The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awards thousands of government contractors to businesses every year, amounting to billions of dollars. If you were wondering how to get a job with FEMA, we can help you get started and provide you with some helpful facts.
1. Determine If You Are A Good Fit For FEMA
As the name suggests, FEMA was created to help with national emergencies, which could include tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, floods, earthquakes and other types of disasters, such as the terror attacks on September 11, 2001.
When you think about disaster services, you might think about clean up, but FEMA also helps provide food, shelter and medical support during emergencies. FEMA relies on government contractors to provide its goods and services. Some they need quickly during an emergency, while others they stockpile and need throughout the year.
To discover if your company provides goods and services needed by FEMA, you will need to determine your North American Industry Classification System codes or NAICS codes. There are codes for just about any business imaginable, from construction to paper suppliers, from food services to air conditioning repair. To download the most recent NAICS codes, go to https://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/.
Once you’ve discovered your NAICS codes, you can head to beta.SAM.gov. This website allows you to search for contracting opportunities using several methods. You can search using your NAICS codes or search using your Set Aside (more about this later in the blog) or search by a government agency.
When we enter “Federal Emergency Management Agency” into the Federal Organizations section of beta.SAM.gov, hundreds of government contracting jobs appear. For instance, FEMA needs someone to provide gate repair, and they need file cabinets and safes. These are contracting jobs that might not immediately spring to mind when you think about FEMA, but if you can provide these to FEMA, you may be able to win a lucrative government contract.
While you might be focused on FEMA, we recommend that you search for contracting jobs using your NAICS codes. This saves you time because you will be searching for contracting jobs that truly match your goods and services. You may find out that, currently, you are a better match with another agency.
2. SAM Registration Is Crucial
You cannot sell to the government without first completing your System for Award Management (SAM) registration. SAM is a government database that lists all government contractors and government contractor jobs. In order to work with FEMA or any government agency, you need an active SAM registration.
At Federal Contractor Registry, we can complete your SAM registration for you. The government does not charge you to register with SAM, but it is a highly confusing and often frustrating system and the registration process can take 10 hours or more to complete. Additionally, if you make a mistake, this can delay the approval process significantly. Using a third-party registration service, such as Federal Contractor Registry, can ensure that your registration is not only complete but that it is completed as quickly as possible.
Additionally, we can help you determine the best NAICS codes for your business as well as Product Service Codes (PSCs) and help you figure out if you qualify as a small business, which brings us to the next fact . . .
3. Register As A Small Business
Every government agency sets aside a portion of its yearly contracting budget specifically for small businesses. These are called “set-asides” and there are many different types of set-asides. If you qualify as a small business, you may qualify for additional set-asides, and this can make it easier to earn some contracts. To see if you qualify, head to the Small Business Administration website at SBA.gov.
Some of the specific set-asides include those for woman-owned small businesses and veteran-owned small businesses, but there are set-asides in place for just about any person that is part of a historically disenfranchised group, such as those who might be African-American, Native American or perhaps those who have a disability or perhaps has been discriminated against because of their sexual orientation.
Additionally, there is a set-aside for businesses located in HUBZone. There are HUBZones throughout the United States. Some of these HUBZones expire, such as those located in disaster areas. Sometimes a HUBZone will no longer qualify and be redesignated. You can check to see if your business is located in a HUBZone at SBA.gov.
4. Learn All You Can About The Bidding Process
There are many different types of government contracts, and the bidding process is unique for each type of contract. There are some helpful guides to contracting at SBA.gov, but you also should go to APTAC-US.org, which is the main website for the Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers.
This organization helps small businesses learn the ropes of government contracting, and they have tons of helpful information on their website, and sometimes host webinars or post videos about various elements of government contracting. Your first step will be to find your local Procurement Technical Assistance Centers, or PTAC, and sign up.
Additionally, we highly recommend that once you have completed SAM registration, you also sign up to do business with your state government. Simply do an internet search with your state name and the word “procurement” and look for a result with the .gov extension. Once you sign up, you’ll find that your state also will hold helpful seminars and even events (no doubt virtual events these days) where you can meet representatives from various state government agencies and learn more about contracting opportunities.
In a nutshell, that’s how to get a job with FEMA. Sign up with SAM and SBA and do some research about bidding. Whether you get a job with FEMA or another agency, it takes time to learn the contracting process. Typically, it can take 12 to 18 months to win your first government contract. In some cases, with emergency services or Covid-related services, the government might accelerate the process, but it usually takes time to win that first contract. Still, government contracting can be a lucrative option for most companies.
We hope this article has helped to answer the question regarding how to get a job with FEMA or has provided you with at least enough information to get you started. If you would like our help with SAM registration, give us a call or click on the green New Registration button on our homepage. We can complete your SAM registration quickly and you will soon be eligible bid on FEMA contractor jobs as well as other types of government contracts.