Getting Started with Government Contracts
Winning government contracts, or any kind of contract, is all about Relationships and Results. The first thing you want to do is make sure your business has obtained results and you have positive relationships with clients and partners. Keep these professional relationships in mind when seeking out local government contracts.
Why Professional Services?
The professional services field includes lawyers, advertising and marketing professionals, architects, accountants, financial advisers, engineers, and communication consultants, among others. Basically, they can be any organization or profession that offers customized, knowledge-based services to clients. For example, my consulting firm, Amplify Community Consulting, is focused on sharing our knowledge and expertise with our clients to meet their goals. We are not based on selling a particular product or sourcing products for government clients. While the product industry is huge for the government (think school lunches, branded swag, office furniture, specialised parts and medical equipment), the services field has more opportunity to apply more broadly.
More professional services needs include:
Media Relations
Public Relations
Marketing
Graphic Design
Community Outreach
SAT Prep
Leadership Coaching
Diversity and Inclusion Coaching
Tutoring
Strategic Planning
Setting up your company
Next you want to make sure your business is one that is in demand by many local and state level government entities. Some of the major industries currently supported by government contracting include construction, building and development, building materials, professional services related to business and building maintenance, strategic development and communication and marketing strategy. Additionally, some non profit industries like public health and education are largely supported by government contracts. Search grants databases to learn how much is spent on government contracts in your industry.
Make sure your business is at the right stage to begin receiving government work. Register your business entity with your State and/or County government. Determine whether you will establish an LLC, PLLC, 5013c or DBA, or S-Corp.
Visit your state’s administration webpage to learn how to make the best use of your new business entity. Free training and financial resources are no doubt headed your way!
Setting up your mailbox
Speaking of your company’s mailbox, make sure you’ve got a reliable mailbox set up to receive important notices and get a physical address so you can utilize tools like Google My Business to boost visibility on all platforms through the Google search engine.
Here are some popular PO Box options for small businesses:
Is your company reachable?
Once you’ve set up your business entity, mailbox, and general contact information, you’ll want to make sure your business is reachable and you have a viable marketing strategy to reach your customers. Make sure you’ve got a website and social media presence set up prior to seeking out government contracts. It will be important to have consistent information on all promotional materials and contracts.
Even if you do not have a full service website up, you should at the very least have a landing page where people can either learn more about the services you offer or submit their email address of contact information to learn more about your business in the future.
Marketing and Branding
Here are some tips on marketing and communication. Specifically for government contracts, your marketing should be clear, professional and consistent. You will want to work with a professional to create your Capability Statement. There are varying opinions on the best layouts for which industry, but from my experience, capability statements that are clear, professional and complete as well as visually appealing, will win over potential clients.
Basic Business Document
This is general information you’ll want to have on hand at all times when seeking out and applying to government contracts. You can compile this information in a Request for Information document.
Key elements to include in your Request for Information document include:
Name of firm
Logo
Overview of services provided
Short Bio
Three latest projects
EIN (for payment use only)
Listing of any active lawsuits or litigation
Three Professional References
Billing Rates
Photos from past projects (optional)
Women, Minority and Small Business Certifications
Now that you have all of your general information including three examples of previous and current projects, you are ready to win government contracts. Before moving forward, make sure you’re not leaving extra money and opportunities on the table and see if you're eligible to get certified as a MWSBE minority or woman owned small business enterprise. If so, you could be eligible for a certain percentage of public contracts based on the municipality’s MBE goals. In your state, visit the HUB Historically Underutilized Business office or SBE Small Business Enterprise office to start your application.
Here is the process to get certified with your HUB and SBE Certification in North Carolina:
Complete HUB Application
Compile supplemental documents
Get Ethnicity Affidavit Notarized
Complete E-Vendor Login
Scan and Send Application
The HUB Application is a uniform statewide application which means it covers every public organization in the state. This application is most concerned about certifying authentically minority businesses. The application is straightforward. But it requires that you get a signed Ethnicity Affidavit. The Hub Application must be renewed every four years. Normally you would complete this application and mail it in but under Covid-19 restrictions and due to the Mail Service Center stoppage, you should scan and email your HUB Application and Supplemental Documents.
Here are all the required Supplemental Documents:
Work Experience resumes for all owners
Current Copy of Proof of Citizenship
Proof of Ethnicity
Schedule of Salaries paid to all officers
Statement indicating location of business operation
List of equipment needed to operate business
Documented proof of contributions used to acquire ownership for each owner
Statement from bank listing names of persons who have signature authority on business bank account
Two business letters of reference
The SBE Application is one part of a two part certification of the SBE/MBE. The second part is the Market Area Certificate and together they cover a nine county region across North and South Carolina. This application is most concerned about certifying businesses that earn under a specified amount; and verifying the applicant’s financial history. The SBA small business size standard is any business making under $750,000 annually. The SBE Certification should be renewed every three years.
Here are all the required Supplemental Documents:
Work Experience resumes for all owners
Current Copy of Proof of Citizenship
Proof of Ethnicity
Schedule of Salaries paid to all officers Statement indicating location of business operation
List of equipment needed to operate business
Documented proof of contributions used to acquire ownership for each owner
Statement from bank listing signature authority on business bank account
Copies of Professional or Trade License
Personal Net Worth Statement
Tax Returns for the Past Three Years
List of all projects, currently in process or performed in the past three (3) years.
Two business letters of reference
Find Bid Opportunities
Now that you’re certified (whew! Huge weight lifted off our shoulders), you can seek out government contracts at all levels. Use your NAICS codes to government contracts in your industry. Sign up for notifications from local and state level projects websites. Websites like the Electronic Vendor Portal provide a database of state and local contracts organized by bid date, city, town or college, buyer, bid number, and category. Find bids that align with your company’s strategy/timing, branding and bandwidth. Your capacity to complete the project is the most important factor in seeking a bid opportunity. The more likely you are to be both competent and competitive in this space, the more likely you’ll gain the results and relationships you need to solidify your reputation and gain continuous success!
Sub Contracting
This section is about subcontracting. Most small businesses when just starting out, work smaller parts of larger projects to gain authority over a particular space and establish a reputation. When looking at RFPs, determine if you could possibly cover one or more tasks in the scope of work. Can you reasonably deliver 10%-20% of the project? If so, subcontracting could be your best option.
How to read an RFP
RFPs Request for Proposals also known as RFQs, Request for Qualifications or ITB Invitation to Bid. When looking at RFPs, check the timeline or key dates to see if the client is providing a pre-bid meeting. The pre bid meeting is an opportunity to meet with the client and ask questions about the RFP and the project expectations. It’s also an opportunity to meet potential partners. Meet with people who have worked with this client before and have worked in the industry often. It is appropriate to exchange information at these meetings and afterward. The client, which is the city, town or public entity, will make the addendum available after the meeting. These addenda contain the sign in sheets and notes from the pre bid meeting as well as all questions and answers asked about the project.
Important questions to ask at the pre bid meeting:
What is the project budget?
What is the reason for needing this work?
What vendors have you used before for this work?
Will you provide past winning proposals?
What are the MBE goals for this project?
After the pre bid meeting, or at any time, if a potential Prime Contractor contacts you, you should be prepared to respond. Make sure you have your Teaming Documents and Capability Statement ready to send, and you should be good to go!Theoretically. To make sure your relationships run smoothly and you get the resources you need to deliver your share of the work, you’ve got to make sure you are legally covered. What can you contractually get in writing during the duration of your business “courtship”?
If you are in the position (which you should be if dealing with a local government) you should request a sub contract agreement with the prime. The City of Charlotte and many other major municipalities conduct payment audits on contracts executed for city work, to ensure the minority subcontractors, and subcontractors in general, are being paid the amount that’s being reported. The subconsultant agreement should cover the scope of work you’re responsible for as well as payment arrangements for promised deliverables.
Managing Effective Contract Relationships
Even before you’re able to get a contract or subcontract in place, you might be able to get in a teaming agreement with your potential prime to begin laying out the conditions in which you’re expected to work together; how you will get paid and sometimes establish loyalties to that particular team; excluding other options. A teaming agreement could be done for a large contract which will require a large amount of staff to carry forth.
The subs listed on the proposal could otherwise be in high demand. Use your discretion when choosing a company to team up with on government contracts. Allow the more experienced company to take the lead and when working with business associates and when putting a large amount of your resources on the line, make sure you can deliver the full scope of the RFP. Now you’re ready to get to work and get paid! Be sure to save all recurring meeting dates, work deadlines and deliverables due to the prime, the prime has the main contact with the client during the duration of the contract.
Track Your Wins
Make sure your business bank account is set up to receive payment, use accounting software like Quickbooks to categorize your income and create invoices for all of your work. You can create an item type to bill by hour or task (whatever the terms of payment are listed in your subconsultant agreement). Once you’re getting paid, be sure to keep track of payments for your upcoming taxes and payroll. Financial success with government contracts comes from knowing your business in and out and having strong relationships.
Everything comes full circle in business and in life and that’s why those relationships we mentioned at the beginning of this resource are just as important now, at the end. Once you’re able to predict how often you can partner with or win government contracts for your company, you can make a living out of this work and run a full scale agency with multiple disciplines available for hire. Think about how often you can deliver excellent work over and over. You will establish a masthead for your business in a particular niche or you could just manage various projects from time to time while not having government contracts as your core revenue generator. What you make of this experience is all yours to enjoy! It is important now more than ever, that we work together to win much larger contracts and make a bigger impact on our communities. To recap, winning government contracts is all about relationships, results and readiness. 🥇