Doing business with the feds
SBA official urges proactive pitch
By Peter Jones
It should come as little surprise that doing business with the federal government’s bureaucracy is not for the laid-back slacker.
“Everything we do is within the box,” said Carolyn Terrell, a business-opportunity specialist with the Denver office of the U.S. Small Business Administration. “Contracting has their own bible. … In my world, if you default you’re out of business [with the government].”
Terrell, whose office helps linkup small businesses to more than 250 federal agencies with offices in the Rocky Mountain region, spoke March 8 to a number of potential contractors in the Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce.
“We basically are the champions for small business,” she said at the chamber’s regular Business with Breakfast meeting. “We aid, assist and counsel small businesses on all issues.”
If those firms play their cards right, the federal government can be a boon and then some. (Lest we forget government-sponsored massages for rabbits and the $640 toilet seats and $400 hammers once famously purchased by the Pentagon).
In total, the government spends more than $600 billion a year, and by congressional mandate, 23 percent of that money must go to small businesses. Such businesses are officially defined by their ownership, revenues, and number of employees. Particular consideration is often given to businesses owned women, minorities and military veterans.
To get on the government’s radar, Terrell said business owners should register with the System for Award Management system or SAM, the authoritative database of companies that want to contract with the government. Registration is free.
Such registered businesses wind up in the General Service Administration schedules, something Terrell describes as “the J.C. Penny catalog for the government.”
Likewise, businesses searching for governmental opportunities may visit www.fedbizopps.gov to peruse listings for nearly 29,000 opportunities ranging from pest control to food inspection.
By congressional mandate, all government needs costing more than $25,000 must be posted on the site and otherwise published for public notice.
To further assist small businesses, SBA will host the 2016 Denver Emerging Leaders program in April. The intensive six-month executive-level training series will be held this year at the Englewood Civic Center. Up to 20 business leaders will be allowed to participate in the 13 free biweekly classes.
“This program is like an MBA curriculum,” Terrell said. “It helps the CEO really look at their business from outside in … and see it from a different perspective.”
Participating businesses are required to have annual revenues of at least $400,000. They also must have been in business for at least three years and have at least one full-time employee.
Those interested in Emerging Leaders should register at www.sba.gov/emergingleaders.
