By Irv Alpert
Executive Vice President, Onvia, Inc.
If your small business is hoping to capitalize on the economic stimulus by pursuing government contracts, here are several ways to improve your chances.
- Get registered and certified. Take care of the first steps of government contracting right away, such as getting a NAICS code and registering your company in the Central Contracting Registration (CCR) database. Don't wait until you've found your dream RFP to begin the process.
- Get out in front of the competition. I've had many conversations with small business owners who say things like, "When I worked at a larger company, we never had success with government contracting, so what chance does my small business have?" Consider that only about 10,000 small businesses are registered with the SBA. Of these, only a fraction are competing in your geographic area and line of business.
- Team up. Small businesses are usually much more specialized than large businesses and can't always fulfill all of a contract's requirements. Some projects just require a larger work force or a higher volume of work than a small business can produce. If your company can perform on part but not all of a project, consider teaming with another small business to bid on the contract.
- Be realistic about timing. If your business needs more revenue right now, government contracting is probably not the best way to go. Plus, you may not be paid until after you've completed the contract. Do you have enough other work to cover overhead while you work on the project? If not, government contracting may not make sense for your business.
- Subcontract. Just like teaming, subcontracting is a great way for a niche business to break into government contracting. It allows you to gain government-contract experience while letting the prime contractor deal with most of the red tape involved. Plus, it's a win-win for the prime and subcontractor – a government proposal from a prime contractor with one or more small-business subcontractors is more attractive to the agency.
Of course, in order to bid on economic stimulus-funded projects at all, you have to know where to find them. You can track all economic recovery projects by registering for free notification at http://www.recovery.org/
Smaller businesses are being
Smaller businesses are being offered rate of interest breaks through J.P. Morgan Chase. In short if a company takes out a small business loan with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co, and hires a new employee; their interest rate will drop by half a percent up to 3 employees. This is hopefully going to help pull us out of the recession, while helping people get jobs. There will not be nearly as many payday advances being taking out if individuals have money. I will support any business that really takes the additional mile to do what it can to help our economy and country as one.