School Uniforms Contracts?

[HH5131]

We are considering bidding on our regional area of schools, probably around 5-6 schools to start with and each school has 800-1100 students. We are putting together the numbers fairly well so far. They are open for bids in December. I'm wondering if anyone else does school uniforms like this and any suggestions would help. I'm wondering if we should use a couple different suppliers, how many helpers during the back to school time, how many machines, etc.
Anyone know of anything to suggest?
Thx!

[Wishes]

One thing to consider when doing schools is that they require the goods upfront before payment. That means you are on the hook for 100-800 garments before they pay. We work with several schools districts and some of them don't pay quickly. We have had some bills take three to four months. Can you afford to have that much money in limbo for several months. We were going to do a bid for a district with four high schools. That meant we would have to supply four school bookstores for the fall. That was thousands of dollars out till their business offices pay. We did not want that much money tired up so we didn't put in a bid. Something to consider.
Margaret