I have a new project I’m working on. I wrote a 15 page detailed design document. I then decided to spend a week finding bids.
Roughly:
5 companies didn’t respond at all
5 responded with they couldn’t do it
2 responded, but mentioned they charge $2000 a day
1 responded with a rough estimate, and a high price, and asked me if I wanted to continue
3 Signed the NDA and came back with a quote, without further communication
1 Signed the NDA, actually spoke to me by email over several days to clarify it, and came back with a quote
3 got the requirements document, but I never heard back again. They are probably studying it, unaware that spending more than a couple of days to answer means they lost the bid.
2 were extremely slow to respond, where it took the whole week to even sign the NDA
1 immediately wanted a phone meeting, without even looking at the requirements document. After sending the requirements document, they wanted a meeting again, without stating why.
The company that clarified the requirements document was my first choice, but couldn’t do it for various reasons. So I’m going to go with one of the companies that just placed a bid. Payment is for completed work only, so there’s no risk or cost to me other than wasted time.
Generally, the small companies were the ones that came back with bids or comments. The large companies were slow to respond, and either wanted a meeting or were so slow to respond I haven’t heard from them by now, and won’t wait any longer.
Is it unreasonable to expect to get a quote within a week’s time?
2 replies on “Getting bids on a new project”
Just curious where you post your projects for bids these days.
Bob
For this, I posted on rent-a-coder, and also went down the WxWidgets and Qt contracting list. Rent-a-coder is less and less useful to me though, so I’m trying to find something new.