Over the last year we’ve been talking to Barnsley businesses about working in the public sector, asking what the biggest challenges facing local providers are when seeking to work in the public sector. Barnsley businesses have told us that the top three challenges are:
How to find opportunities (including how to use the procurement portal YORtender)
Knowing how to promote their business to the public sector
Having the time, confidence and resources to take part in bids
Here at Go4Growth, it’s our job to help providers overcome these challenges and so we’ve put together a pack of short videos to help local providers get straight to relevant opportunities and take part should they want to.
1. Finding Opportunities: There are three videos to watch here. The first is registering on YORtender. YORtender is the procurement portal that all local authorities in the Yorkshire area use to advertise upcoming opportunities. It’s free for providers to use and is the platform you need to be able to find and respond to local opportunities through the Council.
We’ve also included two further videos to show you how to quickly and easily set up alerts so that any relevant opportunities can be emailed to you daily or as and when they are available, and then how to register your interest in a specific opportunity. Check these out below.
2. Promoting Your Organisation: We’ve also got a video around ways to engage the public sector and this covers the different opportunities that exist to meet, speak to and build relationship with public sector buyers. We’re joined by a Head of Procurement for a Local Authority in Yorkshire for this, who gives us some tips on what works and the processes Authorities use and considering using in the future.
3. The Bid Process: Once you have found an opportunity and have decided you want to put your business forward, you need to write your bid. We know that this can be time consuming, it can be confusing and often can lead to providers deciding not to bid in the end. There are a couple of videos that we think can help you if this is a challenge you’re facing.
We ran a masterclass designed all about preparing to bid to help providers know what to expect and to get prepared long before the opportunity you wish to take part in is live.
Writing your bid is the big task and we’ve pulled out some key tips (also included in the bid preparation video) on writing your bid which is enclosed in this short video here.
Go4Growth is funded by the public sector so any support we give is free for providers to take advantage of. We offer 121 sessions to help you with any questions you might have about supplying the public sector and if you’d like to book one, you can do so below.
