Get in the Game - Business to Government (B2G) for Small Business

by: Randall Mauldin

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Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2010 Time: 8:34 AM - 0 comments

Copyright (c) 2010 Randall Mauldin

The Business-to-Government (B2G) market focuses on the biggest whale of a customer found anywhere in the world and small businesses can explode into large corporations through rapid growth. For companies that understand the rules and how to play the B2G game, the federal government has been the source of exponential growth. Of the 33,000 opportunities in the federal business database, FedBizOpps.gov, over 12,000 are set aside for small business.

In order to limit competition, contracting officers require two qualified responses from small businesses, but contract officers cannot set aside an opportunity unless small firms respond. In addition to the government, large businesses with multi-million dollar federal contracts have small business set aside goals written into their contracts. This means corporations such as Harris, Lockheed Martin, and DRS, need small businesses as vendors to achieve those goals. The same requirements for the government are necessary to do business with large prime contractors. Get in the game with the appropriate registrations and market to government procurement officials in order to gain an advantage in the B2G market. At a minimum, small businesses should register in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) and Small Business Administration (SBA) databases to position their company for opportunities presented in the federal market.

The Department of Defense is the largest federal buyers with over $350 billion in purchases each year, of which $100 billion went to small business in 2009. Over 1700 different agencies spend the remaining $150 billion where statutory goals set by Congress mandate 23% of all federal contracts be set aside for small businesses. The government buys everything the small business community offers at one time or another. Overall, the federal government purchased over $500 billion worth of goods and services in 2009, from office supplies to aircraft carriers. The top five industries were manufacturing, professional services, administrative services, construction, and wholesale goods.

According to officials, small businesses must be more active in the B2G market to provide prime contractors and government buyers services and products from the small business community. Keep in mind registration is not enough to win contracts. Businesses need optimize profiles in the CCR and SBA databases and develop a one-page capabilities statement to pitch their business. The only way to get in the game is to complete the basic registrations and develop a marketing plan using the same techniques from the commercial market where you determine the needs of the customer and provide solutions for those needs. The time to get in the game and establish a foundation for working with the government is better than ever.