In your efforts to win more government business, have you explored subcontracting your company to a prime government contractor?
In some cases, the federal government requires that subcontracting be included on prime contracts. Large prime contracts for goods and services (valued at more than $700,000) or construction contracts (valued at more than $1.5 million) are required to establish plans and goals for subcontracting with small businesses.
If you haven’t sold to the government before, this could be a great first step into that sector of business. You’ll be working directly with the prime contractor and will start gaining more knowledge on working with government agencies.
To get started, you’ll need to start finding opportunities to become a subcontractor. Do your research on agencies and the companies they’re working with. By using GovSpend, you can find the existing relationships between agencies and vendors based on historical spending data and past purchases.
Try targeting the business that would benefit most by adding you as a subcontract. If your company provides a specialized service or product, search for businesses that would normally leverage your specialty. You can also try searching for the companies working with the most agencies and target them first as potential partners.
One of the benefits of subcontracting? You’ll have fewer administrative costs. The prime contractor will deal directly with the government agency and handle the logistics. Whatever responsibilities the prime contract will expect of you will be outlined in the contract.
Becoming a subcontractor will also mean lower business development costs. Once you’ve established yourself as a subcontractor and have your prime partners, they will take care of capturing new business and bringing you into the contract. Your main focus will be on maintaining those partner relationships to ensure you are the go-to subcontractor when a new contract is ready.
If you’re a smaller business, subcontracting can be the perfect opportunity to grow your business and win more opportunities. Instead of trying to beat out larger companies, work with them.
About the Author: GovSpend
