What Goes in a Capability Statement for Arizona Subcontractors

A capability statement is a one page summary of your company. It tells a GC or owner who you are, what you build, and why you are safe to invite. It is standard in government contracting and rare on the private commercial side, which is exactly why it works.

When I was on the owner's side reviewing bids, I would get proposals from subs I had never heard of. Most came with a number and a list of exclusions and nothing else. I had to go hunting for their license, their past work, and who to call with questions. The few that attached a clean one page summary got a real look, because they saved me time.

Here is what to put on yours.

Keep it to one page

One page, one side. Save it as a PDF and keep the file small so it does not get stuck in someone's email filter. An estimator should be able to read the whole thing in under a minute.

If it spills onto a second page, you are writing a brochure. Cut it back.

Header: who you are and how to reach you

At the top: your logo, company name, and a real contact. Not a general inbox. A person with a name, title, cell number, and email. GCs want to know exactly who to call when a question comes up the day before bids are due.

Put your ROC license number and classification right here too. Arizona law requires your license number on bids and contracts, and the GC is going to look it up anyway. List the class by number and name, like "C11 Electrical" or "C37 Plumbing," so nobody has to guess what you are licensed for. And make sure it is a commercial or dual class if you want commercial work.

Core capabilities

This is a short list of what you actually do. Be specific. "Electrical" is not specific. "Tenant improvement electrical for medical office and retail, including low voltage and fire alarm coordination" is specific.

Use the words an estimator types when searching for subs. Five to eight bullets is plenty.

Also say what you self perform and what you sub out. GCs care about this more than most subs realize, because every extra tier is one more place for the schedule to slip.

Project types and service area

Name the building types you work in: medical office, healthcare, retail, restaurants, office TI, industrial, schools. Name the areas you cover. "Maricopa and Pinal counties" or "Phoenix metro and Tucson" is more useful than "statewide."

Add a typical contract range if you can. If your sweet spot is $50,000 to $750,000, say so. That keeps you off invites that are too small to be worth your time or too big for your crew and bonding.

Past performance

Pick three to five projects that look like the work you want more of. For each one, give a single line: project type, city, square footage, your scope, the GC, and the year completed.

Do not list every project you have ever done. If a GC is bidding a surgery center, your surgery center project is the one they care about.

Save the full story for a separate project write up. The capability statement only needs enough to make them want to read more.

Safety, insurance, and bonding

This is where a capability statement does work that a brochure never does. Put the numbers a prequal form asks for right on the page:

1. EMR for each of the last three years
2. General liability and umbrella limits
3. Single project and aggregate bonding limits, with your surety's name
4. Safety training your crews carry, like OSHA 10 or OSHA 30
5. A note that your OSHA 300A summaries are available on request

If your EMR is under 1.0, show it. That is a selling point. If you are not bondable yet, leave the bonding line off rather than writing something vague. Vague reads worse than blank.

Differentiators

This is the part most subs get wrong. "Quality work, on time, on budget" is what everyone says.

Real differentiators are facts. You own your own lifts. You prefab in your shop. You have crews who regularly work nights in occupied buildings. You handle your own BIM coordination. You have finished a specific number of medical office TIs in Scottsdale in the last two years. Pick two or three that are true and state them plainly.

Company data

At the bottom, a few lines of plain facts: year founded, number of field employees, union or open shop, and any certifications, like a City of Phoenix SBE or DBE, if you have them. Include your website and an Arizona address. A local address matters to GCs who want subs that can show up fast when something goes sideways on site.

A template you can copy

Here is a plain text version. Fill in the brackets, drop it into a clean one page layout, and save it as a PDF.

[COMPANY NAME]
[Trade] Contractor | [City], Arizona
ROC [License Number] | [Class Code and Name, for example C11 Electrical]
Contact: [Name], [Title] | [Cell] | [Email] | [Website]

CORE CAPABILITIES
• [Specific scope 1]
• [Specific scope 2]
• [Specific scope 3]
• [Specific scope 4]
• Self perform: [what your own crews install]

PROJECT TYPES
[Medical office, retail, office TI, industrial, etc.]

SERVICE AREA
[Counties or cities]

TYPICAL CONTRACT RANGE
[$ low] to [$ high]

SELECTED PROJECTS
• [Project type], [City] | [Square feet] | [Your scope] | GC: [Name] | [Year]
• [Project type], [City] | [Square feet] | [Your scope] | GC: [Name] | [Year]
• [Project type], [City] | [Square feet] | [Your scope] | GC: [Name] | [Year]

SAFETY, INSURANCE, AND BONDING
EMR: [Year] [rate] | [Year] [rate] | [Year] [rate]
General liability: [$ per occurrence] / [$ aggregate]
Umbrella: [$ limit]
Bonding: [$ single project] / [$ aggregate] through [Surety Name]
Crew training: [OSHA 10, OSHA 30, other]
OSHA 300A summaries available on request

WHAT SETS US APART
• [Fact 1]
• [Fact 2]
• [Fact 3]

COMPANY DATA
Founded [Year] | [Number] field employees | [Union or open shop]
Certifications: [SBE, DBE, WBE, or none]
Address: [Arizona address]

Tailor it for the GCs you really want

Government buyers are told to tailor a capability statement for each agency they pursue. The same idea works with GCs. If one GC builds mostly healthcare and another builds mostly retail, swap the selected projects so each one sees work that looks like theirs. It takes ten minutes.

Then use it everywhere: proposals, your BuildingConnected profile, prequal forms, association events, and your website.

Update it twice a year. A capability statement with last year's EMR or an expired bonding letter does more harm than good.

If you want your capability statement written, designed, and paired with a prequal binder and three project write ups, that is the Groundline Bid Ready Package.