I wrote a guest blog article for Vistage, a leading peer advising, private mentoring, and executive development firm with a nation-wide clientele. The article discusses the benefits and challenges of federal contracting and outlines five key programs for landing federal work:
- Micro-purchases –for firm that sell items that cost less than $10,000 (updated January 1, 2018), agencies can buy using their government purchase cards without competition,
- Simplified Acquisition Process (SAP ) - Purchases costing between $10,000 and $250,000 are restricted to small businesses.
- Open Procurements (fbo.gov) - For opportunities exceeding $25,000, agencies are required to post requests for proposals (RFPs) at fbo.gov. There are exceptions, such as GSA Schedule Contract orders.
- Prime Contractors – subcontracting to prime contractors can be a good idea because primes already have federal customers and contracts.
- GSA Schedules - known as Federal Supply Schedules (and VA Schedules for medical products and services), this program has been a boon to many firms.
The above thresholds change periodically. The above were updated January 1, 2018.
The article also summarizes considerations for building a federal marketing strategy that is appropriate for your business, such as how and where to find information about upcoming procurements, past spending, networking, and federal inbound marketing.
To read the entire article, please visit:
I SOLD Yah, Uncle Sam!!! How to Sell to the Federal Government