Yes, I do exist. And yes, I have made over £1,000,000 in the last decade, as a one-man band, purely through public sector tendering.
And the best bit is, I could have made much, much more. The fact is, when the work you bring in pays better, it allows you to take on less projects; to bring in more contractors to help you deliver; and ultimately to have more spare time to spend with your family and hobbies…something I’ve made the most of over the last ten years.
My background is in ‘big agency’ – before I set up on my own, I ran a 30-strong team which was in turn part of a 200 strong multi-national agency in the UK. With that many mouthes to feed, we needed a steady flow of high budget jobs (6 figure minimum) to keep the lights turned on and the beer fridge well stocked.
This particular agency had found a real niche in responding to public sector tenders, originally because we specialised in the kinds of big budget software that the public sector preferred to use in the early 2000’s, but as the marketplace adapted, so did we, and public sector tenders gave us access to a vast group of clients who – at the time – were expected to refresh their digital services every 3 – 5 years, and with good money to spend.
Fast forward a few years, and I’d decided to set up shop on my own, and after a few early consultancy gigs, I found myself struggling to find decent work. Sure, there were lots of small contracts and jobs that I could fill my time with, but nothing that really appealed. I’d learned during my big agency days that a small website can take nearly as much time and effort to deliver as a large one; indeed, small clients tended to be more protective and demanding with their smaller budgets, as it was usually every penny they had…large clients had other things to focus on.
As such, I was determined not to become just another small web designer, doing small projects for local clients. No offence if that model works for you, but I was already 15 years into this industry and not really looking to make it the only thing I did with my waking hours.
At the same time, I was renting a desk from a couple of freelance designers who had been working solo for a few years, and they too were wondering the same thing…
How the hell do we make decent money doing this?
That’s when I decided to look back into something I had a lot of experience in – public tenders. I’d assumed they were for the big agencies, with large teams and a pile of case studies, but as I found out – through a lot of trial and error – that’s not true.
I turned public tendering into my sole source of income, either for new projects, or increasingly from repeat work with clients I’d engaged through the tendering process. In doing so, I was suddenly making far more money per week than I’d made per month in the early days, with less stress, working with nicer clients, and being paid on time, every time.
And so, to this course, and our free download. It’s everything I’ve learned over the last 10 years of responding to public sector tenders – how to deal with the fact you’re a small or even solo team; how to identify the opportunities that you can really excel at, and importantly how to leave the ones you won’t win alone, to maximise the time you have responding to the ones you can close.
You might find the free download is all you need, and if so – great! I’m genuinely happy with another small team or sole trader improves their situation with some better paid work. But if you do need some extra help, our course is everything you need to skip the learning curve and get right into the detail of how to make public sector tendering work for you. And we have a ton of new content to come, all of which will be free to paid members.
If you have any questions, just drop me myself or the team a line on info@abmentor.co.uk, and we’ll get right back to you.