Posts Tagged ‘Government Contracting’

Succeeding in Government Contracting

Monday, April 5th, 2010
Small Businesses Take Aim

Small Businesses Take Aim

I attended the Inaugural Victory in Procurement Event of OPEN, the small business division of American Express, to learn more about how to succeed in government contracting. At that event in New York, American Express OPEN released the results of its first small business contracting survey. More than 1,500 small business owners listed in the government’s vendor database for federal procurement participated in the survey. It typically takes 1.7 years to win the first federal contract, the survey found. In addition, successful contractors submit an average of seven prime contracting bids and win almost three contracts per year. The survey included active contractors (small businesses that have been awarded a prime federal contract within the past three years), currently inactive contractors (small businesses that are registered on the vendor database, but who have either never landed a prime federal contract or who are designated as inactive) and non-contractors (a subset of inactive contractors who are registered but who have not yet landed a prime federal contract). The U.S. federal government is the world’s largest buyer of goods and services. Clearly, small businesses are eager to claim their share of the government’s stimulus funds, particularly with weak demand in the private sector. What I found most helpful was the insight that successful contractors invest time and money, on average $86,000 in 2009, to win bids. Median sales for these small business contractors were between $1 and $4.9 million, with federal government contracts accounting for 38% of the small businesses’ revenues. I intend to adopt their disciplined approach of investing time and money to submit bids. It clearly pays off. Thanks to American Express for a great day of networking and learning. For more information about the resources American Express is making available to help small businesses succeed in government contracting, click here.