Just about every government agency offers government contracts to businesses of all sizes. While there are plenty of contracts available, many small businesses avoid looking at DOD contracts because they believe them to be too difficult to win or just presented to huge companies such as Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin.
However, the Department of Defense can be a great option for businesses of all sizes, and the DOD, just like all other agencies, reserves a portion of its budget for small businesses. In fact, the federal government requires the DOD and other agencies to keep a certain percentage of their contracts set aside just for small businesses.
Additionally, many Prime Contractors (these are the big guys that win those huge contracts) also are required to use small businesses as subcontractors for a portion of their projects when they do business with the federal government, so there are subcontracting opportunities, as well.
The first step you have to take is to complete your registration with the System for Award Management (SAM). After you complete SAM registration, you will receive what is known as a Cage Code, and you then will be eligible to bid on government projects.
However, it’s important to note that SAM registration can be quite complicated to complete. In fact, it can take 10 to 15 hours of your time to wade through the many pages of government-speak. While it’s free for you to complete your SAM registration, many people opt to hire a third-party registration service to complete this process.
We can save you a ton of time and frustration, and quickly complete your SAM registration. Using our service guarantees that your SAM registration will be completed correctly, as well. If you do it yourself, you will have no idea if you’ve completed the registration correctly until you are either approved or you are notified that you need to correct a section (or sections) of the application.
It can take the government a few weeks to approve an application, and if mistakes are made, this stalls the process even further. At Federal Contractor Registry, we’ve completed hundreds of SAM registrations for companies of all sizes. We know precisely how to complete each section of the application, including the crucial section that will allow you to bid on DOD contracts.
Some of our clients mistakenly believe that security clearance is required for all DOD contracts, but this is definitely not always the case. Obviously, for some projects, security is an issue, but in many cases, security clearance won’t be a problem.
You can get a look at the types of contracts available by heading to Beta.SAM.gov, which is a new database that was created to replace FedBizOpps.gov. Throughout the last few years, the government has been migrating many contracting-related websites into SAM to keep everything in one place.
Keep in mind as you peruse the listings, you might want to check beyond just searching for “Department of Defense.” The database includes many different DOD-related agencies and offices that might need government contractors. In fact, there are more than 100 departments, agencies and offices that make up the DOD.
This includes big guns (pun not intended) such as the Department of the Army, Department of the Navy and the Department of the Air Force. Each of these departments also includes several other agencies/facilities, and all of these will put out bid requests for government contractors.
When you head to Beta.SAM.gov to search, you could search by agency, such as typing in “Department of Defense,” “Defense Logistics Agency,” “Army National Guard,” etc., but it really can be smarter to search using your NAICS codes.
These are the North American Industry Classification codes. Just about every type of business imaginable is listed under these codes. You will need to figure out which codes apply to your business during the SAM registration process, but we can help. Simply tell us a little bit about the goods you sell and/or services your company provides, and we will pick the NAICS codes that best represent what you do.
When we state that every type of business has a code and that the government extends contracting opportunities, we aren’t kidding. For instance, 451120 is the code for Hobby, Toy & Game Stores. Searching Beta.SAM.gov with that code, we found three DOD contracts alone that fit this NAICS code. That’s just one example of a type of business that the DOD might need for goods or services.
If you want to start bidding on DOD contracts, or contracts for any other government agency, we can complete your SAM registration as quickly as possible. Once it’s approved, you’ll be eligible to bid. To get started, give us a call or simply click on the New Registration tab on our homepage.