Tender help for small businesses

Published 30 October 2026

Free tender help starts with Find a Tender, the main place UK public buyers publish notices for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It's free to search, with free email alerts. Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI are worth checking too. Paid help falls into four kinds: alerts and search tools, bid writing, bid review and tender selection.

UK public buyers publish a lot of work. Between 1 September and 28 October 2026, Find a Tender carried 3,065 new tender notices, or about 1,609 a month (our count of the public Find a Tender data). Small businesses win a real share of it. Of the 1,315 construction contract awards published on Contracts Finder between 1 July and 28 October 2026, 603 (46%) went to suppliers the buyer marked as small or medium-sized.

Finding a notice is rarely the hard part. Working out which ones are worth a week of your time is. Small businesses told the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) that a bid takes on average five days to prepare, and 62% said suitable contracts are difficult to find (FSB, 15 December 2025).

This guide sets out the help that's available, free and paid, so you can pick what suits your business.

What free tender help can I use today?

Find a Tender. Since the Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025, Find a Tender has been the main place UK public buyers publish notices for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is part of the government's Central Digital Platform, carries both larger and smaller contracts, and is free to search. You can save searches and get email alerts at no cost.

Contracts Finder. This still lists procurements that started under the old rules (the Public Contracts Regulations 2015) before 24 February 2025, along with their award notices. Fewer new opportunities go there now, but the award history is useful: it shows who won similar work, for how much, and when contracts end.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scottish buyers use Public Contracts Scotland. Welsh buyers also use Sell2Wales, and Northern Ireland has eTendersNI. If you work across borders, check each one.

Registration. Registering your business on the Central Digital Platform is free. Since 1 April 2026, the winner of a notifiable below-threshold contract has to be registered and give the buyer its unique identifier before the buyer publishes the contract details. Do it once, before you bid, and never pay anyone just to register you.

Buyer events and early notices. Many buyers publish early notices or hold supplier days before a tender opens. These are a good chance to ask questions and to judge whether the work suits you.

What do the rules say about small suppliers?

We're not lawyers, and this isn't legal advice, but a few parts of the Procurement Act 2023 are worth knowing:

• Section 12(4): when running a covered procurement, a buyer must have regard to the fact that small and medium-sized enterprises may face particular barriers to taking part, and consider whether those barriers can be removed or reduced.
• Section 87: a buyer inviting tenders for a notifiable below-threshold contract must publish a notice first. That covers contracts worth £12,000 or more including tax for central government buyers (including NHS trusts), or £30,000 or more including tax for other buyers such as councils.
• Section 85: below the threshold, buyers generally can't run a separate pre-qualification stage to shortlist bidders. The exception is some larger works contracts.
• Section 68: most public contracts carry an implied term that valid, undisputed invoices are paid within 30 days.
• Section 50: after a competitive tendering procedure, each supplier whose tender was assessed gets an assessment summary explaining how its bid was scored.

Each buyer sets its own process, so always follow the tender documents.

What does paid tender help cover?

Paid tender help tends to fall into four kinds:

1. Alerts and search tools. A subscription that sends you matching notices. Useful if you bid often, though the official services already send free alerts.
2. Bid writing. Someone writes or rewrites your answers, usually charged by the day, by the bid, or partly on success. Our guide to tender writing costs explains the usual models.
3. Bid review. A second pair of eyes on your answers before you submit.
4. Tender selection. Help deciding which tenders to go for at all, and what to fix before you start.

The first three help you bid. The last helps you bid on the right things. With five days per bid, a wrong choice costs a working week.

How do I choose tenders worth my week?

Whatever help you use, the same checks apply:

• Can you meet every pass/fail condition? Insurance levels, accreditations, turnover and past experience are often fixed. If you can't meet one, don't start.
• Is the value right for your size? A contract much larger than your turnover is a stretch for you and for the buyer.
• Is the location workable? Travel and site visits eat into margin.
• How long do you have? A rushed bid is rarely a strong one.
• Who won last time? Award notices show the incumbent and the previous value.
• Can you evidence it? Most quality questions want real examples from work you've done.

If the answer to most of these is yes, the tender is worth a closer look.

Which sectors do you focus on?

We focus on construction trades, training, passenger transport, care, cleaning and catering. In our Find a Tender count for September and October 2026, construction had about 224 new tender notices a month and training about 60. Care had about 122, cleaning about 34, catering about 32 and passenger transport about 14. Our page on UK public tenders by sector has the full figures.

Questions

Where can I find tenders in the UK?

Find a Tender is the main place UK public buyers publish notices for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It's free to search, and you can save searches and get email alerts. Contracts Finder still lists procurements that started under the old rules before 24 February 2025. Scottish buyers use Public Contracts Scotland, Welsh buyers also use Sell2Wales, and Northern Ireland has eTendersNI. For council work under £30,000, check the council's own website too.

What do I need to bid for a tender?

Usually a free Central Digital Platform registration, insurance at the levels the buyer names, any accreditations and policies the documents ask for, and two or three examples of similar work with a contactable reference for each. Each tender sets its own conditions, so read the documents first. Our guide to PQQs lists what the questions usually ask for.

Want a shortlist done for you?

Tender Desk, from Your Evenings Ltd (that's us), is a one-off £149 diagnostic for small businesses. It's done for you: we find up to 5 live tenders that suit a business your size and tell you what to fix before you bid. It arrives by email within 5 working days of your form, with no call. If it's late, you don't pay. If no live tender fits, we say so and why. See which tenders are worth your week: £149 diagnostic

Sources

• Find a Tender and Contracts Finder
• Procurement Act 2023, section 12, section 50, section 68, section 85 and section 87
• GOV.UK: Guidance on below-threshold contracts
• The Procurement Regulations 2024, regulation 36A (supplier registration for below-threshold awards, from 1 April 2026)
• GOV.UK: Guidance on the Central Digital Platform and publication of information
• FSB press release, 15 December 2025 (five days per bid, 62% find suitable contracts difficult to find)
• Our counts: Find a Tender open data (tender notices published 1 September to 28 October 2026) and Contracts Finder open data (awards published 1 July to 28 October 2026), counted by Your Evenings Ltd.

This guide summarises the official sources above. It isn't legal advice.

Written with AI assistance by Your Evenings Ltd. Last updated: 31 October 2026.