Placing a bid.

[Panzerfaust]

Who does one talk to about bidding a big job at a place such as a shopping center or strip mall? For example: Take big landscaping company Brickman. Who would they talk to if they wanted to place a bid to landscape the Lowe's shopping area?

[Newt]

Call corporate headquarters if it's new construction. If it's an existing store, I'd say to start with the store manager.

Good luck,
Newt

[webmaster]

If you've ever had work done on your home, you may (or may not) notice that the work is sub-contracted out. Every developer has a set of trusted contractors that they work with. Every contractor has a set of sub-contractors that they work with. Many sub-contractors have their favorite corner where they pick up a group of day laborers who don't speak English to do the work.

Do you see where I'm going with this? It's a food chain and the higher up you go the less detail they know about who is doing what. A developer is in charge of the project. Find out who is developing it.

I have a feeling though that you just can't walk in and throw your bid in and walk off with a contract. There are many established companies with reputations and brand names competing for the job.

You may have to build a reputation in the landscaping community. Have you ever participated in an annual Garden Show with a presentation of your landscaping abilities? That's the IDEAL place to show off your abilities.

There are other ways for building BRAND NAME RECOGNITION and AWARENESS, I'm sure you're smart enough to figure it out.

It's a lot of hard work.

[gbronner]

Who does one talk to about bidding a big job at a place such as a shopping center or strip mall? For example: Take big landscaping company Brickman. Who would they talk to if they wanted to place a bid to landscape the Lowe's shopping area?

Genrally speaking the general contractor is charged with the responsibility of hireing the landscape contractor. During the development phase of the work in getting the city approvals and permits the developer submits plans and the city will approve based on the ordinaces . The landscape plan is usally prepareded by A landscape Arichtecht .

The Devoloper is the idea person. His Job is to find the property get the land ploted and how many units he can build on it. He finds and puts togeather the engineers the arichetect the finacing and then bids out the work to a general contractor.

The general contractor must implement the plans and complete the project at as much under the bid as possible to earn extra profits on the job.

So to get into new construction then you will want to target large general contractors. Also some cities have programs for minority participation as well as targeted job programs check with the cities you are interested in working in and get on the bid list.

If you are going after existing commercial property target the leasing agents and property managers in the different large real estate and property management firms. But be prepared there job is to keep the expenses down so you may have to low ball some of your prices.

In any case once you start contacting and meeting these people your main job is to sell them on the benefits of using you. They are busy and are looking for someone who will solve thier problems. The better you are at convincing them that you can do the job get it done quickly and with no supervision from them necessary the better your chances of getting in .

Good Luck In You Venture