FLORIDA SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER AT IRSC
federal awards under each and every one of your NAICS codes.
These are your potential federal contracting partners, says Wilson.
Then, do your homework. Once you have your list of potential
agency partners, learn what they buy and how much, how they
buy it and how much. Are they hitting their small business goals?
Once you have duly registered in SAM.gov, completed an SBA
Profile there and created a Capability Statement, you will then
want to turn quickly to Capture Management, the function of
identifying opportunities, says Wilson.
As part of your Capture Management process within the federal
system, you will first want to register on the Federal Business
Opportunities (FBO) website, which lists all open contracting
opportunities over $25,000 across multiple federal government
agencies. While on FedBizOpps, you can create an account and
have your own custom “My FBO” home page with Quick Links and
Quick Search, Wilson says.
“What is important to understand here is that you do not need
to respond to opportunities by yourself. If you are new to federal
contracting, you can use the Interested Vendors section on any
given opportunity (where available on FBO.gov) to both list
yourself and find others that you may be able to work “with” as
a Teaming Partner or “for” as a Subcontractor,” Wilson says. “The
key to finding Teaming partners is identifying what they have
that you need and what you have that they need. This may be a
Set-Aside and only one of you may have that certification, or it
may be a question of capital, experience, geographical location,
or other factors.”
FBO also offers the Vendor Collaboration Central Event
Listing, which allows small businesses to find and participate in
federal agency collaboration or engagement opportunities. The
Small Business Events for Outreach and Training publishes
events across the country from many agencies and organizations.
MORE ABOUT SUBCONTRACTING
Many vendors find subcontracting a preferable route to getting
experience as a federal contractor. Large business prime contractors
with contracts expected to exceed $700,000 (or exceeding
$1.5M for construction), are required to subcontract some of
the work to eligible small businesses. This is an excellent way to
test the waters of federal business without suffering undue risk,
Wilson says.
Another advantage is that subcontracting doesn’t require a
subcontractor to hold a Schedules contract. When a small business
receives a subcontract from a larger prime contractor, the
vetting process is done by the Prime, not the Agency.
In addition to small business set-aside subcontracting opportunities,
qualified small businesses that meet various socioeconomic
criteria are eligible to compete for additional set-aside opportunities,
after obtaining certification from the Small Business
Administration (SBA) where it is required. Set-aside categories
include: 8(a) Small Business, Historically Underutilized Business
Zones (HUBZone) Small Business; Service-Disabled Veteran-
Owned Small Business (SDVOSB); and Woman-Owned Small Business
Do you have a
best practice you’d
like to share
with our readers?
Contact Lisa Crawford
at 772.466.3346
or lisa@indianrivermag.com
TCBusiness.com 53
(WOSB).
Your closest Treasure Coast PTAC center and consultant is
located at Indian River State College. Call or email Scotty Wilson
at 772.462.7631 or scotty.wilson@floridaptac.org.
Once a company is ready for government contracting, FSBDC
at IRSC consultants can help small businesses with a series of
next steps. v
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