Subcontractor Bidding: How to Submit Competitive Bids and Win More Work

The Sub's Dilemma

As a subcontractor, you're bidding the same work as 3–5 other subs on every project. The GC knows roughly what the work costs. You can't be dramatically higher — but racing to the bottom destroys your margin.

The answer isn't your price. It's everything else.

What GCs Actually Want From Subs

After the price, GCs rank their sub selection criteria as:

1. Reliability — will you show up on schedule?

2. Communication — will you respond quickly?

3. Quality — will the work pass inspection?

4. Documentation — clean scope, no surprises

Price is usually 4th or 5th on the list for GCs with good subs.

How to Format a Winning Sub Bid

Always submit a typed, formatted proposal — never a handwritten number on a sticky note.

Your bid should include:

Your company name, license number, and contact info

Project name and address

Scope of work — specifically what you're doing and what square footage / unit count

Clear exclusions — what you're NOT doing

Material specifications — brand, grade, or spec number if relevant

Your price broken into material + labor

Validity period (typically 30 days)

Lead time and availability

Pricing Your Markup

Most subs target 15–25% gross margin depending on trade and market. Don't calculate markup as a percentage of cost — that's a common math error.

Correct: If cost is $10,000 and you want 20% margin: Price = $10,000 ÷ (1 - 0.20) = $12,500

Wrong: $10,000 × 1.20 = $12,000 (that's only 16.7% margin)

Using Vega to Estimate Your Scope

VegaEstimating.ai's trade modules let you build a complete material and labor estimate from a blueprint in minutes. Upload the plans from the GC, select your trade, and get a line-item breakdown with current regional pricing — ready to use as the basis for your bid.