Bid Writing & Procurement Support
Senior bid writing for organisations that want to win more, and win more often.
The challenge we solve
Most bid writing services start from scratch every time. Generic capability applied to each tender in turn, with no memory of what worked before and no cumulative advantage building over time. The organisations that win consistently do so because they build on what works. Most never get the chance to do that systematically.
That is the gap this practice is built to close.
Who we are
Ground Up Consulting's Bid Writing and Procurement Support service is led by Ola Onabajo, a senior practitioner with over 25 years of experience in UK affordable social housing.
Our experience is current, not historic. Most recently, until July 2026, Ola was Service Manager (Asset Management) at a major UK local authority, with active involvement in procurement and contract management across major programmes.
We have written winning bids on the supplier side, evaluated them on the client side, and procured the services they sell. We know how evaluators think, because we have been the evaluator. We know what good looks like, because we have delivered it. That combination of perspectives, applied over more than 20 years of evaluation panel experience, is what this service is built on.
what we offer
We work with clients in two complementary ways. Engagements are scoped to the problem, not to a fixed product.
Senior bid writing
Full tender response writing for major procurements, from framework call-offs and open ITTs to Dynamic Purchasing Systems, restricted procedures, and competitive dialogue. Bid strategy and positioning, scoring matrix analysis, and quality assurance. The "help us win this" engagement.
BidMind
A proprietary approach that builds a structured knowledge base from your organisation's own winning bid content, applied to each new tender to generate first drafts that arrive substantially complete. Every bid strengthens the system. The compounding effect is the point. The methodology behind the system belongs to Ground Up Consulting. What belongs to you is the knowledge base itself and the results it produces.
The two work together. The senior bid writing brings the sector knowledge, evaluator insight, and quality assurance. BidMind means your organisation is never starting from scratch.
Our specialisms
We support contractors, SMEs, software vendors, and consultancies bidding into:
Affordable social housing, our deepest specialism, covering housing associations, registered providers, ALMOs, and local authority housing functions.
Public sector and local government, including Councils, Combined Authorities, and adjacent estates portfolios.
Construction and major works, particularly responsive repairs, planned works, refurbishment, and decarbonisation programmes.
Asset management and statutory compliance services, covering gas, electrical, fire safety, asbestos, water, lifts, and related systems.
Adjacent public sector estates, including NHS Estates, education estates, and blue light services, where the procurement profile and challenges mirror social housing.
We have particular depth in social value and added value requirements. Social value is where bids are increasingly won and lost, and where most organisations hold far more evidence than they know how to use. Estate clear-up days, community skills programmes, resident engagement initiatives, and sensory garden projects have all featured in the added value commitments we have helped clients put in front of evaluation panels. Getting that evidence into a form that scores well, and building on it systematically each time, is one of the clearest compounding benefits BidMind delivers.
Bid scale typically £250k to £2m and above. Comfortable with framework call-offs, open ITTs, Dynamic Purchasing Systems, restricted procedures, and competitive dialogue.
track record
A selection of the work that sits behind the practice.
Evaluation panel experience.
Over 20 years as a procurement client and evaluation panel member across major contracts in UK affordable social housing, spanning responsive repairs, planned works, statutory compliance services, and asset management IT. This is the experience that informs how we write: we know what evaluation panels reward because we have been on them.
Senior practitioner depth.
Over 25 years in UK affordable social housing, spanning local authority, ALMO, registered provider, and housing association settings. Current, not historic: active in the regulatory environment of Awaab's Law, Decent Homes Standard 2, the Building Safety Act 2022, and the Procurement Act 2023.
Live and active.
BidMind is currently operating with clients in the affordable housing contracting market. The compounding advantage is real. Every tender your competitors win with BidMind makes the gap harder to close.
how we engage
New client engagements begin with a foundation phase. Before the first bid is written, we invest time understanding your organisation, your markets, and the content that has won work for you before. That foundation is what makes the first draft perform at the quality level the system is capable of delivering. The foundation phase and first live tender are scoped and priced together as a single opening engagement.
Ongoing retainer.
Continued bid writing support and BidMind maintenance for clients with a regular tender pipeline, with success fees on wins.
Standalone bid writing.
Senior bid writing support without BidMind, for clients with a specific tender requirement.
Engagements priced on enquiry.
work with us
If you have a tender pipeline and want to talk through how we might help, get in touch.