Uncle Sam Could Equal Big Dough!

Thursday, October 5, 2006 at 08:32am by William Quisenberry in Innovation

Maybe when you see a title speaking about funds that the government has available you automatically think of the late night infomercials with that cheesy guy that wears the spinach green suit with money signs all over it. You know the one that jumps up and down trying to sell his book that �supposedly� has thousands of secret funding sources that American citizens don�t know about! Nah, I�m not talking about receiving any types of handout from the government, I�m talking about stepping up to the �big leagues� and taking on the government as a major client.

Many times I think entrepreneurs, especially younger ones are fairly reluctant to conduct business with major clients because they feel that they don�t have the proper resources or maybe they feel inferior to other business firms in the marketplace.

Did you know that the best customer in the United States is the federal and local government? Did you know that the government spends about $1000 Billion dollars a year on products and services? Not only that, but they also set aside close to $300 Billion dollars worth of business for small companies to place bids and proposals on!

Obviously you also know that they have the best credit rating possible, this is why placing money in government bonds and securities are regarded as the safest investments possible. This is also one of the major reasons that the U.S. Dollar is no longer backed by gold deposits at the Federal Reserve Bank, but is backed by the pure faith and credit rating of the government.

Many entrepreneurs with small operations have made proposals to the U.S. government and landed accounts that ultimately took their companies into multi-million dollar status very quickly. It makes since to make strong efforts to get in on this money pit.

Folks it�s time to stop thinking about getting accounts with Miss Johnson who grew up with your mother and lives down the street and around the corner. And while mom and pop operations can serve as great initial clients there is only so much growth opportunity available with these deals.

Make attempts at the big bucks, do research, make phone calls, set up meetings, make some contacts and get out there and give it a shot. One thing that is always a must is you’re going to have to invest in proper legal counsel. Many times you can receive free initial consultations and many smaller lawyers (especially new law offices) within your community will be willing to negotiate price since they might not have many clients and are looking to establish business.

Make sure your contracts are professional, your proposal is well prepared and all the numbers are in order. Some websites worth reviewing for some initial research is www.bizopps.gov which provides governmental contracting information and also you can use the Defense Logistics Agency (www.dla.mil/db) to find more information on resources available to help small business owners bid on government contracts.

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