Taking the guesswork out of tendering for local businesses

FOR many regional businesses, tendering feels less like an opportunity and more like a maze of red tape. Even seasoned operators can spend days wrestling with compliance language, shifting requirements, and unclear scoring, only to be left wondering why they missed out.

The reality is, many small and mid sized businesses deliver excellent work but feel outmatched when it comes to the paperwork.

Between compliance jargon, shifting formats, and vague criteria, tenders often become a frustrating guessing game. But what if the problem isn’t the business, it’s the system?

Simon Coutts, director of Grantus and a finalist in this year’s 2025 Federation University Commerce Ballarat Business Excellence Awards, thinks it’s time to flip the tendering experience.

“We’ve helped secure over $500 million in public sector funding and contracts,” he said.

“And the businesses that succeed aren’t always the biggest, they just have a system that works.”

This month, Grantus is launching the Tender Toolkit with Commerce Ballarat, a practical resource designed to simplify the process for real businesses.

It will be unveiled at the Tender Together Workshop on 26 August, part of the B31 Ballarat Business Festival.

Attendees will walk away with the full toolkit, insights from a panel of industry experts, and strategies they can use straight away. Because tendering should feel like building your business, not rolling the dice.

August 26, 9am–11am. Free registration at grantus.com.au.

//SPONSORED CONTENT