According to the SBA, “many companies aspire to do contracting work for the federal government, most will not…”

There are many reasons why the SBA finds this result. These reasons include:

1. Some firms are not qualified to be doing business with the government;
2. Others are not competitive enough;
3. Some firms procrastinate by just talking about selling to the government but never take action; 
4. Others are intimidated by the proposal process.

Once your firm is satisfied that reason 1 & 2 are not issues, a good next step is to engage in Federal Bid Monitoring utilizing either an external or internal source. Bid monitoring is an excellent step to aid in the process of avoiding procrastination and taking action.

sam.gov is thought of by many as the only source of items for bid. However, there is also Fedconnect.com, Unisonglobal.com, DIBBS, GSA eBuy, and NECO where firms can also obtain opportunities. Therefore, the person that is responsible for monitoring the federal sites on a bi-monthly basis should make a thorough review of all of the aforementioned sites.

The next step is evaluating which solicitation(s) your firm would like to bid, and then formulating a proposal. Although putting your first proposal together is challenging, completing this process whether you win or not, gets you one step closer to becoming a successful federal contractor.

If you feel your firm would be aided by having low-cost bid monitoring being performed on a routine basis, I always recommend contacting an industry expert such as Fedvital. They specialize in helping small businesses bolster their future business development potential with Low Cost/Low-Medium Effort federal marketing channels so that they can get their feet wet in the federal marketplace for a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. They can be reached at (859)360-1320.