The U.S. Government is the world's largest customer, and they routinely do business with small businesses. You just have to follow proper procedure (of course!).
Difficulty: Hard
Time Required: Usually several months
Here's How:
- Educate yourself extremely well on the process. This is just an overview.
- Make sure you meet the basic requirements for doing business with the government, such as accepting electronic funds transfer and credit cards.
- Determine your NAICS code and make sure you qualify as a small business.
- Determine who in the government purchases your products or services.
- Determine if there are any special programs for which you may qualify.
- Obtain a DUNS (Data Universal Numbering System) number for free from Dun & Bradstreet.
- Register with the SBA and the agency with which you wish to do business.
- Subscribe to the Commerce Business Daily, which lists notices of proposed government procurement actions, contract awards, sales of government property, and other procurement information.
- Respond to the bids effectively and get awarded contracts!
Tips:
- Make sure you want to do business with the government. They may be the world's largest customer, but their business comes with a lot of strings attached.
- Make sure you meet both general government contracting qualifications and those of the specific agency, or you'll waste a lot of time and effort.
- Don't expect the government to move fast on anything -- this is a long-term process.
- Educate yourself thoroughly on the process.
- Get in touch with your local SBA office.