James Spencer ⋅ Dowell, IL Spencer and Partners LLC ⋅ 23 years experience

You are not alone. Those contracts are not easy for anyone to lock in. The key is networking with the people who already have non-competitive contracts. The vast majority of those contracts go to companies referred to the appropriate person or committee by a company or person already doing business with the government. You need to become one of the people inside those groups. Get to know the people in your area already doing business with the government and ask them how they acquired the contracts they have. Good hunting!

Jo Prabhu ⋅ San Rafael, CA International Services Group ⋅ 20 years experience

Hello Brian,

I am a certified WMBE and small business already bidding for federal, state and city contracts for a variety of services and products. I am looking for partnerships in various states to bid for local contracts. If you are interested, please feel free to contact me.

Sarah Bass Blanco ⋅ Annapolis, MD boodleAI ⋅ 7 years experience

Hi Brian,

Thank you for your service and for using ACP AdvisorNet!

Prior to being with ACP, I did business development in the D.C. metro area for several years and became familiar with a few common methods to help small businesses obtain contracts. FBO has all of the information you need regarding the requirements that you must meet to win a contract, but I found it a bit cumbersome to search through and organize opportunities to pursue. There are a few tools out there that help you refine your search (and pull all their information from FBO, so it should reflect what the government is publicizing) that have built-in dashboards which help you keep the opportunities you identify organized. I do want to specifically note that you typically have to pay a subscription for these services, which I understand is not always within the budget for a small business. At ACP AdvisorNet, we try to limit the services we advise our veterans to use to those that are free, but this may be something to look into or keep in the back of your mind. The company I was with previously was also a small business and used Deltek GovWin IQ (iq.govwin.com/), but this site provides a great overview of other resources: http://federal-contracting.com/

It is also important to connect with the Contracting Officers of opportunities not only to introduce your business, but make sure all of the information on FBO is correct, such as timelines/value/set-asides, etc. Many contracts will be specifically small business or SDVOSB (service-disabled veteran owned small business) set-aside which limits the pool of companies that can bid them. Additionally, it is critical to pay attention to industry days so you can attend and meet key government contacts, potential teammates, and see who may be competition. It is also important to keep track of deadlines, such as turning in Request For Information (RFI) documents to show your interest in the contract from the beginning.

Lastly, these two articles on the Small Business Administration's site provide helpful advice and discuss GSA schedules, which can be extremely useful to be on when bidding contracts: https://www.sba.gov/blogs/10-tips-veteran-owned-businesses-seeking-sell-us-federal-government; https://www.sba.gov/blogs/veteran-owned-businesses-government-contracting-advice

I hope this is helpful and best of luck to you and your business!

All the best,

Sarah
ACP AdvisorNet Staff

Deb Yeagle ⋅ Tampa, FL Plan To Win, Inc. ⋅ 39 years experience

Brian-
Thanks for your service!
Congrats on registering in SAM, that is the essential first step in doing business with the Federal Government.
I am assuming you have saved searches set up in FBO based on your NAICS codes and are reviewing results of the opportunity sweeps on a daily basis?
Are you qualified to register your business under any special socio-economic categories? (e.g., SDVOSB) You would be eligible for Small Business set-aside opportunities then, if so.
Have you decided which agencies you are going to target, based on your market research, and do you know what long term opportunities are planned for those agencies?
Usually, the Florida SBDC office has a PTAC counselor that can help you get started in doing business with the Federal Government. Have you engaged with your local office in JAX? See http://floridasbdc.org/services/government-contracting/faqs/ and https://www.sbdc.unf.edu/find-an-sbdc/.
I have provided training in Business Development (BD), Capture Management, and Proposal Development for Federal Government Contracting for the SBDC/PTAC offices in Orlando at UCF and in Cocoa at Eastern Florida State College. If you would like to PM me, then we can exchange contact info, and I'd be glad to provide you that training material and spend some time walking you through it after you've had a chance to digest it.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Deb