Working With the Federal Government

Working With the Federal Government©

There are many Federal Government opportunities for small businesses. It is required to allocate a certain percentage of its business to small business enterprises, disadvantaged, and minority/women owned enterprises. The process of bidding and soliciting opportunities with the Federal Government is not difficult, but it helps if one knows how to get set up and how to pursue the opportunities.
Central Government Contractor Registration
Before you can bid on or submit proposals for Federal Government work, the first step is to register your company at the Central Government Contractor Registration site. (www.CCR.Gov). The registration process is easy and the site guides you through it step-by-step. Your company can be any type of corporation, partnership, or sole proprietor. You will be required to get a DUNS (Data Universal Numbering System) number from Dun & Bradstreet. At CCR.Gov, the homepage has a link to get the number. The number can be obtained in 24 hours if needed.

To start the process on CCR.Gov, click on “Start New Registration” and the website will walk you through the registration process. Questions such as whether you are a small business minority, veteran owned, number of years in business, etc., and financial questions. These are not audited, they are just estimates, so don’t worry about perfect accuracy.

There will be a section that asks what NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) codes you want to list. Again, this is not critical. The CCR website has a link to a list of these codes. The codes are classifications for work your company may be interested in. Such as, machinery repair, office supplies, janitorial services, and so forth. You can pick as many as you want for anything that may be something your company has an interest in. The reason you want to list the codes is for the government buyers; they may do a search on a certain code to see what companies may be interested in a given solicitation.

Once all questions are answered the registration takes about 48 hours. The status of your registration can be checked simply by logging in. If it is not approved, the web site will tell you which questions need to be answered or clarified.

Federal Business Opportunities Website

The Federal Business Opportunities Website (www.FBO.Gov) is a searchable data base that lists thousands of government solicitations (RFPs, RFIs, RFBs). The site can be viewed and searched without registering on the site, but it is best to register to take advantage of the enhancements, such as search agents. Now that you have set up your company on CCR.gov, simply go to FBO.gov and click on “Register Know”. It will ask you for your DUNS number and the DUNS number will link to your CCR registration.

The FBO.gov website is good as a search tool. If you find a solicitation that is interesting, click on it and it will give you information (Scope of Work) on that solicitation. It will also tell you who the Contract Specialist/Officer (Buyer) is. It will give contact information for that officer and details on submitting your price or proposal.

FedBid.com

The Federal Government is using a “Reverse Auction” process for many of its solicitations. Www.FedBid.com is a non-governmental agency that the Federal Government uses to manage the Reverse Auction process. Again, as before, you must register. Go to FedBid.com click on “Seller Login” and then “Create Account”. It is a very simple process. After you enter a little information the site will find your company in the CCR database. In this Reverse Auction, the bidding will be open for a given amount of time that can vary depending on the Federal Government contracting officer. It is usually open for at least 24 hours and may be open for days. You will not know other bidder’s prices. When you enter your price, you will only be told if yours is the high or low bid. You have the opportunity to bid many times, but they do watch for bidders that start unrealistically high and try to work their way down. Your bids must at least be reasonable.

Some responses will not go through FedBid.com, but will go directly to the Federal Government Contracting officer. For instance an RFI (Request for Information) may not even include pricing and would go directly to the contracting officer.

Working with Federal Agencies and Unsolicited Proposals

FBO.Gov lists the solicitations that are already approved and looking for responses. As with any business, it is advantages to start talking with the Users (not Buyers) in a given Federal agency to understand their needs and to see if there is any way your company can be of assistance. For instance, let’s say you had a product the Department of Defense (www.DOD.gov) may be interested in. There may be no solicitation on FBO.Gov, but you may have something that is unique and you want to try and sell it to DOD. The first step is to go to the DOD.gov website and search for contact info for the Program Officers (Users) who may be interested in your product. This is a real sales effort and it may take months or even a year to get in the door. The Program Officer may decide to check out your product and take it to the next step. If it is high dollar cost item it may have to go through the FBO.gov solicitation process, but if your company is the only one that offers this product, it could be considered a “Sole Source” and the bidding process would be eliminated.

Small Business Administration

The Small Business Administration (SBA.gov) is a valuable source for help for the Small Business Owner. The SBA can help with advice on setting up a corporation and administering your corporation. The SBA also has workshops online and throughout the country that are geared toward small businesses in general as well as specifically for Federal Government work. The SBA may also be able to help with funding your enterprise with an SBA backed loan.

Summary

Getting work with the Federal Government may take some time. The key is persistence and maximum sales effort. Consider it a business development effort over time. Once your company has a track record with a given agency you may be able to set up a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA). This BPA will allow a Buyer to purchase your product or service directly from you at a prearranged price. For instance, if your company had an hourly rate for janitorial services the agency may contact you directly for certain ongoing hourly work.

©2010, Thomas Zanowski
The preceding material was prepared by Thomas Zanowski, a consultant having years of experience preparing and responding to bids, in and out of Federal, State, and Local governments. He may be reached at tzanowski@att.net