In the Race
Barry's sample chair for a school tender came back on Tuesday, still in its wrapping, after six nights of welding. Dave's came back too, a year ago. Barry wants to know what changed.
← All episodes · Manufacturing and supply · 0:53
Most small suppliers find out about a tender when someone forwards it, or when they stumble on it with a week or so left. Then it is late nights, a rushed sample and a submission written at 2am. Whether the buyer ever unwraps the sample is out of your hands. Whether you had enough time to make a good one is not.
The fix is not working harder in the last nine days. It is hearing about the work earlier. A tender you see on day one instead of day twenty is one you can price properly, build in daylight and sleep on.
Helm Tender brings Queensland Government, Brisbane City Council and federal tenders into one feed, with a daily digest of the ones that fit your business (weekly on the free Watcher plan), so the first you hear of a school job is not nine days before it closes.
What they say
Barry: G'day, I'm Barry. I love doin' business the way I always have.
Dave: And I'm Dave. I used to. Then I found a better way.
Barry: Sample came back Tuesday. Never even unwrapped.
Dave: Nice weld.
Barry: Found the tender with nine days to go. Six nights welding.
Dave: I made a sample for a school tender last year. Mine came back too.
Barry: Yours come back in the wrap?
Dave: Twice.
Barry: So what changed?
Dave: My old way, I found school tenders with nine days to go.
Barry: And now?
Dave: Now Helm Tender shows me the buyer's own plans. Before there's a tender.
Barry: Built in daylight.
Dave: Slept, even.
Barry: Go on then. Show us.
Barry: Good chair, though.
Dave: Both of mine were.
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Barry and Dave are fictional characters.