Industry Explanations
What is a Bid Manager?
A Bid Manager is an experienced project manager for the bidding process. Bid Managers oversee the bid process from end to end, from searching tender portals for opportunities, analysing tender documents and providing advice to the client, putting together the bid team and assigning responsibilities, supporting the team throughout the tender period, helping to write the tender responses, and submitting a compliant bid.
Bid Managers can work in a business, or as contractors to a business for a single bid. Bid Managers usually have wide-ranging experience and skills across the tendering process, including legal (understanding contracts), commercial (pricing and risk), writing, excellent organisational and time management skills, and the ability to organise and manage teams.
Can you write tenders or grants for any industry?
Generally, yes. Amanda has written winning tenders for employment services, recruitment, Indigenous services, disability services, aged care, advocacy, the arts, sports and recreation, and construction.
Amanda will work with your team to understand the service and industry you are tendering for.
What is the difference between a grant and a tender?
Tenders are an offer to sell goods or services to a Purchaser. The Purchaser releases a Request for Tender (also called an Invitation to Treat or Approach to Market) describing in detail the service or product they require, and the terms under which they are willing to buy it, and prospective tenderers make an offer on those terms. Tenderers that meet the requirements may win a contract to deliver that service or product for a set period.
A grant is a funding opportunity, provided by Government or philanthropic organisation, usually for a social purpose. Organisations, generally in the not-for-profit or profit for purpose space, pitch ideas to the funding body, to deliver projects or activities, funded by grants. Grants may be one-off or recurrent, depending on the terms of the grant funding. Grants may be as small as a few hundred dollars, or as large as several million dollars.
What are your guidelines for editing theses and dissertations?
Amanda follows the policies set by Australian universities for editing theses and dissertations. She doesn’t write any part of a thesis or dissertation or undertake any actions that would be in violation of ethics policies at any Australian university.
Amanda edits for formatting, grammar, and style, and does not alter or improve the substantive content or conceptual organisation of the thesis. Amanda may make comments in the document to draw the author’s attention to issues such as errors, but does not alter these in the text, as these are the responsibility of the author.
Editing is undertaken before the final version of the thesis is submitted to the student’s supervisor for consideration.
Working with Sage W&R
What other services do you provide?
In addition to bid management and writing grants and tenders, which is Sage W&R’s specialisation, Amanda provides the following services:
- reviewing and editing doctoral theses;
- research and proposal writing;
- writing policies and procedure manuals;
- writing discussion papers and reports; and
- designing and running industry and stakeholder consultations and surveys.
Do you design bid response documents?
Most tenders do not require professional design nowadays. However, if the tender does require design, Amanda can refer you to a professional graphic designer for this service.
How does my company engage SW&R’s services?
Contact Amanda for a confidential discussion. If you would like to engage Sage W&R and she has the capacity, she will send you a Non-Disclosure Agreement and a Contract for Services, outlining the agreement terms and rate.
How do you charge?
Amanda charges an hourly rate (plus GST), that she negotiates with you depending on the nature of your project. If you wish to hold her services in advance (for example, for a tender in six months’ time), she may also charge a retainer.
Give Amanda a call to discuss your specific needs, and you can talk through the size of your project and timeframe. Based on Amanda’s previous work she can give you an idea of the expected cost of engaging her for your tender.
Can you work on a tender anywhere in Australia?
Absolutely! Amanda works with clients across Australia, including in remote Indigenous communities. She is based in South Australia, but thanks to the magic of the internet and Zoom, Amanda can work with clients in any State or Territory.
If you need Amanda to travel, she can do that but additional charges for travel and accommodation will apply.