Government Contracts
Government
contracts are a great avenue for a small new business to follow to become a big
business because there are billions of dollars being spent annually on
government jobs all across the country. If you are interested, you can even get
government contracts outside the country. Government contracts are a very good
thing for a small business to work on because almost all government bid
information is open to the public. It is essential to know how to get this bid
information, and how to use it so it works for you and your business. Getting
some of your building service contracts from the U.S. government can change
your business and personal life fast. I’m going to tell you how to make contact
with all the government contracting officers, get to know what they do, and
what they need from you. This will provide the groundwork you need to make bids
on government building service projects.
As I
said earlier, you can find out what the current contractor bid price was on a
job by asking or talking to the contracting officer or one of his or her staff
members. All bid information is open to the public because they are using your
tax dollars to pay for these building repairs, cleaning and many other service
contracts. If you bid on the right government jobs whether, local or all over
America and win a lot of them, you can gross from $1,000 to $1,000,000 per month
and more. Whether you clean or repair a few government buildings or a full
military base each day, it’s good for business. Winning these types of
contracts can eventually make you a lot of money, as can cleaning for state,
city and local government buildings.
There
are several free information-providing government agencies, like the Small
Business Development Centers, and The Small Business Administration that are
very good when it come to helping you find lots of government work. There are
also private consultation companies that charge a small fee for giving you
government bid leads and information, but they can not give you contracts.
These agencies and companies will help you obtain government procurement and
government bid information that might otherwise be a little hard to find in the
beginning. Once you are on the right government bidder lists, the government
agencies you contact will start sending or e-mailing you all types of
information about contracts that are up for bids. Always remember, though, that
you cannot pay for a contract or pay government employees for information in
the process of making bids or being awarded contracts. Providing you with this
information is one of the things your tax dollars provide for free.
Again,
you’ll learn about products, service contacts, programs, loans, grants,
construction, and more when you ask the correct contracting officers or
government staff members for the information. You want to be sure that you have
the right agencies and contract bid information for the construction sites or
building cleaning jobs that interest you. To register or become certified as a
small government contractor, you will want to fill out applications with each
of the agencies you want to do business with, such as the Department of the
Navy, Department of the Army, Department of the Air Force, General Service
Administration, state governments, city governments, school districts, and so
on. Getting your company name on the Small Business Administration Automatic
bidders list is also very important. These are just some of the public agencies
that have building cleaning and all types of other contracts you can bid on, so
do your research and find all of them, believe me there’s a lot more. Most
certifications (such as, a woman owned, minority owned business, or a small
business is eligible for “set aside” contract programs) will be free of charge
unless you pay someone outside of the government to help you
with your paperwork. Take the time to fill out all of the registration and
certification forms so you will receive government bid and contract
information, this way you won’t have to ask for the information over and over
again it will automatically go out to you by each of the agency. Every few
years you may want to check and update your government business forms for each
agency; some require this with out notice. This little effort will keep you
informed and up-to-date, so everything will continue to work and run smoothly
for you and your company.
Note
that if you would like to bid on state or local government projects, you have
to register with that particular state or local government agency to get jobs
there. The state, federal, and local registrations and/or certifications are
each handled by their own separate agencies and require you to fill out their
own forms. Like most of the federal government agencies you will register with,
each who usually operates independently, with their titles, offices,
contracting officers, forms and requirements. You will need to work with each
separately, if you decide to go this route.
Select
all, or just choose the government agency that you would most like to work
with, and do whatever they ask you to do, so you can start receiving bids,
government subsides, benefits and small business information. They want to help
you, as a tax payer they must help you, because they work for you and they like
to keep working with you. I suggest that you register with all of them, in and
outside of your region, all over America. The feedback and information they
send you for free will help you learn how the government systems work. I say
again, complete the application for each and every one of them so you don’t
miss any bids or contract information. Often, the agency website for government
contractors will have forms ready for you to download and fill out, with
instructions about how to return them (for example, by mail, fax, e-mail, or
online, express, or self deliver in person for your signature recognition).
A good
way to start this process is to go to the Small Business Administration (SBA),
which is one of the best government business information sources for any and
all types of small business owners. They may use up some of your time as you
wade though their red tape and paperwork, but they are very good at what they
do. The Small Business Administration has a large clientele base that they work
with each day, but relying on them for all of your government and at times
non-government loans, cash -flow help, start up information, seminars, retired
executives assistance programs-SCORE, certifications, business directions,
bidding contracts and more is worth the time. It may take a little more effort
and time working with the Small Business Administration or any government
agency than you would like to put in, but you will soon see, that it’s worth it
as you are just starting out on this new small business adventure.
When you finally get everything
together, though, working with the government agencies and the Small Business
Administration you will see it is, worth the bother when you look at you
current and future personal/business profit projections. For example, if you
have the time and want to save
your business dollars, the Small Business Administration can give you free help
with accounting, business plans, business consultants, business projections,
business marketing systems, small business contacts, business certifications,
and other useful information that you definitely need starting out.
Going through government programs
will help you see how they think about their own government systems and
contracts, as this will help take away some of the stress and fears from your
day– to-day business with the government and its agencies. Again, you cannot
ever pay a government employee to help you; they are paid to help you for free
thru your tax dollars. Keep this in mind; it will keep you out of trouble.
Knowing that you can get, for free, every type of small business help that is
offered, that you can think of, or need, is very encouraging.
Try
to dedicate a little time each day to learning about all the different types of
public and government benefits, yes it is a time consuming experience that will
help you make the best money for your company. You will want to contact all
branches of the armed forces, General Service Administration, and the small
business development centers all over America over and over until you get them
to work for you. Once you learn how things work with government agencies,
you will be able to move your business from small to medium or large in as
little as three years.
The
National Electronic Procurement Assistance Center (NEPAC) is also a great
non-government resource which can help you find government jobs. NEPAC is a
private company with a search system that can be used to find and solicit all
types of government bids that can help you win government contracts, for just a
small consultant fee. They will send you a large amount of information over the
internet on bids and government contracts for this small annual fee. There are
lots of other companies that, like NEPAC, will help you by sending you e-mail
two or three times a week with up-to-date information on government bids and
contracts that relate to your type of business. When they get information you
need to make a bid on a government building or building cleaning project,
they’ll send it to you. These types of companies can work with you without too
much red tape because they are private, and they can find bid information and
contract results for you much faster than you can alone.
Before
2000 you could get some of this information straight from the Commerce Business
Daily (CBD), a government newspaper that listed a great deal of federal
government contract information. Today, the CBD website only has information
posted there before 2000 with some exceptions. Now the information CBD used to
cover can be found online at the Federal Business Opportunities website
https://www.fbo.gov/. Combine all the information you can find at government
and private sources and you will soon start to see the light.
There
are also a lot of local and free government business assistance programs
offered by your local colleges, universities, local politician office, and even
some schools and churches, so do a little home work, it will benefit you well.
If you give them a call or stop by their administrative offices, they will be
able to give you more information and show you how to get on track for
government marketing contacts and contracts.
The
largest buyer in the country, the government, has billions of dollars to spend
each year and a lot of work for you and your staff to do as soon you are ready
to start. It is up to you to get some of that work and some of those billions
of dollars through your next government building cleaning service or
construction contract. But you have to hang in there and work with them, no
matter what. This is very, very, important; no matter what they ask of you, do
not give up when it comes to government paperwork and travel. Going to government
meetings and government small business seminars will help you in ways you would
not believe. Between the government, the internet, the Small Business
Administration, and all of the other government agencies out there, you have a
lot of ways to go in your search for potential government construction or
building cleaning contracts.
Another
good idea is to do a little homework on government programs “set-aside” just
for small businesses. Your company can go very far if you are accepted into set
-aside programs and bid on these types of contracts. These programs in the
billions will set aside some government jobs and contracts that only small
businesses can bid on, so that large companies don’t take all the jobs, do to
there sheer size. It’s the government’s way of helping you grow. There are
substantial amounts of money built into these small contracts, so you have a
good chance of becoming a large successful business with time.
There are many set-aside programs, like the 8-A
program, that are run by the Small Business Administration’s 8-A Certification
Program Department. If you become an 8 -A certified company, you will be
eligible for contracts that have been set aside just for companies with your
type of work certification. They will contact you to see whether you want to
bid on contracts for which you qualify. You will not have to compete with any
non-8- A companies. Sometimes no other 8-A company will bid but yours, so the
job will easily go to you and your company. Place a bid, and the contract will
become yours. These contracts can pay from $ 8,000 and up to $8,000,000 or more
per year, and you can be in this 8-A program for up to eight years, until you
graduate as a, strong self sustained business. There should be only a few
others in your area who, like you, are 8-A certified companies, so this could
have a big impact on how your business prospers.
Again, once you are certified you’ll be in this program for about eight years
with very little competition when you bid on these government contracts. There
is good potential to earn millions of dollars just by being in the 8-A program.
All it takes is filling out your 8-A certification forms and applications and
returning them to the Small Business Administration. After you apply, all you
have to do is hope they will certify your company, if the program is not full.
Then be ready to bid and work when they call you.
For
more government work and opportunity information, you can look through The
Government Phonebook USA, which lists thousands contacts, all of the government
addresses, phone numbers, fax information, web sites, and some e-mail addresses
for agencies all over America, including the Small Business Administration. The
Government Phonebook will also give you all of the federal, state, county,
city, and local government agency information. It’s not expensive, and it’s
very useful to have around. You can check your local library for all
publication mentioned in this book. Use their free copy or buy your own copies
for you and your staff. You can also go online to Omnigraphics.com for a lot of
resources about US government and private publications that are for sale. For
the very low cost of about $47.00 you can get Matthew Laski’s book, Government
Giveaways for Entrepreneurs #3. It’s worth a little time to read, or listen to
the tapes or CDs that go with his book to learn about his approach to getting
business information and help from the government.
Over
and above everything, remember that doing your homework is very important if
you want to get government contracts. As this how-to book is trying to teach
you, you can combine the information you get from the government agencies with
your own creative business mind, and your government contracting business will
grow. There is an overwhelming amount of free government information available
to help you start running a profitable building cleaning or construction
business. Looking at government contracts and programs is good because it opens
a lot more doors for your small business to make money. It’s great to think
about how adding several government contracts to your list of jobs will improve
your business.
Everybody
will not, and cannot, become a millionaire. This I do understand. However, you
who put the effort in at the beginning have a better chance than you had before
you started looking into government construction or building cleaning
contracts. After all the waiting and red tape, you still may not get the answer
you were waiting for, or get it as quickly as you need to move your business
forward at the moment you desire. At times you may have to redo your paperwork
just to update things and move things forward. Your effort will, however, pay
off in time if you continue to work with the government, do your research on
programs and contracts, and obtain as much knowledge as possible from the small
business help programs the government offers.
In order to increase your income, you should continue to educate yourself in your field of work. If you keep yourself educated about and up to date on the happenings of your trade, you will be more successful in your business. I recommend reading as much about the cleaning and building industry as you can. Just like a stockbroker, businessman, or athlete, you need to watch your industry.
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