Nick’s website to help builders find work

Mar 19 2010 by Chris Knox, The Journal

A FREELANCE quantity surveyor has set up an e-tendering website which he believes will make it easier for construction firms to pick up work.

Gateshead-based Nick Mason set up www.asktobi.com last year to help contractors move quicker to win work as the market shrunk and now hopes to register 3,000 users to the site in the next three years and build his firm’s revenues to £500,000.

The website allows firms and organisations to pay a registration fee that enables them to place tenders on the site along with plans, documents and relevant information.

Subcontractors can then log in for free to access all the information before speedily downloading any relevant documents and finding any necessary suppliers online before submitting a tender.

As well as an e-tendering function and directory of subcontractors, the site also offers an online store for specialist quantity and building surveying publications and stationary, as well as news, jobs and weather updates.

And it has recently been upgraded to provide subcontractors with accurate information on the quantity of raw materials needed to complete a project based on information such as the dimensions of a planned building.