How Government Contract Opportunities Have Transformed in the Post Covid Scene?
Given today's economy, small businesses face an even tougher dilemma-how to increase revenues. There are several discussions concerning government contract efforts to provide more federal contract opportunities for smaller business entities. The reality is that there probably will not be too much change in the current efforts because the push would more than likely have to stem from congressional mandates. The executive agencies tend not to change too much given the many controversies and arguments made against the constitutionality of the existing programs.
Government
contract opportunities are published on fbo.gov every day. However, when
reviewing the trend, there is a decline in total small business set-asides, an
increase in service-disabled projects, and more and more 8(a) competitive
opportunities. Even the businesses with hubzone certification
are suffering from the same issues
Will Small Business Contracting Goals Help You in this situation
Although
the Congress has set an overall contracting goal, it appears that agencies very
seldom try to reach a higher mark when providing government contract
opportunities to small businesses, although with hubzone certification.
There can be an argument that improvement in the economy can be accomplished by
either increasing the goal amount or setting a temporary rule that forces the
agencies to set aside more projects for any small business. This push could
more than likely jump-start the economy and create more revenues for the
Congress.
How to Increase Government Contracting Opportunities
Small
businesses must aggressively seek ways of increasing the likelihood of success
with government contract opportunities. This can be done by increasing training
initiatives that involved more focused objectives for the specific industry or
NAICS Code. An example would be to gather more solid data on the government's
spending habits by geography and set-aside practices. To further make the
point, if the government, for example, showed a pattern of awarding
proportionately more landscaping opportunities in hubzone certification awards,
and you were not a HUBZone, then the likely initiative would be to seek out a
potential HUBZone teaming partner for future opportunities.
Another
example would be a specific government contracting agency going to GSA for
professional consulting services. The likely course of action would be to
consider getting on a GSA schedule.
The
economy will more than likely continue in its current state for at least
another year or two. Small business federal government contracts have to do
more to survive. There is no other way to put it.
8(a)
Program & HubZone Certification
Many
small businesses still consider applying for the 8(a) program and hubzone certification in hopes of getting government contract opportunities by
sole source. The truth is that your 8(a) certification takes quite a while,
especially with the decrease in government manpower. Contractors must take a
more realistic approach to survival.
Final Thoughts
Small businesses can also seek out government contract
opportunities by monitoring awards to large businesses. The FAR clearly states
that if the government awards a contract to a large business, and the amount is
over $500,000, there must be a subcontracting plan to give opportunities to
small businesses such as woman-owned, hubzone grants, service-disabled veterans, and
small disadvantaged businesses.
Small business should refocus and adopt new initiatives for post
pandemic government contracting opportunities. Consulting with government
contract experts to develop an individual plan of action may be well worth the
time and effort.
Comments
Post a Comment