Tips for Finding Federal Contracts

U.S Government agencies at all levels buy products and services every day. They buy every imaginable type of product and service from every industry including cleaning services, office supplies, machinery, technical support, and consulting services. Consequently, this spending creates an opportunity for many small business entrepreneurs looking to grow their businesses through government contracts.

However, searching the web for government contracts can be extremely frustrating. A click of the Google search button can present a list of contracts that can take days to review. If you are not familiar with the process, you need someone with prior experience to guide you through.  Below are some simple Hints that can help you simplify the effort while still keeping it effective.

Searching for the contracts

Hint 1: get registered in the System for Award Management.  To do business with the Federal Government, you must have an active registration in SAM.

Hint 2: explore the government agencies procurement database . This is a list of project or contracts that the government would like completed. In this database, they invite interested bidders and service providers to bid for the various contracts. This is somewhat a government’s wish list, also called the Pre-solicitation List. Watching this list can help in maintaining an awareness of planed projects or potential contracts. Many helpful web sites avail information about government procurement. For instance, Acquisition Central lets you search procurement forecasts by agency.

Hint 3: explore www.fbo.gov. This site has over uncountable contracts of over $25,000 being solicited by the federal government. There are three or more ways to search on this site. You can search all the contracts, but his may be unhelpful and tiresome. The best option is searching for suitable contracts using suitable keywords. For example, if your company deals with fruits, you can use the keywords food services, or fruits.  Alternatively, you can also Search by Agency if you are interested in working with a particular government agency.

Hint 4: Once you find an ideal solicitation, print it out and save the information as a hard copy. It is easy to lose the information of a contract you saw online and failed to save the site or bookmark as favorite.

Hint 5: set www.fbo.gov to do searches and filter the most relevant contracts. You can set up “search agents” based on selected preferences. You can rub search agents on an interim or scheduled basis to highlight newly filed opportunities that coincide with your search criteria.

Expediting

Hint 6: Keep the name of the contact person given on the contract advertisement. Feel free to call and/or write to them if you have questions. However, be cautious and manage this effort prudently.

Scrutinize the entire solicitation, note down questions, and submit them all in one letter or email. Sometimes a phone call can work best, but a written request with a written reply is much more reliable. It would be best to avoid calling them continually with one question at a time.

Hint 7: Check the respective State Agency websites and assess their contracts. Before doing business with the government, it is prudent to ensure that you are registered with the appropriate agency.

Hint 8: visit the sites often for updates and changes. Always ensure that your bid reflects all amendments.

Get your financing in place

One of the major benefits of competing for government contracts is that they can be substantial. Remarkably, they can give your small business the chance to grow significantly. However, some contracts can strain your finances or exceed your capital ability.

For instance, many small companies do not have the capacity to wait 30 to 60 days to get their invoices paid by the government. Furthermore, some companies may not have the working capital to pay suppliers so that they can complete the government purchase order. Such problems can inhibit your business from becoming a successful government contractor. If you do not sufficient capital, consider getting your financing in place ahead of time.

There are three common options to finance government contracts. These are asset based lending, and purchase order financing. Factoring allows an entrepreneur to finance slow-paying invoices. This way, you can be paid by the factoring company sooner instead of waiting up to 60 days to receive payment from the government. On the other hand, asset based lending is a finance solution that is offered to larger companies to allow them finance accounts receivable, inventory, and other assets. Lastly, purchase order financing allows an entrepreneur to finance purchase orders for products, in which the company acts as a re-seller. It provides the finances for the payment of suppliers to enable you to fulfill the order.

Gaining proficiency in finding and bidding on contracts is a long journey. We hope that these tips will help shorten the trip. If you need guidance on how to acquire government contracts, do not hesitate to get in touch with us.