 Have you ever gone to bid a cabling job and Ended up helping the client carry things in. Is this the first for you Marv? I came here to do a quote somehow we we find ourselves helping the guy pull everything in that's life That's that's important us Services we offer so me and Marvin are here today bidding jobs Mm-hmm. I came with my little stool I wonder on the office when I want to sit next to my employees He just wanders with his little stool Let's talk. Let's talk. I Don't like to stand over people That actually I don't know if it but it does bother some people I don't think this guy's bothered by his he's got a pretty high tolerance for BS And he puts up with it. Yeah, but we're here for a more serious talk because everyone always asks How do you build stuff? Marvin wrote a script stuff. Yeah, well, yeah, how do we build one? How do we bid to how do you bid it then build it? Right? So I thought this was a script. I actually um So I do we legit are a real company I'm just sometimes impressed with how organized my staff is occasionally I'm like That's why this is usually just in my head But let's get back to the nitty-gritty of it. So first We had a client we met with and this actually comes from suppose you watch it would have been vlog Thursday Not the last episode episode before episode six. Yeah episode. I think no, that's like 56. You're thinking of off-topic Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. I'm not Thursday on Thursday So if you were to watch that video you would have seen our shtick as we called it chamber of commerce And we said we think we closed some deals on so That client meeting that we had and off the cuff at the Chamber of Commerce has led to this They need it's a new build out new building We did a walk-through and I can probably drop a photo here of the whole building that we're bidding on But this is kind of a talk of how we do the bids and how we put it together Because this is something that people get hung up on so if you're starting a business This is really hard and it becomes more fluid Doing the bids as you get better at it because it does there So it didn't take me long to train Marvin on how we do our bids From a sales standpoint, but when you get to these this is a big job when you get to these bigger jobs We kind of have to go over some everything to make sure we didn't miss anything You know That we're using the right equipment and all that stuff for these larger jobs So we have a good idea of what the client wants. They needed 30 cameras They needed a lot of drops a lot of TVs mounted So this is all an infrastructure build specifically the type of job This is Wi-Fi and infrastructure build-out job and it's kind of Once once you kind of understand how long it takes you to do something That's kind of how you can just put it together. So honestly TVs we mount fast So we just for every TV they want mounted it's one hour one hour one hour for each TV. It's really simple So you got to have some understanding of how fast you can get something done And then you can put it in there as a bid we do prefer to charge a flat rate so that flat rate those based on how much you pay your staff per hour and I mean that way you can calculate that part of it And you got to calculate in there a markup in it Subjectively you may want a 20 25 percent markup. I mean that's going to vary with opinions and things like that But it's pretty reasonable on the hardware Now what we do for the client because we don't They don't need every line item detail that generally is actually more information than they need and you so More than they want definitely more than they want and what that means is We give them a per camera installed price So we price out the nvr forum and then we give them a per camera Installed price that's going to be the wiring the pointing the mounting Everything so once you kind of understand and we've done so many of these we know how long it takes for a soft camera We give them a price that way the guy starts with I think I need 30 and we're like, okay That's fine. It seems reasonable for the place. He's putting in if you need more Here's the per camera price if you need less there you can deduct in the per camera price We know this may vary plus or minus five cameras by the time the project comes there But this way we give them the tools to recalculate the price Without Overthinking the whole thing now. We also made sure when this is in the bit as well This is 30 cameras. So we have a 48 port POE switch that means we did tell them There is a point at which one and when he if he does go over 48 cameras that has to that and this comes back and forth They do a little bit of talking with the client a little bit of how we put the bits together and then I Come over here and sit down and decide we should record it of why we have two of us going over to case Because sometimes you double add an excel spreadsheet together Sometimes you copy and paste and then look at the grand total and go holy cow. It seems really good It's not he doubled it. Yeah, right, but he was auditing he figured it out and it's It's like that and what couldn't we do though when I it's nice to have someone I have a much more technical background and Marv has more of a sales background But kind of between us either me or one of the other technicians Just kind of review the sales bid to make sure it's feasible and that is there and it things like okay We know there's a 48 port switch and there's 30 cameras that need power So we're good up until 48 cameras things like that and make sure that We always just choose because the price difference is small We generally go with the higher wattage switches because why not the price difference is only like a 150 more I think it was if that even if that it was so minor Yeah, the unified ones just go with the higher wattage switch and don't worry about it But you know it's kind of getting the scope of work correct and making sure it's on there But then giving them enough detail so if they have to make small adjustments You're not chasing paper all the time and readjusting how much is it for one more camera? How much is it to have one more drop so we have our per drop Based on the type of drop so we have like all the drops that go for all their data lines broke down to price And here's our drop price on that and away you go This gives the client enough that they can make little adjustments to the final is still understand the bid But not giving it and we've seen a lot of IT guys do this They come up with these four-page bids for a job like this They have every little thing like hey the jack the mud plate They try to measure how much cable they're gonna use in detail And I'm like really just come up with it if we look at the building And you know centrally we're gonna put it and you know about where they're gonna put them Even if they move a little bit you can guesstimate the cable and go okay The average run will be this far and when you know that you don't have to do this whole cable figuring out thing You can come up with a flat rate the cabling is not cheap But it's not the most expensive labor still always the most expensive on all these jobs I mean the cameras do have a lot of cost to them and the NVR server itself has a cost to it But a lot of this is some of the labor that goes into climbing up And this is place gonna require a man lift the 35 40 foot 40 foot ceiling 40 foot ceilings easily Yeah, 40 50 foot ceilings they have that one scape that he said is three stories Yeah, so it's at least three stories tall at least three stories tall So because the building we already know that's gonna be in there That's definitely a factor of doing it. So this is a little bit of insight in how we do the bids It's not like a two-in-death process and then what we're gonna do the final follow-up So, you know, we meet the guy at the chamber He says, hey, I want to do this thing So we went and met with him at his office and then if we met with him at his office Or the new building out really not even off the office. He's been built yet. This is a raw building Yeah, there was there were still trenches in the floor where we're electric and stuff is going to be run Yeah, so not all that's done. So then from there, we're gonna get him the camera quote And the other quotes that go with this like first line to Wi-Fi We'll present it to him have a talk with them say, you know Is there any questions you have about this and then we'll have a few touch points would follow it up Now we already are aware that this was bid by at least one other company previously We aren't privy to that information right now I like when they do share it, but you can't ever be that lucky. It's a game of poker and the guy Likes that we're local versus inter company. So we have that advantage. We hope our prices are within the range of theirs But this is something else too, especially if you're starting out. Don't sell yourself short I mean we you go back and forth. You're like this, you know, I know I could cut here cut here cut here I could do it for less money But if you do that, you also don't want to do as mentally gets in the back of your head If you do things for really cheap, you don't want to do a good job You're like, yeah, but I gave it to you for a deal You know, you start feeling bad about it. That's one of the things I try to tell people especially starting out They they all the time feel I'm gonna start a computer company I'm just gonna do it for half of what my competitor does and like, okay You have to get paid what you're worth That's just it and it I mean you can have better prices or whatever But you also get known as the cheap computer guy And if you get to a point where then it's like well, I need this done right So I'm not gonna call the cheap computer guy. I'm gonna call the guy that does it right, you know And so I think Tom agrees and you know, like we bet we would much rather be the the company that does it right Yes, then the ones that are the best price. Yeah, we can be both great Yeah We our prices are competitive and when you come up with your prices for what you're charging per drop when it comes to Network wiring and cabling and things like that when you're bidding some of those. It's a Important aspect to think about that you're within market price So you got to kind of know what your market price is and I was actually told we were doing work for school And it's funny because the newer IT people in school think our price is very reasonable because where he used to live out Of state they charge more per drop but we actually know our rate is a little bit higher than a couple other guys in the area and We were told that by a few people like we're a rates a little higher But they really like our work and are real happy with us But they just want to let us know and I said, thank you and they said well you match. I said no I Knew where they were going with it. Yeah, and we know we didn't manage price But I don't think we're only I think we're 15% higher than one of our competitors So we're not it's what to me that's within reason and for the quality of work They that we give I don't I don't feel as our 15% higher because I've seen the quality at work and kind of Half acidness that they do is what I can describe. There's just it's just it's not as neat and clean as our work That's that's an important thing. We really push on there And that's also why we showcase when we have some more project files and videos on there a project showcase I got to do more of them I've been busy and haven't focused a lot on that aspect of it because I don't always get time to go out to the Job site because I'm actually not the one pulling the cable Corey is I do have another one that's sitting on my desk I'm hoping to get published today But this is a really important aspect of course This is like a more of the number one questions I guess how do you bid the jobs and people are looking for this automatic secret sauce to it and literally I got a Google Docs spreadsheet She pulled up here That we put things in we have really easy templates for that there's not anything about them that's special I've got a couple of formulas in it is all it is Yeah, a couple of this column plus that column times that column and yeah quantities on there and prices and all that's gonna be Related there and I've talked about before it's almost we kind of take these in free form So you look at some of the big stuff that we do It's really simplistic And that's not on accident. I went showed someone I said here's a here's a bid for I think it was for $29,000 and it fits on a single page. Yeah, and people like you can't get job without I'm like that jobs already paid What are you talking about like yeah, I this I'm not joking like this is how it works with us And the clients seem to appreciate these simplicity if they would need to know how many mud rings We use a certain nickel and diamonds or one probably not a client at one because they're Drug-and-driving nuts going I want to know the exact brand of cable that's going You know some of those people once they start doing that and then what they do it is they just want to throw it all And Google and price it out. They try to nitpick it apart and charge you like that. I'm like whatever That can be a pain, but I've been wrong about clients We had a client that nitpicked like that that one hospital we did all their IT guy was a little they paid us Very well, and we're happy, but he was very picky about He scoped out with their scope of work well had specific brands He wanted us to use and they actually end up just buying the product and having us do the labor Which I was fine with because then I didn't have to think about it We just used all the product they wanted a job turned out nice and I was I went in very skeptical But I stuck to the guns on this is how much my guys get so to speak. This is the labor charge So I will we are flexible and things like that, but for the most part the majority of businesses go look I don't know about this wiring stuff. This is what you guys do. Tell me how much it is I'm gonna need Wi-Fi coverage for the building. I need 30 cameras that these angles covered Boom give me a price and break it out price per camera They don't need to know every little doodad that went into that camera. They don't honestly care It isn't a business owner myself I mean the plow guy comes in and wants to tell me every little detail. Thank you dude But just tell me how much show you for plowing to park a lot Yeah, I know it probably you're justifying why you're here, but I think your price is reasonable have a wonderful day Here's money. Yeah, I really gotta I other things need to know how many pounds of salt you dumped Yeah, I mean the bill the bill was like $212 last month. I mean that's fine. That's great I paid it so great. It was worth it to not slip and fall in the parking lot pretty much Thanks so much. I was salting and everything and there was probably some more details I missed but I'm happy the parking lots cleared and I paid the money and how much tire tread was used Yeah, and some people go over for that I mean there's there are those clients that want it but I find my best clients are often the ones that You you keep it very concise. You'd be very clear. You keep every honest But you they don't need every tiny little detail to make these projects work So hopefully this is helpful and an understanding of it process I know everyone's looking for the secret or the formula or I just plug in the numbers to this magical thing And it just kicks out the sale and the client signs it and I do the job It's really not there is it other complexities. The secret is this is a little bit of complex It is kind of a there's gonna be some follow-up calls with client trying to make sure we win them over If he's got questions about it now, this is also where our video marketing comes in He you know the question well, okay, you sent this but what about that camera system? No problem I got a video ready and we fire it off to you I actually because we have the cameras installed at our office when the clients wanted to come and see it for himself So he comes stood in the lobby Recorded himself on camera walked over to the other side of the you know The counter and watched himself on camera and listened and seen it He goes alright. I'm sold that looks great and then we installed that was the guy for the the landscaping place Yeah, yeah, he's seen it. Yeah, right down street. Yeah They seen it. They were sold on it. We could prove it We and we have videos that demos that we've sent to people Well, I was like basically how to use the unify software it helps on the training But it's also a good pre-sale tool because they see how nice the software is on these unifies and they go Okay, I like that. No, it's not the only thing we sell this bid is actually going to get more complicated very quickly because He wants a other camera system bid on here as well So we also know he might he might once he sees this bid and we tell him that this is the cheaper version He may decide that because he was thought yeah Well, the challenges with this bid is 30 30 days of storage with 1080 cameras 30 cameras No problem when you go to 4k you are quadruple the resolution and therefore quadruple just about the story Do you need a lot more storage to sort of high-end 4k is even to look at some of the other cameras? And I think it's because he sees the buzzwords and then that's cool We can do those and we have schools and places that are using super high-risk cameras. No problem They do cost a lot more. Yeah, I mean I think the camera prices by themselves are more than our installed camera I was gonna say that that mistaken double price may have been the right price if he wants to go So this is kind of behind the scenes this is what this is what I'm not making videos people I'm making a video doing this Well, particularly one stone two birds with stone and we're actually kind of wrapping up the bid here You know, we looked at it We go here we go here Marvin wanted to confirm a couple things and I'm like Hey, let me grab the camera and you know go over this and it's I guess it wouldn't when you see how short the bids are It's just way easier. That's that's the goal a lot of times I think is making sure it's concise and readable so they understand what they're buying from you Don't ever convoluted your product offerings God that's just because business owners. We don't like that We don't want just tell me what you do. Tell me how how much you just to get it done and how it will benefit me Oh, let's make this happen So like said, hopefully this helps if you like to kind of hear like you subscribe you get questions Leave it accounts below. I'll do my best to reply to all of you And if you need a system bid let us know we do this this yeah, we will do this for you We'll do this for you happen to be a customer watching. Yeah potential customer Yeah, all the care that will go into it will be all for you My Tom will sit here on his little spinny soul. Yeah, you'll know right look at that We this is this is Tom's happy the bid is done I want to go back to making videos and I yeah, I love doing to work. This is the part that I won't lie This is drudgery for a little bit for me. This is one of the reason we have a Marvin here Marvin's handling it well, though I can't juggle see you