Asking for advice on gov't contracts

i have been contacted about bidding government jobs, looking for advice about it. I want to go to Florida and Texas and get in on the clean up. But I don't honestly know how to bid these jobs. Proof that they are real. I have been sent a contract to be a sub with another company. Any advice will be appreaciated, I have a small excavating company in Missouri. Eager to get out there and just do more I have good work here just figure winter is almost here and ready to get more going.

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House in DC:

One is from New York , another is from Tennessee and the third, is from

Florida . All three go with a White House official to examine the fence.

The Florida contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring,

then works some figures with a pencil. 'Well,' he says, 'I figure the job will run

about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me.'

The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says,

'I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100

profit for me.'

The New York contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the

White House official and whispers, '$2,700.'

The official, incredulous, says, 'You didn't even measure like the other guys!

How did you come up with such a high figure?'

The New York contractor whispers back, '$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we

hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence.'

'Done!' replies the government official.

And that, my friends, is how government contracting works! :whistle

Government contracts usually benefit the Primary contractor as they dole out the funds to subs, Check the fine line language so you do not get stuck with excess expenses the Primary won't eat.

Better have deep pockets for operating expenses. How often do you get paid. You will have to be up to snuff on your paper work. Be cautious.

Yes sir, you will be financing the operation. Put lots of money on your bid. There are so many unexpected delays because the government never gets in a hurry and takes forever to make a decision. Something unexpected always comes up in a government job.

Also be sure to check the contract over really well, some cities, including my own have a clause stating that you can be fined for going past a deadline without having conditions to back it up such as weather. Half your guys quit showing up you pay the price, get rained out for a month, no biggie.

Called CYA in non-legalese. Can lose a fortune in a hurry if not read out completely for those finite little details.

I was (and still am) the Public Works Coordinator for the County Emergency Manager in 1998 when we had a big straight line wind event. Lots of trees down. FEMA has standby contracts in place with BIG companies. Asplundh Tree Service was "my" assigned contractor. The Michigan Division manager was my contact. They sent a few of their company trucks but most were companies subcontracted to them for the event. The equipment (mostly self loading high volume capacity debris boxes) was staged at our highway maintenance facilities. They came from NC, SC, AL, GA - southern states and it sounded like they had standby agreements with Asplundh in other words the paperwork is in place to respond immediately. Some of trucks were in such condition we were surprised they made it to Michigan from the south.

A friend of mine has a "services" business, crane, rigging, moving, anything to make a buck. He scrambled and bought 5 big chippers from out of state to get in on the action. He offered the crane to get the trees off the houses, chipper to chip up the branches, semi to haul the logs away etc. He got a few private contracts and never got a contract thru the FEMA funded cleanup.

My point is if you don't have anything in place with one of the big guys (or girls - DBE) at this time, it's not likely you will get any work.

Several contractors I know jumped in on the April 2011 tornados that ripped through the southeast, Central Alabama was hit very hard.

They all got on with a big company that held a FEMA contract. Long story short - they got paid a fraction to actual do the cleanup work compared to what the GC was getting paid. They had to fight for their money as each section they cleaned up and submitted payment for was looked over with a fine tooth comb. Track mark on the asphalt - deduct in payment and things of that sort.

The way it worked here was one large company had the contract with FEMA. That company then let subcontracts out to other larger regional contractors who them sub'd the actual clean up work to smaller companies. At each tier a piece of the pie was removed.

My advice is stay away. You'll be doing all the actual work, get paid a fraction of the contract amount if you get paid at all.