I'm looking at a contract with a state gov that wants the purchase of around 8,000 USB flash drives. The flash drives are going to be shipped to 15 to 20 different areas within that state. The flash drives have to be a EXACT model/manufacture to be compatible with equipment. I'm fairly new at this, so I've been reviewing the contract and understanding the requirements. I've also been contacting distributors and trying to get price quotes...
1. My understanding is I should contact Distributors first and get pricing information. I've contacted one and provided quantity information and they contacted me back (a little aggressive) they told me that they have a good relationship with their manufactures and they just won't quote me a price over the phone unless they see that I'm serious, they want to run a credit check. No issue with this, but my business is quite young. He also told me that the price he's giving me is more/less going to be the same everywhere I go (BS detector going off).
2. I got a SWAG price of around 11.78 per unit, that will roughly cost $94,240. Thing is I don't have that kind of money lying around :). If i'm awarded this contract and I purchase this product I will need to go into some guarantee with the manufacture/distributor that I will pay them. I'm sure they won't do anything until they see money first. So how do you purchase products from someone, where you have documentation that a gov will pretty much pay for them? My suspicion is I would need to take out a line of credit? Would I do this via some CC or some bank loan etc? It seems the distributor has a loan process, as they asked me if I would be going through their credit? Just to recap, only time I would go into purchasing this is if I"m awarding the contract, so the gov has a legal obligation to pay as I have a legal obligation to provide.
3. I'm not very clear on contracting and how the gov pays the Awardee. A friend indicated they always pay usually half upon award and the other half upon completion. I read the entire RFP and didn't see any information there regarding when payment will be done. It seems when every single product is delivered, then you are paid? What's the typical payment schedule? Do they pay first?
Thanks
1. My understanding is I should contact Distributors first and get pricing information. I've contacted one and provided quantity information and they contacted me back (a little aggressive) they told me that they have a good relationship with their manufactures and they just won't quote me a price over the phone unless they see that I'm serious, they want to run a credit check. No issue with this, but my business is quite young. He also told me that the price he's giving me is more/less going to be the same everywhere I go (BS detector going off).
2. I got a SWAG price of around 11.78 per unit, that will roughly cost $94,240. Thing is I don't have that kind of money lying around :). If i'm awarded this contract and I purchase this product I will need to go into some guarantee with the manufacture/distributor that I will pay them. I'm sure they won't do anything until they see money first. So how do you purchase products from someone, where you have documentation that a gov will pretty much pay for them? My suspicion is I would need to take out a line of credit? Would I do this via some CC or some bank loan etc? It seems the distributor has a loan process, as they asked me if I would be going through their credit? Just to recap, only time I would go into purchasing this is if I"m awarding the contract, so the gov has a legal obligation to pay as I have a legal obligation to provide.
3. I'm not very clear on contracting and how the gov pays the Awardee. A friend indicated they always pay usually half upon award and the other half upon completion. I read the entire RFP and didn't see any information there regarding when payment will be done. It seems when every single product is delivered, then you are paid? What's the typical payment schedule? Do they pay first?
Thanks
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