Bidding for public contracts isn’t free. Every proposal takes time, staff hours, and money, even when you don’t win.

According to the OECD, preparing a tender can cost between 1 and 3 % of the contract’s total value. For a €500 000 project, that’s €5 000 to €15 000 gone before the bid is even submitted. Other studies estimate that an average SME spends €10 000 – €30 000 per tender once you factor in time, consultants, and documentation.

Now imagine winning only one in ten bids, a ratio that’s common for small suppliers. That means nine bids are pure cost.

For large companies, those losses are part of the game. For SMEs, they eat into margins, drain resources, and make public procurement feel out of reach.

So, what are SMEs really spending on tenders, and why is the process still so inefficient?

Let’s break it down.

What SMEs spend on bidding and why?

Tendering costs stack up fast. Each submission takes time from people who already wear multiple hats, sales, delivery, admin, finance.

Most SMEs spend between 80 and 150 hours per bid, covering:

• Writing and reviewing documents
• Gathering financial and legal proofs
• Uploading forms across multiple portals
• Internal approvals and pricing

If you translate that into labour cost, plus any consultant fees, each tender easily reaches €10 000 – €30 000.

And since many small suppliers win only 1 in 10 bids, the losses from failed tenders can exceed €100 000 per year.

This isn’t just about money. It’s lost time, missed opportunities, and frustration, all before you even get to delivery.

Let’s look at what makes the process so time-consuming in the first place.

Why tendering costs so much time?

The cost of bidding isn’t only financial — it’s operational. Most SMEs lose hours because the system is still built for paperwork, not productivity.

Here’s why tendering drains so much time:

• Repetitive paperwork: the same company data, certificates, and declarations uploaded again and again.
• Too many portals: more than 2 000 tender sites across Europe means constant searching and manual tracking.
• Short deadlines: little time to prepare, verify details, or tailor a bid properly.
• Poor feedback loops: when suppliers never learn why they lost, they repeat the same mistakes next time.

This cycle turns each bid into a heavy administrative project instead of a strategic opportunity.

The fix isn’t to work longer hours… it’s to make the process leaner.

Let’s see how technology helps reduce those wasted hours and costs.

How platforms like Tendify help?

You can’t eliminate every cost of bidding, but you can cut most of the wasted effort.

That’s what smarter tender platforms are designed to do.

Tendify, for example, helps SMEs lower the cost of tendering by:

• Automating discovery - instead of searching hundreds of portals, you receive tenders already matched to your business profile.
• Centralising documents - store certificates, financials, and templates once and reuse them for every submission.
• AI relevance scoring - focus only on tenders you can realistically win.
• Tracking progress - see deadlines and responsibilities in one workspace.

The result: less time searching and organising, more time writing strong bids.

For SMEs, that can mean saving dozens of hours per tender and thousands of euros per year.

Because in public procurement, efficiency isn’t a luxury. It’s survival.

Let’s close with what that means for small teams competing in big markets.

Every hour saved improves your win rate

For most SMEs, the problem isn’t ambition. It’s bandwidth. Teams already stretched thin can’t afford to spend hundreds of hours on tenders that go nowhere.

Reducing the cost of bidding isn’t just about saving money. It’s about freeing up time to focus on the tenders that matter, the ones you can actually win.

The less time you spend searching, formatting, and redoing paperwork, the more time you can spend improving proposals and building relationships with buyers.

And that’s how small teams win big contracts — not by working harder, but by working smarter.

Tendify helps SMEs make that shift, turning tendering from a time drain into a growth strategy.

Because every hour saved is an hour that can go toward winning the next contract.