Do you have bidding anxiety? Try this!
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This walnut beaded face-frame kitchen is one of two kitchens and four other projects in the 2017 FDMC Pricing Survey.

Five mainstream projects highlight the 2017 FDMC Pricing Survey, giving almost every custom shop a chance to test their bidding skills and get a better fix on the market for custom woodworking.

The survey is the only tool in the woodworking industry to attempt to give an apples-to-apples comparison of pricing for custom woodworking projects. We take real jobs done by real shops and make the bidding specifications available to any shop that wants to price the project and return a bid. Then we tabulate that bidding information, itemizing the data to break out numbers for such key categories as materials, shop rates, construction hours, and installation hours. The results give a picture not only of the variances in total price but also lots of clues as to why those variances exist.

This year’s survey features some attractive projects to test your pricing skills. There is a beaded inset kitchen in trending walnut with all sorts of distinctive details. A smaller contemporary/Shaker-styled kitchen that will also test your bidding mettle.

With clean lines and furniture styling this attractive bathroom vanity awaits your bid in the Pricing Survey.

Kitchens not your thing? How about a furniture-styled bathroom vanity? It’s not a large project, but pay attention to the specific details to get your bid on target. If a residential library built-in project is more your speed, there is a nice one in this year’s survey just waiting for your bid.

If freestanding custom furniture is more what your shop is about, this contemporary coffee table is the project awaiting your bid.

Finally, if freestanding furniture is more what your shop specializes in, there is an elegant modern-style coffee table ready for bidding. It features bird’s-eye maple veneer to set off its striking top, with curved and angled legs to add construction and design challenges.

Certainly, you can learn a lot just reading the results of the survey when they are published in the October issue of FDMC, but you’ll learn a lot more by participating as a bidder. Then you will have full access to the complete bidding specifications for every project, including dimensions, descriptions, finished photos and design renderings. That way you really know what everybody was bidding and can see the challenges.

Of course, when you submit your bid, you help shops all across the country to improve their pricing skills, which is good for the entire industry, helping to reduce pricing errors that cost everybody money. And since all bids are published anonymously except for the state or province they came from, you don’t have to worry about revealing any proprietary information.

If you haven’t yet downloaded the bid package, get one instantly here. If you have already obtained a bid package, please take the time to estimate the projects and return your bids. Your participation is what makes this survey a success. But don’t delay, all bids must be returned by August 14 to be included in this year’s survey, which will be published online and in print of the October edition of FDMC magazine.

To obtain a bid package or get more information, phone 203-512-5661 or email [email protected] providing your full contact information. 

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About the author
William Sampson

William Sampson is a lifelong woodworker, and he has been an advocate for small-scale entrepreneurs and lean manufacturing since the 1980s. He was the editor of Fine Woodworking magazine in the early 1990s and founded WoodshopBusiness magazine, which he eventually sold and merged with CabinetMaker magazine. He helped found the Cabinet Makers Association in 1998 and was its first executive director. Today, as editorial director of Woodworking Network and FDMC magazine he has more than 20 years experience covering the professional woodworking industry. His popular "In the Shop" tool reviews and videos appear monthly in FDMC.