10 Actionable Steps to Take TODAY to Grow Your Minority-Owned Business with Government Contracting (2020)
If you want to grow your minority-owned business, there are vast benefits to government contracting. These include consistent payment, increased work opportunities, growth in company value, and exclusive set-aside funding.
Today, we’re going to review 9 important steps to help you get started!
These steps helped us at AITHERAS grow our minority-owned government contracting business to over 240+ projects since 2002.
Once you have completed the tasks listed here, you will be ready to do business with the government!
Let’s dive right in:
STEP 1. Determine if the government purchases what you sell: Research the types of goods or services the federal government, and your local state procurement office, buys. This will save you time and effort. Access the Federal Procurement Data System. For local information, search for the term “[STATE] procurement office.”
STEP 2. Figure out your specialty area: The government organizes service requests and procurement listings by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and the Federal Supply Classification (FSC) codes. You can determine the applicable NAICS codes for your business deliverables by using the NAICS Code Lookup tool:
STEP 3. Obtain a DUNS number: A DUNS (Data Universal Numbering System) number, issued by Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), is a unique identifying number assigned to your company--it is a requirement to do business with the government.
STEP 4. Register with SAM: All government contractors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM). This is the primary source for contract opportunity notifications and where your information as a contractor is updated.
STEP 5. Get certified as a minority- and/or women-owned business: MBE, WBE, DBE, SBA 8(a) or WOSB are certifications used by federal and local governments exclusively for minority and women-owned businesses. Pursue these certifications to gain access to contracts that are set-aside exclusively for you.
STEP 6. Update your website & create a Capabilities Statement: Make it known that you are available for government contracting. Update your website with all your NAICS codes and certifications (example here), and create a capabilities statement (an example of one of ours).
STEP 7. Narrow down your efforts: The Federal Government is vast with massive opportunities to grow your business! Selecting potential customers to focus on is vital for effective use of your business development resources. Narrow down your efforts by discovering which customers want to purchase the goods or services you provide. USA.gov provides an A-to-Z index of Government departments and agencies with brief descriptions of and links to each entry. At USASpending.gov, you’ll find detailed records of where and what Government spending has occurred so far. Acquisition.gov offers links to procurement forecasts by Agency. Many Agencies include procurement-relevant information on their websites, so if you’ve narrowed your search to a particular agency, visit their site.
STEP 8. Start looking for contracts: Begin at BetaSam.gov where nearly all contracts are posted. You can also find contract information on your local government procurement website as well by searching with the term “[STATE] Procurement Office.” One exception are opportunities that are posted to eBuy, which are open exclusively to GSA Schedule holders. These are not required to be placed on BetaSam.gov. This is one reason why many companies choose to get on a GSA schedule.
STEP 9. Begin as a subcontractor: Past performance is the single most important factor for government contracting success. In order to show you can do what the contract requires, you need to have verifiable and referential previous experience. One of the best ways, if you do not already have experience, is to find a prime company to subcontract with that is already successful at contracting in your field. If you are in the IT space, feel free to send your capabilities statement to us for potential subcontracting opportunities. You can also find information on other prime contractors by looking at recently awarded contracts on BetaSam.gov.
STEP 10. Get out in front of the effort: The best time to start pursuing an opportunity is when it is in the Request for Information (RFI) stage. At this point, the opportunity is early in the procurement process, so you have time to work on building your relationship with the customer. If your RFI response is strong, you may be able to influence the development of the eventual Request for Proposal (RFP) in ways that favor you. By the time a Final RFP is released, it is already late in the procurement cycle. If you find a great opportunity that just came out, it may still be worth pursuing. But if the Final RFP has been out for a week or two, it’s likely too late for you to catch up with your competitors.
The benefits of government contracting are enormous. If you can position yourself effectively, it can be a tremendous recipe to grow and sustain your business!