[Hidden-tech] Government contracts and bidding

Thu May 10 20:38:16 EDT 2007

Yes FedBizOps is the place to go. It replaces the CBD (Commerce Business
Daily). But...

Mostly everything you see there is "wired." So your chances of an adward
are low, unless it is a "small business set-aside." Chasing this approach
takes a lot of time. To be sucessful, you will probably need someone
working at it full-time.

You might also look at Small Business Inovative Research (SBIR). The DOD
topic list of RFPs are out with proposals due on 14 June. I believe you can
still call the "Technical Point of Contact" (TPOC) for each listing for the
next day or two. Almost every Gov't agency must have an SBIR program. The
funding forsome is poor, however.

The proposal hit rate with SBIR is, at best, 17%. But most awards go to
businesses from MA and CA. If you don't know about SBIR, it is best to take
the SBIR seminar / course first. It is given for a reasonable cost at
several venues across the US. 

Being a small business helps with Gov't work. 

Next think about working for a large Govt contractor. MUCH easier to do.
You just need to call their small business office. Large Govt contractors
must have one, and must subcontract to small business. The secrets here
are: know someone who knows your work, and be incorporated.

That last I can't stress enough. Large contractors don't want folks
operating on a 1099. They have been burned by the IRS.

Jim Ussailis
National Wireless, Inc.
jim at nationalwireless.com

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Chris Duncan, GISmatters duncan at GISmatters.com
Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 16:20:14 -0400
To: tamar at tnrglobal.com, hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
Subject: Re: [Hidden-tech] Government contracts and bidding

   ** The author of this post was a Good Dobee.
   ** You too can help the group
   ** Fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
   ** If you did, we all thank you.

A couple years ago, I set up daily email notification for myself at 
http://www.fbo.gov/, where you can create (somewhat coarse) filters based 
on NAICS codes, government agencies, type of solicitation, and the like. In 
my case (and, I imagine, yours) the filters are pretty broad and I get 
daily notification of anywhere from 1 to 75 solicitations, the vast 
majority of which are completely unrelated to the work I do.  The entries 
in the daily list are in the form of a very brief synopsis and a link to a 
webpage with full info.

Two weeks after starting this up, I came across an RFP from the State Dept 
to perform a natural hazards analysis. The timeline was very short - about 
a week to file a proposal - which is not at all unusual on the ones I've 
seen - 1 to 4 weeks, with many having about a 2-week timeline. A month 
later, I got a call from the State Dept asking for my tax ID etc so they 
could issue the contract... so the system definitely can work!

I have tried trial subscriptions to some of the many, many government bid 
services like you mention (all of whom routinely send me come-ons based on 
my info in the CCR, which you are required to be registered with in order 
to do any government contracting). As near as I can tell, these services do 
pretty much what I am doing - filtering on NAICS codes and similar 
criteria. Their listings were generally indistinguishable from mine, 
although some of them do offer state-level in addition to federal listings, 
which I have not bothered to sign up for.

I'd recommend registering in the CCR and signing up for your own 
notification with FedBizOpps (fbo.gov) as a starting point. From there, it 
may be more clear to you whether to try others' services or not.

I should say I have not yet repeated my success. In the 2 years I've been 
getting the daily listings, I have seen perhaps half a dozen or maybe 10 
that have been "up my alley" (mapping, GIS, hazards, database, data 
analysis & visualization), and I've only applied for 2 or 3, because I 
often fall behind in the listings and by the time I see one the deadline 
has passed. I suppose the success rate is like anything else - maybe I'll 
score 1 in 20 or 1 in 50?  Perhaps I just had a great bit of beginner's
luck!

Feel free to call if you'd like to talk about any of this in more detail.

Cheers,

Chris

Tamar Schanfeld wrote:
>   ** The author of this post was a Good Dobee.
>   ** You too can help the group
>   ** Fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
>   ** If you did, we all thank you.
> 
> 
> We are interested in learning more about bidding on government 
> contracts. We specialize in Enterprise Search, which is often used for 
> government web portals and intranets.
> 
> Has anyone used: http://www.governmentbidnetwork.com/, 
> http://www.findrfp.com, or http://www.ebidsourcing.com/
> What about the http://www.ccr.gov (the government site)
> 
> What other resources are there for finding contracts? Most of these 
> sites charge some kind of subscription fee, is it worth it?
> 
> Also, what is the procedure for finding 'small business set-asides?'
> 
> Thank you,
> Tamar
> _______________________________________________
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-- 
NOTE NEW STREET ADDRESS AS OF 1-DEC-2006
--

Chris Duncan, Ph.D.
President
GISmatters

duncan at GISmatters.com
http://www.gismatters.com/

1 Tuckerman Ln
Amherst, MA 01002

Tel: 413-549-2052
Fax: 508-637-2557

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