How to find government tenders for your business…and win

Bidding for government tenders is a great way to expand your business. However, sourcing public sector contracts can be a tricky, time-consuming process.

If you need help with the tendering process, keep reading our complete guide to government tenders!

About government tenders in the UK

When businesses are searching for ways to grow their business, government tenders should be their first port of call. Especially if your business is an SME. To encourage SMEs to tender, the UK Government have pledged to spend £1 in every £3 on small businesses. In fact, the government aims to award 33% of contracts to small businesses. This is great news for SMEs that often struggle to compete against ‘big business’ suppliers.

That’s not the only advantage of government tenders. Let’s take a look at some more:

• Guaranteed pay

Tendering for work in the public sector means that your business is guaranteed pay upon winning the contract. This is because, unlike private buyers, public organisations are bound by contractual agreements.

In fact, the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) must pay suppliers within 60 days of invoicing. This is to comply with the Prompt Payment Code.

This is a huge advantage of government tenders, as suppliers can rest assured that their business will be paid.

• Gain experience

To secure larger projects and expand your business, you need to demonstrate your experience to the buyer. Typically, buyers are looking for 2 – 3 relevant case studies from the past 3 – 5 years.

For many start-ups and SMEs, this discourages them from tendering for contracts. However, government tenders are actually a great way to gain experience in the bidding process. We usually advise first-time tenderers to bid for contracts as part of framework agreements or dynamic purchasing systems (DPS). These often act as stepping stones for new businesses, providing them with the necessary experience to tender for larger contracts.

• Make contacts

We’ve already established that bidding for government tenders is a great way to build experience. However, they’re also an opportunity to make contacts with other businesses. In turn, this will increase your chances of tendering success in the future.

When you build relationships with buyers, the more experience you’ll gain. The more experience you have, the bigger the contracts that you can tender for. The bigger the contracts, the more your business will grow. Therefore, making contacts is a huge advantage of bidding for government tenders.

• Fair and transparent process

Another advantage of government tenders is the fair and transparent nature of the tendering process. This is because the government have to be open and honest about public spending. Unlike private buyers, public organisations are required to make their processes public and offer feedback to suppliers, win or lose. As a result, nothing is hidden in public procurement.

What’s included in government tenders? 

Government tenders include work within the following:

• Central civil government departments and agencies
• The NHS and its local trusts
• The MOD (Ministry of Defence)
• Local authorities/local government
• Universities and colleges
• State-run schools.

If you’re struggling to find government tenders for your business, take a look at our Hudson Discover Division.

Hudson Discover houses 11 sector-specific tendering portals, all of which will take the headache out of sourcing new tenders. You don’t have to spend hours and hours sifting through irrelevant opportunities. Our Opportunity Trackers manually source and categorise tendering opportunities, so you only see those relevant to your sector.

Our 11 sector-specific portals include:

Creative Tenders

At Creative Tenders, we are dedicated to helping your creative business grow. We source tendering opportunities for all subsectors in the creative industry, including:

• Digital
• Design
• Marketing and PR
• Events management
• Video and animation
• Print.

Construction Tenders

With Construction Tenders, we help your business find construction leads. The subsectors that we source tendering opportunities for include:

• Refurbishment
• Building works
• Small construction tenders
• Civil engineering
• Electrical tenders
• Surveying
• Demolition
• Flooring
• M&E
• Cost consultancy
• Painting and decorating
• Masonry.

Healthcare Tenders

Healthcare Tenders are in continuous demand throughout the UK. The NHS and local authorities need quality healthcare services, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our portal brings all the government tenders in the healthcare sector to one, easy-to-use platform. This includes the following subsectors:

• Domiciliary care
• Medical PPE
• Social care
• Mental health
• Hospital tenders
• Orthodontic tenders
• Medical supplies.

Facilities Tenders

If your business is in facilities management, then Facilities Tenders can help you find your next tendering opportunity. The subsectors we cover include:

• Facilities management
• Commercial cleaning
• Landscaping
• Manned security
• Pest control.

Logistics Tenders

For government tenders in the transport sector, visit Logistics Tenders. The subsectors we source tenders for include:

• Public transport
• School taxi contracts
• London bus tenders.

Research Tenders

Many government tenders are in the research sector, with buyers from local councils to universities to charities. If you’re looking for research-related contracts, you might find your next opportunity on Research Tenders.

The services we source tenders for include:

• Market research
• Business development research
• Social research
• Academic research
• Evaluation services
• Environmental research.

Technology Tenders

Technology Tenders is dedicated to growing businesses in the technology sector. From IT support to security systems, we’ll help you find relevant opportunities for your business. The subsector we source tenders for include:

• IT support
• Systems and software
• Hardware
• Network and communications
• Security systems.

Consultancy Tenders

Do you need help finding government tenders for your consultancy business? Then Consultancy Tenders can help! We’ll help you find tendering opportunities that are specific to your sector, including:

• Training
• Project management
• Accreditations
• Management consultancy
• Apprenticeships
• Business support.

HR Tenders

Are you searching for HR business opportunities? If so, HR Tenders will simplify the process for you. We source tendering opportunities for a range of HR-related services, including:

• HR consultancy
• Recruitment
• HR training
• Appraisal systems
• Health and safety training
• Performance management.

Hospitality Tenders

At Hospitality Tenders, you’ll find relevant government tenders for your hospitality business, from catering to events. We’re dedicated to growing your business, so we source tendering opportunities from across the entire hospitality sector, including:

• Catering services
• Catering equipment
• Events services and management
• Laundry services
• School meals.

Finance Tenders

Government tenders in the finance sector can be tricky to find. But at Finance Tenders, we take care of the hard part for you! We’ll help your business grow by sourcing tendering opportunities from different subsectors, including:

• Tax
• Accountancy
• Insurance
• Investment
• Payroll
• Treasury
• Audit
• VAT.

What are the benefits of using our portals to find government tenders?

You might be thinking, ‘why should I rely on Hudson Discover to find government tenders for my business?’

Let’s take a look at the benefits of our Discover portals…

• No CPV codes

Unlike other platforms, we don’t rely on CPV codes. Instead, our team of Opportunity Trackers scour over 1000 different websites, searching for tender contracts. Then, the team manually upload the opportunity to the relevant portal, ready for your business to find!

• Only find relevant opportunities

We know just how difficult and time-consuming sourcing tenders can be. You have to wade your way through different tenders until you find something suitable for your business.

With Hudson Discover, you’ll only find opportunities that are relevant to your business. Our portals are sector-specific, making it easier to find your next opportunity.

• Opportunities are categorised by subsector

Not only are our Discover portals sector-specific, but we also categorise each tendering opportunity by subsector. Using keywords, you can search for government tenders that relate to your specific goods and services.

4 tips for securing government tenders for your business

Finding a suitable government tender for your business is only half the battle. Once you’ve found a tender opportunity, it’s time to bid for the contract.

Here are our tips for securing government tenders for your business:

1. Break down the question

When you’re tendering for work, you’ll find that many buyers ask multiple questions in one. To fully understand the buyer’s requirements, it’s important to break down the question into separate subheadings. By doing this, you can make sure that you address every part of the question. Otherwise, you could accidentally miss out the key details that are crucial to your success.

2. Give yourself plenty of time

Throughout the entire tendering process, your time-management skills should be second to none. If you don’t plan your time effectively, you run the risk of rushing to complete the bid. And that’s something you should avoid at all costs!

If the deadline is 5pm, don’t wait until 4:58pm to submit. If there’s a problem with the portal or a technological malfunction, you could miss the deadline. The buyer won’t be impressed with a late submission.

3. Provide relevant evidence

As we’ve already established, you need to submit 2 – 3 case studies, ideally from the last 3 – 5 years. However, you can’t just submit any old evidence and expect to win. For successful tendering, your evidence needs to be relevant to the buyer’s contract.

Make sure your case studies are similar in size and scope to the buyer’s specifications. They need to see that you’re capable of delivering their project. If it’s not relevant, don’t include it.

4. Proofread, proofread, proofread!

To win government tenders, it’s crucial that you proofread your tender response. Submitting a bid full of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors won’t impress the buyer. It looks lazy and unprofessional. In fact, they might assume that you don’t care enough about the project, therefore hindering your chances of success.

To make sure this doesn’t happen, you could ask someone else to proofread your work for you. It’s easy to miss mistakes in our own work, especially when we’re working with longer documents. So, a second pair of eyes will ensure that your tender response is completely error-free.

Do you need help with a tender? We can help!  

Once you’ve found a suitable contract for your business, we can help you write your tender response.

Hudson Succeed is our bid writing consultancy, offering tender writing services and support to SMEs. Our Bid Writing Team has over 60 years of collective experience and proudly hold an 87% success rate.

Our tender writing services gives organisations of all sizes, at various stages of growth, a chance to succeed with tendering. Hudson Succeed can help if you’re completely new to tendering or aren’t seeing success from your current tendering responses.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written a tender response and want someone to double-check it for errors, then Tender Mentor is for you. One of our Bid Writers will proofread it for any grammar or spelling mistakes. They’ll also check it’s in line with the specification before you submit it.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect tender for your business, but don’t know where to start – send it our way. Our Bid Team will take care of it all for you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown. They’ll let you know what they need from you and even submit it on your behalf!

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who are completely new to the tendering process. This programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully. The programme also includes bid writing support and a 12-month Discover subscription to a portal of your choice.

Tender Improvement

If you’ve already been tendering for work, but aren’t seeing success, our Tender Improvement programme can help. During the course of the programme, our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll then give you feedback and guidance on how to improve.

Both Tender Ready, and Tender Improvement offer:

• A 12-month subscription to the sector-specific portal of your choice.
• Access to our Global Bid Director and Senior Bidding Professionals with 60 years of bidding experience.
• A dedicated Bid Consultant with the programme, lasting up to three months.
• The development of an organisation-wide bid library. This includes 3 case studies, 5 company CVs and 8 policies.

The business landscape has changed drastically over the last year. As a business development consultancy, we believe it’s crucial to offer businesses sustainable solutions for expansion. That has never been more appropriate than it is today.

Get in touch with our team, for a friendly chat about our services.