Does Bidding Hurt Competition?
December 19, 2007 – 2:41 pmSeveral business owners have told me that they refuse to bid on services because they do not want to compete against “bottom feeders”. That is, those businesses that will make the lowest bid, no matter what.
Recently, I requested a logo to be vectorized at ThemBid.com and I received 17 bids, ranging from $3 to $80. I think my experience can help address this issue. Here was how I decided who to choose.
Unfortunately, since ThemBid.com is a startup, there was no review information to help with my decision. So instead I looked at the following areas:
BID DESCRIPTION
The first impression was the bid amount, but even more importantly, the bid description. On the worst end of the spectrum, there were those who did not use proper punctuation or all capital letters. On the flip side, there were those who clearly described what they were willing to do for the bid price in matter that was directed specifically to me. In the middle, some people obviously used a generic response that included promoting their other services (save that for the classified section).
Ultimately, I chose the company who spoke clearly and directly to me.
PROFILE
The very next thing I did, was click through to that person’s ThemBid.com profile. From there I clicked through to their main website.
Whether they had a website with an included portfolio was a big factor for me.
COMMENTS
Finally, the comments on my request were useful in two ways. One, they helped me better describe exactly what I needed and two, the questions asked gave me insight into who actually was paying attention to my request.
In summary, 1) make sure that your bid and description are clear and to the point while speaking directly to the requester. 2) Keep your profile up to date with a working link to your website, which should include a portfolio or testimonials. 3) Ask clarifying questions using the comment system.
One Response to “Does Bidding Hurt Competition?”
As a graphic designer, I understand what the businesses you mention are talking about. The problem, as I see it, is when a typical business owner is told by a printer that they need their logo “vectorized”, they don’t really comprehend what this means.
There are plenty of people out there that do not have any training in graphic design, go out and buy the software, and proclaim themselves to be “Graphic Artists”. They discover that they can run a combination of filters on a j-peg in Photoshop and export the paths to Illustrator and “Viola, you have a vector file”
While true in theory, there is a big difference in quality from doing this 5 minute task to the hours it can take to draw something properly. And, the uneducated small business owner is being taken advantage of due to their own limited (to no fault of their own) understanding of the differences in processes.
I have run into several cases where a business owner paid someone to do such a task, only to find out the quality was awful, and ended up behind schedule and having to hire me to do it right.
By David Moyle on May 2, 2008