Learning how to sell to Uncle Sam

Nation's Business, Feb, 1997 by Michael Barrier

I want to do business with the federal government. All I have are books from the library that don't really detail how to get on approved-vendor lists. Nor do they explain other aspects of procurement. Are there any other resources you can point me to? F.P. East Lansing, Mich.

To orient yourself on the procurement process in general, you can start by obtaining Procurement Opportunities: A Small Business Guide to Procurement Reform, published by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The full text is available at the SBA Office of Advocacy's World Wide Web site, http://www.sba.gov/advo, under "reports."

For a hard copy, call the Office of Advocacy at (202) 205-6532 or the SBA's Office of Government Contracting at (202) 205-6460, ask for publication No. 2043. The guide is also available through SBA district offices.

Another important Internet address is that of the Acquisition Reform Network, http://www.arnet.gov, a source of current reformation on procurement policy. That Web site was scheduled to become the principal source for Commerce Business Daily on Jan. 1.

CBD, published by the U.S. Department of Commerce, is available on paper, too, at $162 for six months by first-class mail. To subscribe, call the Government Printing Office at (202) 512-1800.

CBD lists most proposed government procurement actions above $25,000. Contracts below $100,000 are reserved for small firms, which often can benefit from newly simplified bidding procedures.

Keep in mind that federal procurement is in flux. Under the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994, all government agencies and their suppliers would do business through a computer system called FACNET (for Federal Acquisition Computer Network) by 2000, with the agencies asking for price quotations and the suppliers responding electronically.

That was the goal. The reality, says Steven Kelman, administrator of the procurement-policy branch of the federal Office of Management and Budget, is that "experience is teaching us that this approach may not be a good way to go." The Defense Department has committed itself to FACNET, but most other agencies are still asking for price quotations through CBD and oral solicitations.

For tips on selling to the government, see the January Entrepreneur's Notebook, "Uncle Sam May Want You."