Small Business Selling to Federal Government

March 11, 2010 by admin
Filed under business-growth

The federal government is a massive buyer of goods and services, and chances are, one buyer you’re not targeting at all with your Florida business.

Why is that? Is it too hard to sell the government your products? Does it require jumping through too many hoops for your Florida business?

Ron Johnson from the Small Business Administration (SBA) interviews David Loines, Acting Deputy Director of SBA’s Office of Government Contracting.

Highlights of the podcast:

Ron Johnson: If someone wants to sell to the government
where should they start?

David Loines: I would recommend that a small business
starting out start with their local Small Business Development
Center or SBDC. We have those centers located at most of the
local universities and colleges in the states throughout the
U.S. What they provide is management assistance to current and
perspective small business owners.

If you take a look at the SBA website, which is
www.sba.gov, there is a listing of all the SBDCs throughout the
country.

***********************

Ron Johnson: Thanks, David. Now how should they get
started, by letter, networking, or a business plan?

David Loines: Well, they should start by first obtaining a
Dun & Bradstreet Number or D&B for their company. That number is a unique identifier that identifies the company as well as the location of that company.

The second thing they need to do is register in the Central
Contractor Registry or CCR. That is www.ccr.gov. Being
registered in CCR will allow the company to do two things.
Number one, it is a requirement to get paid by the federal
government. And the second thing is that prospective agencies
and contracting officers can actually search that database for
qualified small businesses.