How Can I Qualify For Tenders?

[TRobins]

I'm a small construction company (joinery specialist) and I have been trying to get more business. I want to get governement contracts, but I'm never successful. I was told that I should get ISO 9001 certified and I was thinking about using British Assessment Bureau (http://www.british-assessment.co.uk/services/iso-certification/iso-9001-certification/). Has anyone used them before? Would it help me to get more business?

[TRobins]

and

[woofgang]

before you spend any money, get in touch with the places where you want to bid for work and get their tendering process and criteria documents. you may find that there are other things that you need to do or things that would rule you out even if you had the ISO accreditation.

[EcclesCake]

Why do you consider Government contracts desirable?

[boxtops]

It also depends what sort to size Government jobs you are thinking of. Public sector contracts over a certain value have to be tendered for through specific bidding processes, and higher value ones are advertised in the EU-OJ - might be worth your having a read of this http://publications.europa.eu/official/chapter2_en.htm

[Peaspeculiars]

Woofgang is right, contact companies and see what Qualifications/ affiliations and Pre-Qualification requirements they are looking for in a company when tendering out.
Could they meet with you to discuss perhaps going on their approved contractors list for future projects? If so, you would probably have to agree to a schedule of rates and get your H&S doc's in line with their requirements.
Think out of the box, for example, rather than job-for-for, if it's joinery you do - Have you thought about approaching High street store companies to enquire about Shop-fitting? Is this something you could do? (e.g. do you have a cad engineer to do drawings, would you be prepared to out-source to get decorator's/ electricians on your team to create a full shop-fitter package, Do you have the resources to create and store bespoke counters/ units/ doors and would you be able to submit planning applications to local council for building control etc?).
Think as big as you like - local businesses to get a portfolio together, have a good working relationship with your subcontractors then approach a bigger company. The sky is the limit really.
Or, if you don't fancy shop-fitting, how about approaching large company Head Offices and try to become their company of choice for any HO site improvements? (That can lead to a very cushy income).
Hope this helps and all the best with the development of your Co. :-)

[Peaspeculiars]

He-hum, just to add, Local councils are a nightmare to please during tender submission phase - you can jump through hoops to get the best price and all of the pre-qualifying questionnaires to top spec, but they like what they like and if they have gone with a company previously, it can be very difficult to get a foot through the door, but it is possible...