My advice is for <b>you</b> the contractor to "tell" or "suggest" to the customer what they need as to your services. Often times the specifications they provide you with ... are way out of whack with the real needs on their grounds.
Don't trust specs handed to you, because all you need to be is off by just one mowing frequency (not needed) and with a larger property you'll lose the bid based on just that. You can "force" the numbers to work in your favor (and theirs) by doing your own scope of work outline.
<b>Many of the specs out there aren't worth the paper they're written on.</b>
The customer should not have to tell you what your job will be. It's the other way around. Besides, in commercial, many contractors who otherwise "win" a bid by low price (isn't performing) the work as stated in the specs, cutting corners to make a low bid contract turn a profit. After turning in a low bid, watch out for unscrupulous contractors that then avoid the work as outlined, going back to a "only give em what they paid for" attitude. Many jobs are lost to honest contractors for this reason.
Often times an "equal playing field" consists of work not realistic to the site. Use the specs as an outline, use them as a general guide but <b>be aware </b>that many of them are outdated, contain excessive frequencies as to mowing, pruning and other work so much so that if you bid to their specs ... you might overbid or underbid. Many bids don't contain clear language and leave a lot to be desired. Left up to ones imagination.
The specifications on many sites don't at all live up to or match the work you see being done on the ground. It's a caution to use some judgment when using supplied specs.
<i><b>Real life example ...</b></i>
I have bid millions of dollars in commercial grounds contracts and can say that in only a few cases ... were the specs accurate enough to take them for "bible" ... when I pointed out the inconsistencies that I found ... more often than not my own set of specs (rewritten) from the originals produced a far better interpretation of what really needed to be done to maintain the sites.
On one large condo site, walk edging work was in the specs that hadn't been done in (years) yet there were (miles) of walks. So do you take this spec within the bid seriously and if so why was the work not done the prior year?
Bring some insight with you, think outside the box. Often times you can save the customer money, win the job by being honest, don't jump off the bridge with everybody else.
Have A Nice Day!!!!!![]
Don't trust specs handed to you, because all you need to be is off by just one mowing frequency (not needed) and with a larger property you'll lose the bid based on just that. You can "force" the numbers to work in your favor (and theirs) by doing your own scope of work outline.
<b>Many of the specs out there aren't worth the paper they're written on.</b>
The customer should not have to tell you what your job will be. It's the other way around. Besides, in commercial, many contractors who otherwise "win" a bid by low price (isn't performing) the work as stated in the specs, cutting corners to make a low bid contract turn a profit. After turning in a low bid, watch out for unscrupulous contractors that then avoid the work as outlined, going back to a "only give em what they paid for" attitude. Many jobs are lost to honest contractors for this reason.
Often times an "equal playing field" consists of work not realistic to the site. Use the specs as an outline, use them as a general guide but <b>be aware </b>that many of them are outdated, contain excessive frequencies as to mowing, pruning and other work so much so that if you bid to their specs ... you might overbid or underbid. Many bids don't contain clear language and leave a lot to be desired. Left up to ones imagination.
The specifications on many sites don't at all live up to or match the work you see being done on the ground. It's a caution to use some judgment when using supplied specs.
<i><b>Real life example ...</b></i>
I have bid millions of dollars in commercial grounds contracts and can say that in only a few cases ... were the specs accurate enough to take them for "bible" ... when I pointed out the inconsistencies that I found ... more often than not my own set of specs (rewritten) from the originals produced a far better interpretation of what really needed to be done to maintain the sites.
On one large condo site, walk edging work was in the specs that hadn't been done in (years) yet there were (miles) of walks. So do you take this spec within the bid seriously and if so why was the work not done the prior year?
Bring some insight with you, think outside the box. Often times you can save the customer money, win the job by being honest, don't jump off the bridge with everybody else.
Have A Nice Day!!!!!![]