Capturing New Business in Government
There are many unique aspects of capturing business for your company in government compared with private industry. First of all contracts must be publicly announced, allowing newcomers to the field to be able to find new opportunities. For NASA the website to monitor is the NASA Acquisition Internet Service (NAIS) website. You can search using specific criteria or register to be notified of new business opportunities in a certain area.
So once you identify an opportunity how do you go after it. Initially the government posts a synopsis describing the details of the contract. After determining that some of the work in a given contract is in your area of interest the next step is to see if there is any restrictions on what type of businesses can go after the work. A very common thing to do is to only allow small businesses or small disadvantaged businesses go after the work. Some common types of small disadvanted businesses include:
- Veteran Owned
- Disabled Veteran Owned – Owned by a veteran wounded in combat
- Women Owned
- Hub-Zone – Your company is headquartered in the Ghetto
- 8a – Your company is owned by someone of minority decent
You can find more information on the specifics of small businesses by reviewing the Federal Acquisition Requirements website. In order for your company to qualify for this type of work they need to go through a certification process first. Even is the contract is not a small business set-aside there is often requirements for including small businesses on your team. It is very common for small businesses that want to go after work in the government but do not easily qualify to have a wife own 51% of the company or to open up an office in a HUB zone.
I’ll get into more into this subject in a later article.