I have six years in the business. I started in apartments and do mainly residential paints or small drywall jobs. I have the estimating down pretty well. I am slow in the residential area. I wanted to know if you need to submit a more formal type bid when dealing with commercial properties or new construction. Don't get me wrong I am clear and organized when writing out my job estimates, however, I haven't done any bids for commercial, just residential. I don't know if I am overlooking some required technicalities as far as format or if I can just do a clear bid on carbon paper. Even if it isn't required I would like to know how to submit a more professional looking bid to impress potential commercial customers. Hope that was clear. Thanks!

Hi, AZAZEL!

Other than making your bid look professional and presenting it in a timely fashion, the only other special requirements that I can think of for submitting to commercial clients would be to make sure that you have it addressed to the proper person, group or entity and depending on the business organization, they might require multiple copies of it as well as your specifications that you have concerning contracts which could be addressed in brief in a cover letter that could be delivered along with the bid.

I have a nice form for bidding that I like to use, and if you would like to see it, I would be glad to show it to you.

Thanks!

One of the most important things that would make you look more Professional it to be sure and include a mechanics lien with ever bid that you submit.

Hi, AZAZEL!

Other than making your bid look professional and presenting it in a timely fashion, the only other special requirements that I can think of for submitting to commercial clients would be to make sure that you have it addressed to the proper person, group or entity and depending on the business organization, they might require multiple copies of it as well as your specifications that you have concerning contracts which could be addressed in brief in a cover letter that could be delivered along with the bid.

I have a nice form for bidding that I like to use, and if you would like to see it, I would be glad to show it to you.

Thanks!

That would be great if you showed me that form. I would appreciate it. That was a good answer. That settles my doubt. It is kind of what I thought I should do but I am so Obsessive Compulsive about getting things wrong I always double and triple check everything for no reason. Thanks for the help Clough!

Let me do a search for it. It's somewhere in my computer...