It’s often been said that the System for Award Management (SAM) registration is the first step in government contracting, and while it’s true that completing your SAM register process is crucial, there are a few tasks that you need to handle before you are ready to deal with SAM.
1. Research Government Agencies
We’ve all heard of FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, but there are dozens and dozens of government agencies out there. These agencies all will have need for government contractors, so it’s smart to learn a bit about the different agencies and learn about the types of contracting jobs they typically need. You can go to FedBizOpps.gov to research the types of contracting jobs that are available and discover what matches your company’s services and products.
Many people connect government contracting with services such as construction tasks or perhaps debris removal after a natural disaster, but there are hundreds of opportunities for just about any type of business. For instance, you might provide cleaning or janitorial services for a government agency or perhaps you could provide food and catering services. The government needs electricians, plumbers, IT specialists and much more, you just need to do some research to determine if your company has something to offer the government.
2. Get A DUNS Number
The SAM register process is complicated and frustrating, but attaining a DUNS number is one of the easier steps you’ll take. DUNS stands for Data Universal Numbering System, and you’ll need a DUNS number for each physical location of your business.
To get your free DUNS number, simply go to the Dun & Bradstreet website and at the top of the homepage, you’ll see a tab marked D-U-N-S Number. Click on that link and you will be led to a page with three options, one of which is Request a D-U-N-S Number. Click on that option and you can begin the DUNS process, which is relatively straightforward, unlike most of the SAM registration tasks you’ll encounter.
3. Locate Your Taxpayer ID
This task is probably the easiest of all of your pre-SAM register tasks. To locate your business’s taxpayer ID, you simply look on one of your previous tax forms, such as a W-2 or W-9 form. The taxpayer ID also is sometimes simply known as your TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number). You also need to be able to provide your business’s physical address as well as any mailing addresses as well as any DBAs for your company.
4. Gather Your Banking Information
In order to register for SAM, you will need to provide both your company’s bank account number as well as the routing number. You also need to provide your bank account type, such as a checking account or savings account. Additionally, you will need to locate the bank’s phone number or its fax number. The government agencies that you contact with will pay you through Electronic Funds Transfer, which is why this information is needed for the SAM register process.
5. Determine Your Set-Aside Status
When you use the contractor job search engine at FedBizOpps.gov, you might notice that you can search by Set-Aside Code. A portion of all government contracting opportunities are supposed to be “set-aside” and given to specific types of companies, particularly small businesses.
For instance, if your small business is located within a HUBZone, three percent of all federal contracting moneys are to be set-aside for these types of businesses. If you have a service-disabled veteran-owned business, this is another set-aside. Woman-owned small businesses are yet another set-aside. If you aren’t sure if you qualify as a small business or one of the specific “set-aside” small businesses, we can help or you can learn more about size standards by going to https://www.sba.gov/federal-contracting/contracting-guide/size-standards.
6. Notarize Your Letter
You are probably reading this step and wondering what on earth we are talking about. As of April, 2018, you are required to submit a notarized letter to the General Services Administration (GSA) that details the name of the authorized entity administrator of your business. This new requirement came about after the GSA (the agency responsible for all things SAM) noticed some suspicious activity in the SAM database. To prevent fraud (or perhaps just to make the SAM register process a bit more complicated), they decided to require this notarized letter which basically states the name of the person authorized to make changes to your SAM account.
If you go to www.Sam.Gov, you will see an alert at the top of the page regarding this notarized letter. Click on this link and it will lead you to page where you can obtain a template of how your letter should be written. Simply update the letter with your own information, get it notarized and send it over to the General Services Administration.
7. Contact Federal Contractor Registry
If all of this seems a bit overwhelming or time-consuming, just wait until you begin SAM registration. The SAM register process is free, but it can take 15 to 20 hours to complete (or possibly more), and that doesn’t include the time spent of the aforementioned six steps. Can you really spare that amount of time to complete the application?
For many companies, the answer is no, and that’s where we come in. We are a third-party registration service that specializes in completing SAM registrations for any type of company, large or small. We’ve been doing this for years, and we understand all of the registration steps as well as all of the confusing government-speak you will encounter during the registration process. If you’d prefer to bypass any SAM register headaches, contact us today and hire us to complete the process for you. We will complete your registration accurately and quickly, so that you can begin bidding on government contracts as soon as possible.