Government contracts are offered across all different agencies from the Department of Defense who has multibillion dollar weapons contracts to your local school system who needs their heating and cooling system worked on. With that in mind it’s easy to see that there is going to be something for all kinds of businesses from your local mom and pop shop to international companies. Bidding on government contracts can be a great way to get long term, lucrative jobs, which no business owner wants to turn down. Of course, the first step is actually finding government contracts that you can and want to bid on – so here are was to get started.
Check Your Local Papers
Government bids are a legal affair so you’ll find them under the “Legal Announcements” section of your local newspapers. Unless it’s for solid waste related contracts, every advertisement for the receipt of bids must be published in an official newspaper of the local municipality at least 10 days before the official date to receive bids. This means you should be checking regularly in the local papers if you want to be on top of the contract bidding game.
Use a Third Party
Third parties round up government bid opportunities on multiple levels and across multiple industries, then allow you browse and find the ones that are appealing to you. They also can help in the bidding process by showing competing and past bids on similar contracts to give you an idea of where your price range needs to be to be competitive. These services take a lot of the legwork out of tracking down, managing, and putting together bids for the contracts since it can all be managed in one place online rather than trying to do everything in house.
Search Online
You can either register with the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) and your business will be listed, featured, and searched by federal agencies that are looking to fill contracts. This can be a great option if you’re unsure about searching for government contracts and if you do need to the business immediately. For larger contracts over $25,000, check out this FBO pages where Vendors & Citizens can search and browse for contracts. Use this page to find local and national opportunities in a wide range of demographics.
The first step in any project, finding a government contract to big on included, is always getting started. It may take some time and effort to track down contracts that you want to pursue, but when you do and it works out it is well worth the effort. It’s important to remember that the lowest bid often gets the contract, but that the contracts are legally binding and you could end up stuck with a bid that you could take a loss on. Be competitive, but don’t sell yourself short at the same time.
