I messed up. I underbid my first big project by several thousands of dollars, and I feel completely incompetent. I put my boss and crew through a heck of a week at the project site, and now I got worry.
So, instead of going into the details, I'll tell you what I learned from my mistakes (and my two hour meeting with my boss).
- Bid better. A client may not want/be able to pay for the amount reflected on their estimate. That's understandable. Rather than reducing our prices, however, we should make suggestions about phasing the project and/or omitting certain items. In the case of this particular project, we cut costs wherever we could to fit the client's budget, and in so doing, we backed ourselves into the tinniest of corners.
- Double check. Triple check. Octuple check your numbers. I left off a portion of the estimate which cost our company, and could have easily been avoided if I checked the plant orders with the bid. There were other major discrepancies that also could have been caught. Though I had the estimate reviewed and checked initially by my co-workers, we should have gone over it again together when we were finalizing costs and placing orders.
- Don't worry about spending "too much" time creating an accurate estimate. It's better to spend company time researching and calculating costs if it results in a flawless estimate than skimping on time and underbidding the client. I often feel constrained by our itemized time sheets, because it shows how much time I spend on a project. Time spent can be interpreted as time wasted, and that's the last thing I need to worry about.
Posts
