“Expanding Your Market”

“Expanding Your Market” Helping Good Businesses Become Better

Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs) – 98 Programs throughout the United States with over 300 local offices. A nationwide network of procurement professionals working to help local businesses compete successfully in the government marketplace – authorized by Congress in 1985.

NBDC, which serves as a Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC), is funded in part through a cooperative agreement from the Department of Defense (DoD) through a program that is administered by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). The content of any written materials or verbal communications of the PTAC does not necessarily reflect the official views of or imply endorsement by DoD or DLA.

Find a PTAC Consultant Access the NBDC website at: http://nbdc.unomaha.edu/ Click on “Government Contracting” in the center of the screen Click on “Contact a Consultant” in the dropdown Review the list of consultants to find the one who covers your area

Wayne Office: Antelope, Boone, Boyd, Burt, Butler, Cedar, Colfax, Cuming, Dakota, Dixon, Garfield, Greeley, Holt, Knox, Madison, Pierce, Platte, Polk, Stanton, Thurston, Valley, Wayne, Wheeler Kearney Office: Adams, Arthur, Banner, Blaine, Box Butte, Brown, Buffalo, Chase, Cherry, Cheyenne, Custer, Dawes, Dawson, Deuel, Dundy, Franklin, Frontier, Furnas, Garden, Gosper, Grant, Hall, Hamilton, Harlan, Hayes, Hitchcock, Hooker, Howard, Kearney, Keith, Keya, Paha, Kimball, Lincoln, Logan, Loup, McPherson, Merrick, Morrill, Nance, Perkins, Phelps, Red Willow, Rock, Scotts Bluff, Sheridan, Sherman, Sioux, Thomas, Auburn: Cass, Clay, Fillmore, Gage, Jefferson, Johnson, Nemaha, Webster, Nuckolls, Otoe, Pawnee, Richardson, Saline, Seward, Thayer, York

Northeast Nebraska Wayne State CollegeGardner Hall, Room 1021111 Main StreetWayne, NE 68787 (402) 375-7735 aewood@unomaha.edu Serving counties: Antelope, Boone, Boyd, Burt, Butler, Cedar, Colfax, Cuming, Dakota, Dixon, Garfield, Greeley, Holt, Knox, Madison, Pierce, Platte, Polk, Stanton, Thurston, Valley, Wayne, Wheeler

Investigate Your Market

Identify Your Market Draw a 50-mile circle around your location on a Nebraska map. Start a spreadsheet listing each town and county nameswithin the circle. Use the phone book to add federal and state government agencies to your list.

50-Mile Government Marketing List Top 10 Towns Top 10 Counties Top 5 Federal Agencies States You have now identified your initial government market to include in your business plan.

Federal Agencies How many federal government agencies are there? Best Answer: Louisiana State University Federal Agency Directory lists over 1,300 distinct organizations across all three branches of federal government: Legislative branch (Congress); Executive branch (President and departments and independent agencies); and Judicial branch (Supreme Court and Circuit Courts) at http://www.lib.lsu.edu/gov/

Another option in researching your market is to access the federal government’s sites at www.usaspending.gov and https://www.fpds.gov/fpdsng_cms/ for contract awards. You can access information the governments buying patters: If they buy your product How often they buy (Year by Year) How much they buy/spent (Awards) What agency/department buys (DoD, GSA, etc.)

Research Opportunities

There are three basic types of government solicitations: Invitation For Bids (IFBs) can be short and relatively simple to prepare. They can contain as few as 15 pages or as many as 100. Their complexity depends on the project or the commodity. These types of solicitations are usually awarded primarily on price. Competitive pricing here is a key factor. Request For Proposals (RFPs) are usually more complex than (IFBs). They tend to be issued for service oriented contracts with large staffing requirements or complex operations involved. Many times, they are looking for comprehensive project management plans, a past performance section, a quality control plan, and a separate volume on costing. Address each section in order. Request For Quotes (RFQs). These are generally the easiest to prepare. and it is usually just a question of filling in the blanks. Like IFBs, they are most often evaluated and awarded solely on price.

Special : Often this is a way to post a “sole source” notification or follow on contract, which means the agency has a vendor selected. In some cases, however (GSA in particular), it’s a notice of Request for Quote. Sources Sought: A Sources Sought notification almost always means “Small Business Sources Sought.” The government is loosely required to “set-aside” a certain percentage of procurements to small businesses. Sometimes the solicitation will specify explicitly that they are looking only for small businesses (or 8(a), HUBZone, etc.) to respond. Sources Sought is your chance to “get in early.” Combined Synopsis : Most opportunities classified this way are going to actually happen. All of these should include specifications for the product or service and a due date for the proposal. A “Combined” means the agency is expecting a proposal or quote from you.

Unsolicited Proposal: Unsolicited proposals allow unique and innovative ideas or approaches that have been developed outside the Government to be made available to Government agencies for use in accomplishment of their missions. Unsolicited proposals are offered with the intent that the Government will enter into a contract with the offeror for research and development or other efforts supporting the Government mission, and often represent a substantial investment of time and effort by the offeror. (b) Advertising material, commercial item offers, or contributions, as defined in 15.601, or routine correspondence on technical issues, are not unsolicited proposals. (c) A valid unsolicited proposal must— (1) Be innovative and unique; (2) Be independently originated and developed by the offeror; (3) Be prepared without Government supervision, endorsement, direction, or direct Government involvement; (4) Include sufficient detail to permit a determination that Government support could be worthwhile and the proposed work could benefit the agency’s research and development or other mission responsibilities; (5) Not be an advance proposal for a known agency requirement that can be acquired by competitive methods; and (6) Not address a previously published agency requirement. (d) Unsolicited proposals in response to a publicized general statement of agency needs are considered to be independently originated. (e) Agencies must evaluate unsolicited proposals for energy-savings performance contracts in accordance with the procedures in 10 CFR 436.33(b).

You can use one solicitation to send in an unsolicited proposal For example: You find a solicitation for an event in your area. They want a place that can provide lodging and meeting space. You have a food service business. You can email the POC for that particular solicitation and inform them of your services. Another example: You find a solicitation for city construction project. In there you do not see anything about clean up and you operate a business that can do site clean up. You can email the POC for that particular solicitation and inform them of all your services.

What are the types of opportunities you want to pursue? Micro-Purchasing (Under $3,000) Can purchase with Government-wide Commercial Purchase Card Solicitations Below $10,000 No requirement to publicize Solicitations $10,000 to $25,000 Must be posted in a public place or on a public electronic forum

What are the types of opportunities you want to pursue? Solicitations above $25,000 Publicized on FedBizOpps at least 15 days prior to formal solicitation (there are certain exceptions per FAR 6.302) Within Simplified Acquisition Threshold (Less Than $150,000) Streamlined Procedures Typically requires three competitive quotes Above Simplified Acquisition Threshold (More Than $150,000) Proposals must allow 30-day response time from solicitation for non-commercial items Response time may be shortened for commercial items

Bid Match Service provided by Nebraska Business Development Center PTAC Program Automated effort to find town, city, county, state and federal government opportunities. (Note: The Bid Match system makes daily search of new federal, state, and local government opportunities and emails matching opportunities to you. We begin by creating a detailed profile of your company. There is no charge for this service).

Federal Solicitations Next access the federal governments “Federal Business Opportunities – FBO” website at https://www.fbo.gov/(NOTE: User guide for this system can be found at https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=getstart&mode=list&tab=list&tabmode=listunder “Getting Started”, then click on “User Guides”, then “Vendor”). Click on “Search”, and thousands of federal government opportunities will be shown. Remember the differences between a “Pre-Solicitation”, “Special”, “Sources Sought”, Combined Synopsis” and “Award” notices.

DIBBS Next access the Military “DLA Internet Bid Board System – DIBBS” website at : https://www.dibbs.bsm.dla.mil/dodwarning.aspx?goto=/default.aspx (NOTE: User guide for this system can be found at: https://www.dibbs.bsm.dla.mil/Refs/help/DIBBSHelp.htmunder “FAQ/Help”). Click on “RFQs”, “Text Search” to enter keywords and current opportunities will be shown. Technical Documents can be accessed through “cFolders” by contact 1 (855) 352-0001 and then logging in at https://pcf1.bsm.dla.mil/cfolders/ Joint Certification Program (DD2345 Form) the Military Critical Technical Data Agreement

State Solicitations To conduct business with the state of Nebraska, you would access their website at http://www.nebraska.gov/ http://das.nebraska.gov/materiel/ Look for “All Agencies” (top right of screen) then then “Materiel” then “Purchasing”, then “Vendor Information” then “Vendor Application”. Then complete the application and hand carry it to their office in downtown Lincoln to also meet your specific buyer. Upon completion of submitting your vendor application click on “Purchasing”, then choose “Bid Opportunities”, then click on “Request for Proposals – Current Bid Opportunities”. Let’s look at a couple of their solicitations on their site.

County Solicitations To conduct business with the county of Douglas County, NE, you would access their website athttp://www.douglascounty-ne.gov/. http://www.douglascountypurchasing.org/home Look for “For Business” then “Doing Business” then “Vendor Application”. Then complete the application and hand carry to their office downtown Omaha to meet our specific buyer (if you are registered with Omaha, NE then you are registered with Douglas County, NE). Upon completion of the Vendor Application look for “Current Bids and Proposals”, then the site will convert to “Douglas County Purchasing” (because the county advertises all solicitations for the city).

City Solicitations For an example to conduct business with the town of Columbus, NE you would access their website at http://www.columbusne.us/. http://www.columbusne.us/Bids.aspx Look for “Departments” then “Administration” then “Finance” then “Purchasing”. Let’s access their website and look at some of their solicitations.

Local Opportunities Local Newspapers can contain bidding opportunities for smaller communities Utilize simple key words: Bids or Solicitations Let’s look at a couple of examples: http://siouxcityjournal.com/app/legals/ http://www.kearneyhub.com/legals/

Sub Contracting How do I get a subcontracting opportunity? The first way is to find local businesses that you can partner with and approach them with what your services are and how you can help them either fulfill Small Business Utilization or Utilize Socio-Economic Status to help them attain a project. The second is to look into open solicitations and see who are the interested vendors and contact them about your services. The third way is to search in SBA Sub Net:http://web.sba.gov/subnet/search/index.cfm

DSBS (Dynamic Small Business Search) DSBS is set up by the SBA to help small business get noticed in the Federal Market. If you have a SAM (System for Award Management) Registration you can have a profile on DSBS. https://www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM/##11 http://dsbs.sba.gov/dsbs/search/dsp_dsbs.cfm

Submit Proposals Make sure you are registered with the government agencies you want to do business with Federal System for Award Management (SAM) - https://www.sam.gov Create Individual User Account State State of Nebraska Other State Procurement Local Individual County or Town registrations

Sources for developing a government proposal include: Shipley Business Development Lifecycle Guide by Larry Newman Government Proposals by Rebecca Shannon Winning Government Business by Steve R. Osborne Win Government Contracts for Your Small Business by John DiGiacomo Federal Contracting Made Easy by Scott A. Stanberry SWOT & SWAG by Andy Alexander

SWOT - Read the solicitation and determine your company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats as if you were to win the contract. Determine how you would implement the program/project. You must visualize your proposal prior to developing your proposal. Make sure that you address every section and follow the process exactly. Partner with others if you don’t have the capabilities necessary to perform the contract. Consider mentor/protégé or subcontracting relationship.

Contract Award Meet with your PTAC Consultant and compare the solicitation against your proposal against the contract. If there are no discrepancies, then develop your project/program to implement the contract and ensure you understand how to invoice the government for your goods/services (Note: Invoicing is normally described within the solicitation or contract). If there are discrepancies between any of those source documents, identify the differences, then meet with the government contracting officer to adjudicate those issues.

Represent your company well – do a good job from implementation through contract performance. Establish strong relationships with the contracting agency. Develop a strategy for follow-up procurements with the agency. Each contract allows you to establish past performance and gain experience.

Open Forum Thoughts, Questions, Comments

“Expanding Your Market”