11 bits of unsolicited bidding advice

1. Bidding is not estimating. First, get the cost right (estimating). Then, work on the pricing (bidding).

2. You are what you do. Actions, not what you say, define who you are.

3. Every reasonable bid is an opportunity to send a message to your team, your company, your competitors, your owners, and your market. The inverse applies: A no-bid on a job that should have been bid is a missed opportunity.

4. Most contractors fail to dissect the competition’s perspective. Don’t be like most.

5. Contractors who win every competitively bid job will go broke. Contractors who lose every job never get started. Sometimes but not every time, a contractor needs the job. Everyone must eat.

6. Cut through the noise and understand the job risk as quickly as possible.

7. In the long run, maturity is more important than accuracy.

8. If you are reading this, you likely underestimate your ability to move the market.

9. Picking margin is hard. A sense of wonder and appetite to understand all the available information at your disposal makes it easier.

10. People drive the work of estimating, not machines. Simple please’s and thank you’s go a long way to make those people feel appreciated.

11. A level head is your best asset.  

Best way to start a new job in construction?

Walk into the Pre Con meeting with every single piece of documentation the Owner requires in your hand or in their inbox.

You’d be shocked at how often engineers have to hound contractors for advance submittals and paperwork after the kick off meeting. It was mandatory where I last worked to complete it beforehand. And it never went out of style. It sent the signal that:

1. We care

2. We’re ready to go

3. We’ll hold up our end of the bargain

It’s the unsexy details that build strong relationships and great projects. And it starts with the contractor being prepared.

Annual plan?

Contractors have all finalized their 2025 plans. You know the drill - grab last year’s spreadsheet, add 5%, and hope to exceed it. Hope the bosses buy off on what we know we can beat 😉. Most annual plans are a guessing game. They rarely account for the unpredictable: disasters, market shifts, or even a pandemic.

Plans are guides. The world doesn’t always cooperate, but having a direction matters. More importantly, communicating that direction to your teams is crucial. When I say “teams,” I mean everyone - crews included. They want to know the plan and why it matters. For years, I missed this, and it hurt us.

A friend of mine recently shared his multi-year plan with everyone in his division. He had concerns: “Is this info overload?” “Will the field teams think we’re making too much money and demand raises?” “Will I look foolish?” None of these fears were valid. Instead, the response was overwhelming - they were motivated, engaged, and ready to run through walls.

One of the biggest myths in construction is that people don’t care to know what’s going on. That couldn’t be further from the truth. When you share, people get engaged.

My challenge to you: Carve out time to share your game plan for next year with your entire team. Include everyone. See what happens.

Working for the Wrong People

When work was running low in our civil division, I made a critical mistake.

We were nearing the end of a big project, and I couldn’t see where our six crews would go next. Then a large job came up for a general contractor with a terrible reputation. We’d worked with them once before, and I’d heard horror stories from other contractors - they pushed for 24/7 work, took over our tasks if they didn’t like how we were doing them, and threw us under the bus in front of the client for issues that weren’t our fault.

Despite the red flags, I made a poor decision.

I tried to be the hero. I aggressively bid the project and convinced our team to commit to an unrealistic schedule. When the GC offered us even more scope - work we had no business taking on - I said yes, overloading our crews.

You can guess how this went.

We didn’t perform well, and the GC was exactly who we thought they were. The project spiraled into a change order dispute, they held our money, and eventually sued us. In the end, we lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the project owner lost trust in us - trust that took years to rebuild.

In hindsight, I got what was coming to me. It was a hard but valuable lesson.

We would’ve been better off finding work with good clients, even if it meant a temporary gap in projects or cutting back our hours.

Don’t work for bad people. No deal is better than a bad deal. If backlog gets low this year, resist the urge to chase bad opportunities.

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We wish you a joyful holiday season filled with warmth, success, and time with loved ones!

In Case You Missed It:

The Edge Podcast with Patrick Nelson

The Number That Almost Got Me Fired

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About the Author

Tristan Wilson is the CEO and Founder of Edgevanta. We make software that helps contractors win more work at the right price. He is a 4th Generation Contractor, construction enthusiast, ultra runner, and bidding nerd. He worked his way up the ladder at Allan Myers in the Mid-Atlantic and his family’s former business Barriere Construction before starting Edgevanta in Nashville, where the company is based. Reach out to him at [email protected]