pricing and understanding THE numbers

The price you submit in a tender involves a delicate balance. Price too low and you risk winning work that doesn't make enough profit. Price too high and you may lose the project.

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Smaller contractors often start by pricing work using rules of thumb and experience. That can be a sensible starting point, but as the business develops, there are opportunities to improve pricing and make more informed decisions about which work to pursue and how much to charge.

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Using our Tender Like a Pro approach, we'll help you develop a pricing method suited to your business and the market in which you operate. You can start with the basics and build on them as you become ready to consider matters such as overhead recovery, preliminaries, gross profit and the financial information needed to price work more accurately.

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The aim is to submit competitive tenders at the highest price the market will bear, rather than simply trying to be the cheapest.

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Getting to grips with project and business finances is important, but what do you ultimately want from your business? Perhaps you want a business that is easier to manage, gives you more freedom or could be sold when you decide the time is right.

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Thinking about your future options, even if an exit is many years away, can give you a useful target and help you decide what needs to change today.

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A business that is attractive to a buyer needs more than a good turnover. It needs to demonstrate sustainable profits, reliable information, effective management and less dependence on the owner. These qualities can also make a business easier to run and give its owner greater choice.

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Through bespoke advice, we'll help you understand the drivers of business value and identify practical steps towards your objectives. Whether you want to improve the business over the short to medium term or prepare for a future sale, the advice will reflect your circumstances and ambitions.

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From-taking-a-holiday-to-leaving-a-legacy

Many businesses begin by looking at the money coming in and going out, with a fuller picture of performance emerging only when the annual accounts are prepared. If the owner's income also varies between salary and dividends, it can be difficult to distinguish the underlying performance of the business from the money taken out of it.

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As the business grows, this approach can leave the owner making important decisions using information that is incomplete or out of date.

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You can develop better financial control in manageable steps. That might begin with understanding gross profit and overheads, progress to project accounts and comparing actual costs with expectations and then extend to cashflow forecasts and regular reviews of business performance.

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The aim is not to produce more reports for their own sake. It is to give you reliable, timely information that helps you understand what is happening, spot problems earlier and make decisions with greater confidence.

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