portals are so bureaucratic that they give me the screaming willies.

I would suggest you look at the scoring criteria very carefully indeed, there are usually hints in the documentation. IME this process & the rules often unfairly penalises individuals and small companies.

I'm currently running a tender, and I had to develop the scoring so as not to focus on large companies exclusively.

Get the tender document, it should contain the basis for the tender and the questions they are asking. Be clear on any closing dates, late submissions cannot be accepted. Ask questions, they will let you know if they can't answer.

 

[miss direct]

Thank you. I'm working on it now. The deadline is midnight on Monday. A friend has kindly offered to proofread and help me.

 

[StoneRoad]

Penalises individuals? They are only looking for one person for one position, from what I can tell. I hope.

Sorry, should have been clearer. This comment was referring to some local authority box-ticking, they wanted copies of written policies on equality, discrimination, safety, opportunities for everybody, and I was completing this tender as a specialist company with four staff, but one of the competitors had something in excess of 2 1/2 thousand workers ...

 

[miss direct]

Well, I didn't get it in any case. That was a waste of my time, and theirs.

 

[StoneRoad]

Well, I didn't get it in any case. That was a waste of my time, and theirs.

Condolences !

Have you asked for feedback ? Getting that information can be very illuminating.
(Which is how I got the information about the situation I mentioned in my previous post, when we were seriously misled during the process)

 

[miss direct]

Apparently, they're going to send debrief information next week. If it's another individual that got it, that worked on the previous project, I'll accept it. But if it's a big organisation, I'll be peed off.