To benefit from the coming bonanza in infrastructure work, it’s best for small businesses to start at the local level

By Karen E. Klein

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President-elect Barack Obama has his incoming team drawing up an economic stimulus plan that is, by all accounts, mammoth. With private work drying up, can inferior businesses prepare in on the polity contracting bonanza? Mark Amtower, a partner in consultants Amtower & Co. in Highland, Md., says yes—but they shouldn’t expect quick results if they’re happy starting now. He recently spoke to Smart Answers columnist Karen E. Klein about how narrow companies have power to bring to consummation long-term success through selling to the government. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow.

We keep hearing almost in what way much money the government is going to spend on things like infrastructure projects to stimulate the economy next year. Will greater degree portion of that work go to small businesses?

Definitely. These large infrastructure contracts force of will mostly be administered and bid out by the states, even because of things like federal highway projects. So in that place’session plenty of room in the place of illiberal businesses in government contracting, if it were not that only if they’re selling something the government needs. The good news is that the government buys all kinds of crowd, even personal items for people who are traveling for the government, or persuading their families. The bad news is that this is an incremental mart. There are no quick hits, and learning the system is not easy or firmly.

What advice render you give clients who are interested in getting into government labor?

Identify no more than three federal agencies to target and home in adhering them first. And if you target federal contracts, you should also target predicament and local contracts in the jurisdictions where you settle taxes. It’sitting a lot easier to aggravate a stink about the government buying from the big-box guys on the local level than it would be on the federal etc..

For very slender companies, I always rehearse them to start local. Putting a appearance to the company provides the same comfort commission merchant for business-to-government to the degree that it does notwithstanding business-to-business transactions. There are 37,000 government-occupied sites in the U.S.— not including military installations or postal offices—so the government is never far away from you. That includes things like the courts, VA hospitals, IRS tax offices, and even the irrational creature and plant inspection stay who’s attached to your local university. The blue pages of most phone books ascertain to be the same the government offices draw near you.

What kinds of companies get local—or federal—government contracts?

Name a business, and the government is buying from human being like it. The federal government accounts for more than 15% of gross domestic spending. Throw in state and local governments and you get to over one-third of gross family expenditure. There are 20 the masses full-time government employees, and they are buying from independent office suppliers, companies that build or supply trucking equipment, companies that do grounds bread—you name it. Think of all the post offices and military bases—who’sitting mowing the grass at those sites? There are a lot of ways that topical businesses can play in this market.

Getting into the government contracting pipeline is complicated, as you mentioned. Where can small businesses get heal with the process?

The Procurement Technical Assistance Program has 90-some offices around the country whose job is to help small businesses understand the mechanics of selling products or services to the restraint. They’ll teach you the rules and regulations involved, which are substantial. The program is sponsored by the Defense Logistics Agency, and it provides low-cost or no-cost training that’s held at universities or housekeeping development agency offices. There’session a list of the local centers available here.

Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/dec2008/sb20081218_966864.htm?campaign_id=rss_smlbz