Finding New Vendors During Budget Season
While the annual budgeting process varies by company and property type, it is stressful and challenging for even the most experienced property managers. Being tasked with finding new vendors during budget season for a particular bid can only make the situation harder. This is especially true when owners request a third bid at the last minute or a vendor drops out.
As a result, property managers need tools and resources to find contractors during budget season. This is especially true for organizations without large lists of approved vendors. To help solve this constant challenge, here are four strategies for finding new vendors during budget season.
Start Your Search Now
Once budget season gets into full swing, it can be challenging to find new vendors. First and foremost, there is limited time to search for new vendors once the budgeting process gets fully underway. Second, many contractors have limited capacity to provide bids. This is especially true when bids have a firm deadlines. As a result, property managers needing new vendors during budget season would be wise to get a jump on the competition.
Even though it is July, begin researching contractors now. This is a good process to help avoid a last minute scramble to find a vendor during budget season, or even worse, hiring a bad contractor.
Review Your Email Inbox
While marketing emails are annoying at times, they are a tremendous resource during budget season. This is because vendors sending marketing emails have a clear interest in working with your property or company. Consequently, they are very likely to be responsive to your bid request.
Doing this is really simple. Just perform a search for a service related keyword in your email inbox and see what comes up. For most property managers, this will populate at least 1 or 2 vendors, especially for major services like roofing, painting, landscaping, and janitorial cleaning. To request a bid, just reply to the email!
Use BidSource
In addition to our monthly contractor partners, Property Manager Insider’s BidSource is a great tool for finding new vendors during budget season. It is also entirely free and easy to use.
First, property managers just need to submit their project information and details to our team. Next, our team will identify and contact a local commercial contractor. Above all, we make sure these contractors have the capacity to take on new commercial work.
Lastly, our team will connect you with the contractor on a one to one basis. Your information is never publicly shared and is only provided to one contractor. Click here to submit a project to our BidSource team.
Try Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups have become a major part of using Facebook. In turn, they have become an excellent resource for finding new vendors during budget season. It is also incredibly easy. First find and join a relevant Facebook Group. Second, make a post asking if anyone can recommend a contractor for a bid in your area. Lastly, check back on the post to see what contractors and vendors other group members have recommended.
While the Property Manager Insider Facebook Group and other property management specific groups, are great options, so are contractor specific groups. Rather than digging through thousands of Facebook Groups, here are some of our favorites for finding new contractors:
- Professional Painters Chatroom
- Plumbing Owners & Managers
- Paving Nation
- Landscaping & Snow Plowing Pro’s
- The Commercial Cleaners Forum
- Commercial Roofers United
If you need a bid for a service not listed above, do not worry. There are hundreds of great contractor specific Facebook Groups. To find one, just run a search for the service you need. Once the results popular, just filter them to only show groups. While deciding which one to join can be a bit confusing, there are two key criteria. First, look for groups with over 1,000 members. Second, make sure they have 10+ posts per day. These two benchmarks are signs of an active group where your bid request is likely to get multiple responses.
Find Contractors Using BidSource
Use BidSource to have the Property Manager Insider team connect you with a local contractor for free! All of our contractors have capacity and experience working with property managers. Just fill out the form below with you project details and we will do the rest.
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