Guides
How work gets funded, scoped, and awarded — public and private.
Straight answers to the questions teams ask before they pursue city, county, school district, and state work — and the commercial projects owners, developers, and general contractors are planning right now.
How to find government contracts
Government contracts are published across three separate layers: federal opportunities on SAM.gov, state opportunities on each state's procurement portal, and local opportunities on thousands of individual city, county, and school district websites.
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How to win city and county paving contracts
City and county paving work is awarded almost entirely through low-bid competitive sealed bidding on an annual street resurfacing program that is funded during the budget cycle and scoped by the public works department months before it is advertised.
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RFP, RFI, sources sought, and IFB — what each one means
An IFB (invitation for bid) is a price-only competition awarded to the lowest responsive, responsible bidder.
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How to get on a city or county bidders list
Getting on a bidders list means registering as a vendor with each individual agency, usually through a free online vendor portal on the agency's website or the eProcurement system it subscribes to.
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How school districts buy construction and facility services
School districts buy construction and facility services through three channels: bond-funded capital programs approved by voters and administered by the board, annual operating budget work for maintenance and small projects, and cooperative purchasing contracts that let a district buy off another agency's competitively awarded contract without running its own bid.
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Government bid sites compared
SAM.gov is free and authoritative for federal opportunities only.
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How to read a capital improvement plan
A capital improvement plan, or CIP, is a public multi-year schedule of the projects an agency intends to build, with an estimated cost and funding source for each year.
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Who to call at an agency before the bid posts
Before a solicitation is advertised, the people worth contacting are the ones who define the work: the public works or facilities director who owns the capital program, the program or project engineer scoping the job, and the procurement or purchasing manager who will run the process.
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How government agencies evaluate bids
Public agencies award either on low bid, where the lowest responsive and responsible bidder wins outright, or on best value, where a committee scores written proposals against published criteria and price is one weighted factor among several.
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Public procurement thresholds explained
Every public agency buys under dollar thresholds set by state law and local policy.
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How cooperative purchasing contracts work
A cooperative purchasing contract is competitively awarded once by a lead agency and then made available to member agencies nationwide, who can buy from it directly without running their own bid.
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How to write a government proposal that scores
A winning public sector proposal is organized around the solicitation's evaluation criteria, not around your company.
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Sole source and emergency procurement
Public agencies can buy without competition in narrow, documented circumstances: a sole source purchase, where only one supplier can meet a legitimate need, and an emergency procurement, where a threat to health, safety, or essential operations makes normal timelines impossible.
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How to sell software to government agencies
State and local agencies buy software through a longer path than commercial buyers: a department identifies a need, funding is requested in the annual budget, IT and legal review security and data terms, and procurement runs a competitive process or uses an existing contract vehicle.
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The government fiscal year buying cycle
Most state and local agencies run a July 1 to June 30 fiscal year, with departments building requests in the winter, the governing body adopting a budget in the late spring, spending beginning in July, and remaining funds being committed before the year closes.
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How to debrief or protest a lost bid
After a loss, request a debrief and the public records for the procurement — score sheets, the tabulation, and the winning submission where disclosable.
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How to register as a government vendor
Registering as a government vendor is a stack, not a single form: SAM.gov for federal and federally funded work, your state's vendor or eProcurement portal for state agencies, a secretary of state filing to do business in that state, and a local vendor list for each city, county, or district you serve.
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Bid bonds and performance bonds explained
A surety bond is a three-party guarantee that you will do what your bid says.
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Prevailing wage and certified payroll
Prevailing wage laws require contractors on public projects to pay a set hourly rate and fringe benefit amount for each labor classification, published by the government as a wage determination.
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DBE, MBE, and WBE certification for government work
DBE, MBE, WBE, SDVOSB, and similar certifications identify a business as owned and controlled by a qualifying group, and they are issued by a certifying agency after a documented review — not self-declared.
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How to find government subcontracting opportunities
Subcontracting is the fastest entry into public work because it skips the bonding, prequalification, and past performance hurdles that gate prime awards.
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How to use public records requests for bid intelligence
Nearly everything in a completed public procurement is a public record: the bid tabulation, the individual evaluation score sheets, the winning proposal, the executed contract, and later change orders.
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How to win a government contract recompete
A recompete is the most predictable opportunity in public sector selling, because the expiration date is written in a contract that is already public.
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How to price a government bid
Pricing a public bid starts with the award method: on a sealed low bid the lowest responsive, responsible bidder wins outright, while on a best value procurement price is one weighted factor among several and the cheapest bid frequently loses.
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How to find commercial construction projects early
Private commercial projects surface long before anyone sends an invitation to bid.
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The construction project lifecycle, stage by stage
A commercial construction project moves through six recognizable stages: pre-design, planning, design, permitting, bidding, and construction.
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Who to contact on a commercial project
Four parties decide most commercial projects, and they hold the decision at different times.
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How to bid private construction work
Private construction bidding is invitation-based rather than advertised.
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Public vs private construction bidding: what actually differs
Public bidding is advertised, rule-bound, price-driven, and transparent after award.
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How to find general contractors hiring subcontractors
General contractors build bid lists weeks before invitations go out, from firms they have used, firms the design team recommends, and firms who made contact at the right moment.
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Using building permits as sales leads
Building permit records are public, cheap to obtain, and genuinely useful — they confirm that a project is real, name the owner and often the contractor of record, and carry a declared valuation.
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Construction lead services compared: what to look for
Construction lead services differ on five things that actually matter: how early in the project lifecycle they see a job, whether a person verified it, whether the record is updated as the project moves, whether it carries usable contacts, and whether it filters to your services and territory instead of your ZIP code.
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How to write a construction bid proposal
A construction bid proposal is a written offer to perform a defined scope for a stated price under stated conditions.
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How to find tenant improvement and fit-out work
Tenant improvement work — the build-out of leased space for a new or renewed tenant — starts with a lease, not a permit.
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Preconstruction: what owners and GCs buy before ground breaks
Preconstruction is the phase between an owner deciding to build and construction starting: budgeting, estimating, constructability review, value engineering, scheduling, permitting strategy, and trade partner selection.
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Bid/no-bid: how to decide which jobs to chase
A bid/no-bid decision is the choice to pursue an opportunity or decline it, made before any estimating time is spent.
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Planning and zoning approvals as early project signals
Planning and zoning filings are the earliest public record of a commercial project.
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How to get paid on private construction work
Getting paid on commercial work comes down to three things done before the job starts: negotiating payment terms and retainage in the contract, calendaring your state's preliminary notice and lien deadlines, and billing accurately on the owner's cycle with complete documentation.
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The project signal chain: every stage a job is visible before it bids
Every project becomes visible long before it is advertised.
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How to read a city or county budget for future work
A municipal budget is the earliest public record of work an agency intends to buy.
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What to say when you call early
Call with a specific reference to their project, not a description of your company.
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How to shape a project before the spec is written
Influence happens during design, through the channels buyers deliberately open: market research, requests for information, sources sought notices, pre-design meetings, industry days, and conversations with the architect or engineer.
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How to build a pursuit calendar from early signals
A pursuit calendar turns a head start into scheduled work.
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Why bid boards are too late, and what to watch instead
A bid board tells you about a project on the day it is advertised, which is after funding, planning, design, and specification are finished.
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What is Hank?
Hank helps companies find, pursue, and win construction and services work — public and private. On the public side, Hank reads more than 50,000 sources nationwide: active solicitations plus the budgets, board records, capital plans, grants, awards, forecasts, and expiring contracts that reveal work earlier. On the private side, Hank adds more than 2,500 new commercial projects every month, researched and confirmed by people and updated daily as each job moves from pre-design through planning, design, permitting, bidding, and construction. Hank matches both records to your services, territory, and project size; reads a published bid in 1–3 minutes; names the agency, owner, developer, general contractor, and architect contacts to call; answers pursuit questions; and, where enabled, assembles an editable proposal draft from your approved company knowledge. Your team gets 6–7 hours back each week and keeps every signal, source, contact, document, conversation, and pursuit in one connected record.