The Bidders Handbook

Navigating the Tender Process Shouldn't Feel Like Guesswork

If you've ever opened a tender document and felt your heart sink at the page count, this handbook is for you. Written by an experienced Bid Manager who has run the end-to-end tender process for real organisations, The Bidders' Handbook takes you from "where do I even find these opportunities" through to what actually happens after you hit submit; and it doesn't stop at theory. You'll find worked examples, real scoring breakdowns, and the exact templates used to prepare a professional submission.

This Second Edition has been substantially expanded and fully updated for the Procurement Act 2023, now in force across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

What's inside:

• Building a bid library, company profile, and financial standing so you're never scrambling at deadline
• Insurance, ISO, SSIP, and Cyber Essentials explained in plain English; what buyers actually ask for and why
• Finding the right opportunities, including frameworks and Dynamic Purchasing Systems
• PQQs, ITTs, scoring and weighting, and MEAT demystified
• A full chapter on Social Value, with a genuine weak-versus-strong worked example
• Persuasive writing, readability, and pricing, including a before-and-after rewrite of a real method statement
• Subcontracting, consortiums, and joint ventures for bidding beyond what you can deliver alone
• What happens after submission: standstill, appeals, mobilisation, and what to do with a loss
• A full glossary of procurement terms for quick reference

Who it's for: sole traders, micro businesses, and SMEs bidding for public or private sector contracts for the first time, and anyone already bidding who wants a sharper, more current playbook.

Written by Sarah Ingleby, founder of Smallbizbod and The Bid Zone, with qualifications in business administration, bookkeeping, project management, and bid management.

Want the practical tools alongside the book? The Handbook + Toolkit bundle adds an editable Bid/No-Bid scoring spreadsheet, a Tender Summary template, and a Reference template, ready to drop straight into your own bid library.