Suggestions
- Virtually all commercial and indeed all government contracting opportunities are listed on specialized websites that are free of charge to access. The key is in discovering the websites. One way is to use a pay site that searches a database of sites across the country for opportunities in your area of expertise. If the search for contracting opportunities is not limited to the federal government, then utilizing pay search companies may be more beneficial and less time consuming.The same pay search sites that provide local, state, and federal contracting opportunities also provide listing services for commercial entities. This is especially so for potential customers who are seeking construction, remodeling, and IT support products and services. However, the majority of the focus, in the current economy, of most search sites and companies is government contracting opportunities. Some sites where many business owners have reported success in finding new contract work are:
www.business.gov (An excellent resource for contract opportunity searching and bidding)
www.fbo.gov (An excellent and free site for finding federal contracting opportunities)
www.sba.gov/contractingopportunities (This site provides small businesses with a list of sub-contracting opportunities with large commercial entities)
www.ed.gov (A site useful in locating region specific government and commercial sub-contract opportunities)
www.btcdc.com (A pay site that lists and assists in the acquisition of prime and sub-contract opportunities in the Washington D.C. area)
www.mbda.gov
www.bidnet.com (A contract opportunity search company well known for successfully finding contracts for small business clients)
www.stateandfederalbids.com (Don't let the name fool you because it is one of the most effective commercial and government contracting search companies around)
Opportunities inside the United States and in Canada are listed on sites. - Decide if you would like to register your company with the site to list your company as an interested vendor on solicitations located throughout the system. It is strongly advised that the searcher register its business with all of the free sites. This allows for email alerts and updates to be received that may be of immediate benefit to you.
In regards to pay search companies, make sure that they search and successfully locate commercial and government opportunities in your area of expertise. Few search companies are "all encompassing." Therefore, it is essential that you verify that they will actually be of benefit to you as you seek new customers and work opportunities for your company. - Search for solicitations using key words, solicitation numbers, or by agency. Every business opportunities site has a special place where keywords may be entered and searched through their databases. In most cases, this is the best route to search for opportunities to bid on. This approach allows for the keyword to be searched across the entire site's spectrum of commercial entities and government agencies instead of a very narrow organizational/agency specification search. The results are far greater and more useful when searching for bids and business leads.
- Review the list of opportunities and pick the ones you are interested in responding to. It is useful to print the generated lists and review them, line by line, to see what opportunities exist that match your service or product area. Good opportunities are often overlooked due to skimming instead of intently reading the list. After putting check marks by the solicitations you want to review in detail, go back to the computer and click each opportunity and print the details pages to review them. Be sure to read all of the requirements to, first, determine if you can do it and, second, to ensure that you don't overlook an expense area that will need to be incorporated into your proposal price.
- Compete for contract awards. Regardless of whether the project is government or commercial, there will be intense competition for the job. The key is to ensure that all labor, materials, fees, fines, and other costs to you are calculated carefully, completely, and accurately. Then, it is a matter of mark-up and competitive pricing. Unfortunately, many solicitations are closed and sealed processes that do not allow vendors to see what competing vendors bid. This is where knowledge of your capabilities and those of your competitors comes into play.
Tips
- Small businesses benefit greatly by using the "Subnet function" located in the Small Business Administration's website. This site renders a listing of larger commercial entities seeking to sub-contract smaller firms for large projects. This is an excellent place to search. www.sba.gov
- When searching for business opportunities it is best to use the keyword search function because it will bring up opportunities in your particular goods and services from a broad spectrum of U.S. government agencies and commercial entities.
- Being a registered vendor allows you additional support services that are completely free like e-mail notifications, entering company interest in a specific bid for the contracting officers to see, tracking specific solicitations, and receiving amendments and notifications critical to a successful bid to the government.
- Small business owners are strongly encouraged to use FedBizOpps instead of pay/subscription opportunity sites for federal opportunities because the pay sites simply access FedBizOpps to find opportunities for you. Why pay for a service that is free?
- Pay search sites will insist that they provide a service that is better than doing it on your own but the reality is that they don't and won't. Be sure to investigate each company to ensure they are able to meet your needs. Save money by utilizing free government sites directly whenever possible.
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