In this exclusive Q&A, we get to learn more about the BidExecs franchise concept from Reena Bhatia, the company’s chief executive officer.
Franchise Chatter (FC): Let’s start at the beginning. Tell us a little bit about the BidExecs franchise concept and how it originated?
Reena Bhatia (RB): BidExecs is the first franchise in the contracting industry. It allows people who have procurement and acquisition backgrounds to start a consulting business helping businesses capture a part of the over a trillion dollars in spending across federal, state and local governments, construction, oil and gas sector, port authorities, healthcare and more.
Every company needs proposal support to close a sale – whether they are contracting with the public or private sector. This is where we come in. Instead of being a single person trying to ’survive’ in a competitive gig economy, you can have an established business to scale and grow with. You can leverage our process, technology, marketing and brand name power from day one.
Unlike other franchise concepts, we allow individuals to start the business as the sole employee. Customers are supported by a full-scale corporate team until a franchisee is ready to start hiring and scaling their business. There are no huge investments up front, no huge capital requirements.
With BidExecs, it’s not just about you earning wealth but growing by helping your clients win contracts to win more business. When you grow, you are pulling your community up with you. Social and community responsibility is not an afterthought – it’s every franchisee’s core business. It’s about helping businesses win larger and larger contracts – it’s about businesses in your community creating jobs by winning the contracts that your core business helped win.
We want to pull the nation up – one community at a time and every franchisee is an integral part of building communities through engaged, practical business acumen.
FC: We understand you launched the BidExecs franchise opportunity at the peak of our ongoing pandemic. Have you encountered any challenges? If so, how did you overcome them to make your concept successful in a pandemic economy?
RB: BidExecs as a franchise has been over a year in the making when we started planning the business and discussing how we would franchise ProposalHelper – the genesis behind BidExecs. Our Franchise Disclosure Documents went in for approval in October/November of 2019 and only got approved in late summer of 2020.
The pandemic made us realize that BidExecs is a rock-solid, proven business model that even an event like the pandemic could not slow down. The product that franchisees would offer their customers remains in extremely high demand, propelled by the increase in government spending on PPE and healthcare-related research. The pandemic has created a demand for opportunities that are not just ‘work from home temporarily’ but create a viable, scalable business which is not location specific.
The challenge we’re having to overcome is the fear of instability given our current climate. People are in the ‘let’s wait and see’ mode. We’re expecting things to start hitting fast-forward here soon. People are seeing more certainty, a path forward, and realizing they are ready to take their future into their own hands. We’re highly confident in the future and know that what we are doing to build the foundation will come to fruition in 2021.
We continue to build our brand reputation through outreach and webinars; our monthly Leadership Series talks about different topics that potential franchisees would appreciate; and we continue to educate and promote the concept.
FC: What benefits have you seen from owning a business development and proposal management company?
RB: Owning any business has its benefits and its challenges. When you consider that the business development and proposal industry caters to over $1.5 trillion of annual spending just by the US federal government alone, not counting the state, local, utilities, healthcare and other commercial sector spending globally – the benefits of owning a business like BidExecs is truly limited by your own imagination.
There is continuous flow of business because when the economy is going blockbuster, you have more work than you know what to do with and when the commercial sector slows down, the government sector increases spending to pump money into the economy.
Then, there are opportunities across the globe. We service companies in Afghanistan, Kuwait, UAE, and parts of Africa through AIDS programs.
FC: What support does BidExecs provide to franchisees that helps them build revenues during their first six to 12 months of operation?
RB: We have a robust training program with hands-on shadowing of an actual business because BidExecs HQ is a fully-staffed corporate location that is doing business today. As part of franchisees’ onboarding and training, they get to touch every aspect of a real, practical, operational business.
Our sales team teaches franchisees how to sell, what to sell, how to pitch, how to overcome sales objections to generating quotes for clients in addition to understanding how to know whether you are overpriced or underpriced, and then the entire proposal lifecycle. The goodwill that we generate in doing the small things to help our clients grow has tremendous power.
From a well-planned training program, to fully documented ISO-certified processes, to proprietary custom-developed and enterprise-level COTS tools and technologies, our customized processes will allow our teams to focus on the client’s needs. This is all in addition to the tremendously powerful networking, outreach and marketing of the brand that will generate leads for our franchisees.
From day one, our franchisees will not have to worry about capacity – they have a fully-staffed corporate office ready to help them implement the proposals under the BidExecs banner, following our processes, using our tools and technologies. Once they start generating enough revenue, they can gradually invest and scale their own pool of employees.
FC: How are you attempting to differentiate BidExecs in the franchise marketplace?
RB: We’re the first and only franchise of its kind where capture professionals can scale their own business. Our goal is to find the discerning and differentiating entrepreneurs who are ready for us – who are ready to think outside the brick and mortar franchise concepts; entrepreneurs who are ready to join forces and be part of a multi–trillion-dollar industry.
Our challenge is – we’ve broken the mold, now we just need people to learn of us and about us. We are confident that no other business in the industry can offer the depth of business training, the independently-certified business and security processes and procedures, and custom-built technologies and tools like we offer our franchisees to make them a powerful force-multiplier of a larger network – power of 1, network of a 100.
FC: What are BidExecs’ franchise growth plans for 2021?
RB: 2021 is going to be a banner year for us. We want to see our presence in every major contracting marketplace, across all 50 states and globally. We want BidExecs to be a pillar of the American dream – build your business and build your communities. We’re already seeing inquiries from Australia, Middle East, Asia and Africa, but we want BidExecs to first and foremost be an American business.
We are committed to growing the brand and the franchise to not just grow our own business but to ensure every franchisee who puts their trust in us achieves the outcomes and goals they set out to achieve. We will let our franchisees use their power of growth and community building to then chart new waters across our borders.
FC: If someone is interested in learning more about opening a BidExecs franchise, where can they find more information?
RB: Please visit BidExecsfranchising.com to learn about how to become a franchisee and visit BidExecs.com to learn what you will be selling in your business. Also, visit the company behind BidExecs – ProposalHelper.com. There is a convenient initial inquiry form on our website. Share your contact information with us and one of our executive team members will contact you to discuss your interest further.
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