Tender after tender arrive on the desks of many companies. I often hear comments like... "our submission was really competitive but we were blown out of the water"... "the big guys are now fishing in our pond and are able to cut prices way below what we can afford to do"... "we used to win 2 or 3 bids out of 10, now we are lucky if it is 1 in 10, even at that the price is ludicrously low"

Two suggestions...

1. Qualify your tenders and only work on those that you believe have a chance of being successful.
   This can be done by systematically asking questions about the opportunity and evaluating the results i.e.
   
   • Is this an approved project with cleared funds?
   • Is there an incumbent?
   • Do we know the key buying criteria?
   • Do we know who the decision makers are?
   • Are we the preferred supplier?
   • Do we have the right solution?
2. Review past tenders with an external bid advisor, they will dramatically increase your success rate.
   

Banks can be frustrating particularly so if you feel it's like you are walking in a dense fog, not knowing what is a safe direction to take or one that could end up in disaster.

To function with a clear mind you need absolute clarity when it comes to your funding facilities.

Look upon any covenants that the bank might now be enforcing as a wake-up call to start carrying out the real business processes that will help YOU run your business more EFFICIENTLY,  like sales forecasts, monthly management accounts or cash flow projections.

This will not only give you back control of your business it will put you in a better footing with your bank, a true win-win situation all round!

One of the key challenges of running a modern business is taking the time out to work on your business and not exclusively in your business.

With costs being cut to the bone very often this has meant key stakeholders being more involved in the day to day running of the business.

My advice is to set some time aside from working in your business to time working on your business.

You will begin to see things differently, almost as if it were through a different pair of eyes.

The outcome and the subsequent results will astonish you!