How to decide whether to bid for a public contract

The most expensive habit in public-sector bidding isn't losing — it's bidding on the wrong tenders. A small firm's realistic cost per bid (an evening or three of the owner's time, references chased, insurances evidenced) is £300–£1,500 of effort. Spend that on notices you were never going to win and bidding "doesn't work"; spend it selectively and public work becomes the steadiest pipeline a trade firm can have.

Three questions, in order:

1. Can you actually bid? Dealbreakers first: is the deadline realistic for a proper submission? Do you hold — or can you genuinely get in time — the required insurance and accreditations (£5m public liability and an SSIP scheme are the usual bar)? Is there a mandatory site visit you can attend? Any "no" here voids everything else — a 90%-perfect bid with a missing mandatory requirement scores zero.

2. Is it the right size? Buyers check financial proportionality — a contract worth more than roughly half your annual turnover invites rejection on financial standing alone. And winning work you can't staff damages the references that future bids depend on. Too small has a cost too: the paperwork on a £5k job is often the same as on a £50k one.

3. Can you win it, profitably? Do you have comparable references (private-sector ones count)? Is there margin at a price that can win? And is the effort proportionate — a one-off job justifies less bid effort than a framework place that feeds you work for four years. Strategic exception: a bid you'll probably lose can still be rational when it buys your first public-sector reference or forces your paperwork into shape — but decide that deliberately, not by accident.

Do it interactively: our free bid/no-bid checklist scores these nine questions with the dealbreaker logic built in, in about two minutes, and is printable for your records. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.

Live examples right now (4)

Keyword-matched from today's live Contracts Finder data (13 July 2026) — always read the official notice; the buyer's documents take precedence.

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