Cities, counties, and school districts buy from small businesses every day. The work is real and the money is real. But the bidding keeps good businesses out. We built Bidographer to fix that.
Government contracting is one of the largest, steadiest markets a small business can sell into. Agencies at every level, cities, counties, school districts, state offices, need real work done by real local businesses, and they are required to buy it out in the open.
So why do so few small businesses bid? Because the door to that market is a 40-page RFP. Dense documents, strict formatting, forms that disqualify you for a small mistake, and hours of writing in a language most business owners have never had a reason to learn. It is a wall built, whether anyone meant it that way or not, for people who have a whole proposal team.
The businesses that win government work aren't always the best ones for the job. Often they're just the ones with the patience and the staff to get through the paperwork. The small shop that could do the work better walks away at page one.
Bidographer takes the part that shuts small businesses out, the reading and the writing, and turns it into a conversation. If you can talk about your own work, you can bid. Right now we have that conversation with you, and the software does the reading, the drafting, and the forms. That is the whole idea.
"If you're great at the work but freeze at the forms, the forms were never supposed to be the hard part. We made them the easy part."
You don't have to wait for us to cover your area. You bring the contract, from anywhere, and Bidographer goes to work. Drop in the solicitation as a PDF or text file, and we read every page and tell you in plain English exactly what it takes to win it: every requirement, every form, every deadline. That read takes about a minute. It's free, and it doesn't need an account.
Then we build it with you. We ask about your company, draft every section from your answers, and fill in every form. You add your price, print, sign, and deliver it. Today that build is hands-on: we work through it with you on the same software, because the version you'd run start to finish on your own isn't ready yet.
The read works on any deadline. The build needs at least seven days before the bid is due, ten if a bond or MBE/WBE participation is required, because your surety, your insurance agent, and the notary all work on their own clock. Closer than that and we'll still send you the read, and tell you straight that it's too tight to build properly.
Some parts have to be yours, and they stay yours: your price, your signature on every form, the notary on the non-collusion affidavit, the bid deposit or bond, your insurance certificate, and acknowledging any addenda the agency issues.
And Scout stays grounded in your contract and your answers. It doesn't invent qualifications, numbers, or promises you never made. What ends up in your proposal is your work, written up the way the agency needs to read it.
When the small business can actually compete, the agency gets more real bids, and the best business for the job has a shot at winning it.
You shouldn't have to become a proposal writer to sell what you're good at. Answer questions about your own work, and we handle the writing.
A proposal is your name on the line. Scout stays grounded in your contract and your answers, and never invents anything to fill a gap.
Not the big firms with a bid department. Any small business that could win government work and doesn't, because the process is daunting. Contractors and trades, cleaning and facilities, technology, suppliers, professional services, nonprofits, first-time bidders. Whatever you do, if a government buys it, this was built for you.
Drop in a contract and we'll tell you what it takes to win it, in about a minute.
Try it free