I've been self-employed for many years. I've always advertised the old fashioned ways. Including just by doing good work and word of mouth. But by golly there are some projects I see getting done that are in our wheelhouse for sure and I never even hear about them? Is there some sort of a bid notification service that is worthwhile subscribing to? I'm obviously missing a lot of things we could be doing. We have enough work as a rule, but it's always good too know how to get more. And sometimes things are slow. Then I see these guys from out of town doing work that I know is small enough that it doesn't require being pre-qualified with the state. Because that's quite the operation to get into. There's something I'm missing here and hopefully you guys get to help. Thank you
Here, government and municipal work is announced on their website. There is also a road builders association that posts road building tenders. They used to advertise in newspapers but im not sure if that's a ting anymore. Sometimes we get invited to bid on jobs
Traveling at the moment. I’ll respond later.
First go and register at these project/plan websites - Planhub (be careful with that on in the browser ). - https://planhub.com They offer a free trail and will give you notifications of projects within a certain radius. You can subscribe and pay if you like but we do not. Blue Book - https://www.thebluebook.com/net/index.php Same with the free registration. You can pay for more services. We get alot of project notifications through this service. iSF/Construct Connect - https://app.constructconnect.com/bidcenter/tabs/inbox We do not pay a subscription for any project lead services however we are registered for all of the ones I just listed. Once you've been registered on the sites for a while you will begin to get bid invites from GC's. The majority of the retail/restaurant/big box store construction is performed by a select few pre-vetted GC's that travel certain states/regions building them. The majority of the work we do is for out of state GC's. For example we are currently working for a GC out of Georgia, one out of Oklahoma and one local owner/builder. Last year we worked for a GC out of MN which was the farthest we've worked for. These traveling GC's need subs in regions they work in and pay these services to advertise the projects. Site work being a more difficult trade to travel compared to an electrician or tile guy for example creates a situation where you can do one job for a traveling GC, do a good job and basically be their guy in the area. Most of the larger traveling GC's have their own portal on their website where you can register and get bid invites directly from them. We have several that send us invites directly. It takes a while to register at all the sites and some time to get invites however it's worth the effort. This segment of the commercial market is 90% email and computer correspondence on the bidding side. Since you are in Michigan I'm not much help on the regional traveling GC's. If you were down south I'd PM you a few to register with.
Thank you very much for taking the time to help me. I will look into it. Yes I am in upper Michigan. So not a heck of a lot going on, hence my question. Thank you again
I don’t live in Michigan, I’m in New York, but our radio stations constantly run the MEDC (Michigan Economic Development Commission) commercials telling us how friendly Michigan is to business in. I’m not taking a stab at your state but hopefully they support their own as well as looking for outsiders? In New York if you want to chase govt work, there are agencies that provide postings of upcoming projects. DASNY comes to mind… Then the old stand by Dodge Reports. Land surveying, architect and engineering firms are generally some of the first to know about projects. Back to cold calling but life’s an adventure.