How to Make Money on Public Procurement

In 2016, Ukraine launched its own progressive electronic public procurement system – ProZorro. This event had two important consequences:

The state ceased to overpay in each procurement procedure, and budget funds began to be used more economically.
The private business received a simple and reliable tool for participating in public tenders, in which not everyone had been allowed before.

Today, not only large and medium-sized enterprises, but also even individual entrepreneurs, individuals, and non-residents have the technical and legal ability to offer their goods, services, or even work to the state. Moreover, that means - and get contracts for hundreds of thousands or even millions of hryvnias.

Profit on Public Procurement

Forming or fundamentally changing any industry immediately creates new opportunities for business. You only need to see them in time and take advantage of them for the benefit of your own business.

The Fight for Contracts of State Customers

The best way to make money on public procurement is to directly participate in the tender as a potential supplier. The market amounts to hundreds of billions of hryvnia (at the moment – over UAH 600 000 000 000), and the range of procurement budgets is so wide that everyone will find their niche. For example, in the regions, the population is actively working with the state in the following areas:

food supplies to educational institutions;
renovation of premises and buildings;
minor patching of roads;
supplies of stationery.

However, why participation in the ProZorro auction is profitable? Besides, why is it easier to earn on them than in other areas? The main reason is the lack of huge marketing costs. In both B2B and B2C segments, most areas have a significant level of market saturation, and therefore have to stand out from the competition. Mainly – due to inflating media budgets.

In public auctions, competition is manifested directly during the submission of price offers. Here you can pre-monitor the area of interest through the free BI analyzer module ProZorro, which will show the level of competition, average prices for completed procedures, and much more. You can even find directions where there is almost no competition.

Providing Advice on Public Procurement

In addition to the obvious way for everyone to make money in government tenders, it is possible to provide suppliers and organizers with their services as a procurement expert. This industry is actively developing so that the demand for specialists remains stable.

A big plus will be the availability of legal education, as well as – knowledge of the actual practice of decision-making by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine. The experience of drawing up tender proposals and the experience of appealing against the terms of procurement or its results will also be useful.

Professional assistance in drafting complaints is an important aspect of their success. The specialist can tell the participant whether it makes sense to get involved in the appeal (and spend from 5 to 15 thousand hryvnias), or it is better to look for another tender and another customer.

To do this, an expert needs experience that can only be acquired by trial and error – regularly writing complaints on behalf of the company, which often participates in the bargaining of ProZoro. It is in such conditions that the best specialists are brought up. SmartTender.biz provides access to the analysis of complaints from the member's account.

Developer on Public Procurement

The last way to make money on public procurement is to become a software developer who will implement the work of services in the industry. For example, you can get on one of the official electronic platform ProZorro, to engage in improving its functionality.

Also, programmers and data analysts are in demand in those companies that create analytical tools for business. Well, you can always join directly with the ProZorro development team – the system is constantly evolving and adding new functionality.