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.