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  David Cox April 17, 2013 at 10:12am

  Their is a discussion I started on in the LJN HUB (members only) regarding teaming up for larger jobs.

  I have personally found that I simply lack manpower to bid on larger jobs, and have raised the possibility of two or mroe businesses teaming up to taclke these. One off assignments initially, but for larger maint contracts, I can see over an area multiple businesses could be viable. That said In Yorkshire alot of the large players are bidding at cost to win, as they are suffering from competition from agricultural contractors who, with the size of their kit, can get large grass areas done at a rate of 10min/acre..... so Personally I see little point in persuing that scale of comercial work in my area - the rates are so low.
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  Jon Muirhead April 17, 2013 at 10:17am

  I see where you are coming from David, we too are experiencing the larger players pricing the contracts at ridiculous rates sometimes below cost but we all know they can't sustain this with fuel prices and all the other additional increases in costs. We aren't experiencing the agricultural contractors yet though.
• PRO

  Brian www.mibservices.co.uk April 17, 2013 at 10:23am

  We have done lots of work subbying to quite a few of the big nationals over the years. To try to set up a similar network would require an HQ to submit tenders and manage the work as well as admin it all. Economies of scale works wonders at times, but remember these big nationals are paying their subbies £12 an hour per man, while the subby takes all the cost of actually carrying out the work. I stopped working / subbying for them all a few years back and wouldnt go back to operating my business like that ever again. Theres no money / profit to be made in trying to setup and manage a network to compete with these national outfits. Im concentrating on niche markets and good old customer service to grow the business over the next few years and its working, we have won a number of new high value contracts this year already.
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  Richard Thornton April 17, 2013 at 10:25am

  Such a group would also have incresed purchasing power - discounts....
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  Phil Voice April 17, 2013 at 10:34am

  Whilst a seemingly great idea on paper this kind of network would be so difficult to put into practice.

  A network relies on all of those involved to be involved so as to keep the momentum going at all times. It only needs an apathetic approach by one or more parties and the system fails.

  We are about a month away from the first part of the LJN upgrade-addition.
  The new facility will give potential clients the opportunity to find contractors (be that designers, gardeners, lawn care or landscapers, as well as suppliers) by uploading the contract criteria into the interface.

  Only registered members will see these contracts and will get to cherry pick jobs in their area.
  LJN will get a small fee when a transaction is concluded (kind of a finders fee). Members will be able to share links with each other so that they can highlight jobs that are outside of their remit or geographical area.

  Premium members will pay a substantially lower finders fee than non-premium members.

  I am hoping we can encourage schools, councils, large contractors, private individuals etc to use this facility.
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  Jon Muirhead April 17, 2013 at 11:13am

  
  
  Brian www.mibservices.co.uk said:

  We have done lots of work subbying to quite a few of the big nationals over the years. To try to set up a similar network would require an HQ to submit tenders and manage the work as well as admin it all. Economies of scale works wonders at times, but remember these big nationals are paying their subbies £12 an hour per man, while the subby takes all the cost of actually carrying out the work. I stopped working / subbying for them all a few years back and wouldnt go back to operating my business like that ever again. Theres no money / profit to be made in trying to setup and manage a network to compete with these national outfits. Im concentrating on niche markets and good old customer service to grow the business over the next few years and its working, we have won a number of new high value contracts this year already.

  I agree I too have concentrated on specific type contracts and customer service, our customers love the fact we are small enough to care and big enough to cope. We have invested in good equipment, staff training and all the necessary accreditations/policies.
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  David Cox April 17, 2013 at 12:07pm

  Would their be an ability to block-bid for jobs - IE 2 or more LJN members bid on a job on a joint basis - allowing either multiple sites, or very large sites to be tackled by smaller businesses teaming up - it would certinaly be an amazing door opener to many.
  
  Phil Voice said:

  Whilst a seemingly great idea on paper this kind of network would be so difficult to put into practice.

  A network relies on all of those involved to be involved so as to keep the momentum going at all times. It only needs an apathetic approach by one or more parties and the system fails.

  We are about a month away from the first part of the LJN upgrade-addition.
  The new facility will give potential clients the opportunity to find contractors (be that designers, gardeners, lawn care or landscapers, as well as suppliers) by uploading the contract criteria into the interface.

  Only registered members will see these contracts and will get to cherry pick jobs in their area.
  LJN will get a small fee when a transaction is concluded (kind of a finders fee). Members will be able to share links with each other so that they can highlight jobs that are outside of their remit or geographical area.

  Premium members will pay a substantially lower finders fee than non-premium members.

  I am hoping we can encourage schools, councils, large contractors, private individuals etc to use this facility.
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  Dan Frazer Gardening April 17, 2013 at 12:21pm

  david that's an idea that can work but would have to be via close communication between the two contractors. There is nothing wrong with it as long as they both understand everything about the job and have an agreement for payment/invoicing.
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  David Cox April 17, 2013 at 12:24pm

  \The two ways I would envisage it are;
  1) Primary contractor bids for job, and subcontracts elements of work to 2nd.
  2) On multipe site contracts, each contractor takes on a site, and a coresponding cut of the money. Again for the sake of customer simplicity, one contractor would have to be the primary billing contractor.

  For shorter or one off jobs, specific arangements can be made suitable to the site....
  
  Dan Frazer Gardening said:

  david that's an idea that can work but would have to be via close communication between the two contractors. There is nothing wrong with it as long as they both understand everything about the job and have an agreement for payment/invoicing.