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Perhaps the biggest procurement challenge facing most small businesses is identifying the best prospects within governments and corporations. The federal government alone has hundreds of agencies, administrations, and bureaus, and it might not be obvious which of them have a need for your product or service. What's more, without knowing how big the potential market is for you, you will not know what amount of resources to allocate to your sales efforts. Fortunately, it is easy to find out which agencies have purchased the types of products and services you sell, and how much they spend. Visit http://www.fedbizopps.gov on the Internet. FedBizOpps is the government's designated portal for advertising government-wide information about federal contract solicitations and awards with an estimated value of $25,000 or greater. A simple search here will reveal a wealth of information about who is buying, how often they buy, and how much they spend. You will even find out who your competitors are, if you don't already know. Keep in mind that FedBizOpps only covers contract awards of more than $25,000 and solicitations with an expected value of more than $25,000, and does not typically report purchase orders made under existing contracts. Over 90 percent of government purchases are below the $25,000 threshold, and most of these are not in the database. If the typical sale of your product or service is less than $25,000, visit the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) at https://www.fpds.gov/ FPDS contains detailed information on contract actions over $25,000 and summary data on procurements of less than $25,000. For more detailed information about procurements under $25,000, try contacting the procurement offices of agencies you believe would logically be buyers of what you produce. For a list of procurement websites by agency, visit http://www.sba.gov/GC/ and click on "Resources and Opportunities". |
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