Avoid These Common Mistakes as a Federal Contractor

Networking is vital for success as a federal contractor

One of the best ways for small businesses to enjoy steady growth is by taking advantage of federal contracts offered exclusively to small businesses by the U.S. government. Programs like HUBZone, a Small Business Administration (SBA) program, are designed to help small to medium enterprises gain access to federal contracting opportunities.

Challenges and Opportunities

While this kind of preferential access to federal procurement is certainly helpful to small business owners like yourself, this doesn’t change the fact that you still need to bid for contracts, which won’t be easy. But the hard work you put in might just be worth it because there’s a lot of money to go around.

According to the SBA, in 2016 alone, the federal government reached its small business federal contract goal and awarded 24.34 percent in federal contract dollars to small businesses, or $99.96 billion, up by $9 billion over the last year.

Hunting Season Begins Now

The government’s fiscal year (FY) ends on September 30. This means that now, government agencies are looking to meet their small business quotas for federal contracts. Now is the perfect time to start bidding, Just make sure you’re avoiding these mistakes.

You’re Trying to Market Any Agency You See

Bidding for federal contracts is not the time to cast a wide net. What you should do is take the time to understand the mission and specialization of each government agency, which you’ll often see in their Procurement Forecast page. Here’s what the State Department’s forecast looks like.

The forecast tells you crucial details about the agency’s needs, when they need these services/products, and what kind of small businesses are eligible to provide them. With this information, you can then determine how you can align your services with the immediate goals of the agency.

By narrowing your focus this way, you can increase the chances of winning a contract. In other words, it’s about the quality instead of the quantity of proposals you send.

You Don't Take Advantage of Every Opportunity to Network

As a federal contractor, networking is a very important tool to help you increase your business in the Federal Government marketplace. You should not only network with federal agencies but also with potential teaming or sub-contracting partners. Putting your brand out there is a great way to get noticed by both government buyers as well as your colleagues.

Take advantage of online ways to network. You can do so on social media platforms like LinkedIn, but you can also do so on websites that promote discussion among its users. For example, BizDevExperts.com has a discussion forum that enables contractors to exchange ideas, information, and tips having to do with contracting. When you contribute to a discussion, even in the virtual world, it demonstrates your knowledge and enthusiasm in your business which, in turn, puts other professionals more at ease in doing business with you.

You Ignore Old School Networking and Meetups

Face-to-face meetings are still important to procurement officers. In the world of federal contracting, your interaction with an agency’s representatives is often the deciding factor when bidding on a contract.

But it’s not just about sucking up to procurement officers. Oftentimes, deals are struck through old school networking—think meetings over coffee or lunch. Indeed, federal contracting, especially at the small business level, is ultimately about building and nurturing relationships with key people, even competitors, whom you can team up with to bid for large contracts.

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