If you are new to government contracting, one of the very first steps you have to take is to complete your System for Award Management (SAM) registration. While you certainly can tackle this process yourself for no cost at www.Sam.Gov, we highly recommend that you consider using our services instead. If you are wondering why you should pay a third party to help with SAM registration, the following reasons might convince you.
1. WWW.Sam.Gov Can Be A Confusing Website
If you’ve ever applied for any type of service or benefit from the federal government, then you probably already understand how confusing a government website can be. In order to complete SAM registration, you need to learn about items such as CAGE codes or NCAGE codes if you are a foreign registrant, as well as acronyms such as MPIN, PSCs, FAR or DFARS, POCs and much more.
If your head is not yet spinning, it will be by the time you finish reading the government’s “helpful” Quick Guide for Contract Registrations. While the government truly does want businesses to take advantage of the many available contracting opportunities, there are so many different terms and organizations one must learn about, that it quickly can become confusing to know precisely what information you need to provide for SAM registration.
2. The Registration Process Can Take Two Full Working Days To Complete
In order to begin the process of bidding on government contracts, you can head to www.Sam.Gov and create a user account. Creating a user account might seem simple enough; after all, it’s just creating a username and password, right? Not quite. This is just the beginning of a lengthy registration process.
First you must select an account type, either an individual account or a system account. But which one do you need? In order to decide which option to select, you must read through the list of choices, decipher what these choices entail and select the right option.
After you’ve figured out this information, creating the user account takes just a few minutes where you provide contact information (both email and phone), inform the system whether you prefer email or phone correspondence and why. They actually do ask you why you prefer phone contact over email contact or vice-versa. Then you must create a username and password and provide the answer to security questions such as “What is the name of your first stuffed animal?” Or perhaps, “Who was the first person you kissed.” At this point, you will be able to create your user account.
That’s where the real fun begins. Once you have confirmation that your account has been created, you can log into the system Of course, you also have to have a DUNS number, a taxpayer ID number and the routing and account numbers from your bank account. This is the minimum amount of information you will need before filling out the form. During the actual application process, you will need to provide information such as your NAICS (North American Industry Classification) codes, decide whether or not you want to opt in for a public search, complete a SBA (Small Business Profile) for the SBA Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS) if you are a small business and so on. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
While there are plenty of free resources and even YouTube videos to help you through the process, it can take 15 hours or more to do the research and fill out your SAM registration via www.Sam.Gov. For many people, this is a chunk of time that they simply cannot spare. You are busy running your business and probably don’t have 15 extra hours to spend filling out a complicated registration form. Therefore, it just makes sense to hire an experienced third-party registration service to complete this lengthy task for you.
3. You Have A Solid Alternative
At Federal Contractor Registry, we’ve been helping companies and individuals complete SAM registration for many years. Obviously, as a third-party service, we do charge a fee, but we already are completely familiar with the process of applying for government contacts and understand all of the acronyms and nuances of the SAM registration process.
We have many clients that begin the process themselves on www.Sam.gov only to become frustrated and consider giving up. Once you are past this hurdle, you can begin bidding on contracts, but the process itself is so time-consuming and overwhelming, it can be a huge deterrent.
If you are frustrated with www.Sam.Gov and the SAM registration process, just give us a call or fill out our quick contact form and one of our agents will contact you as soon as possible. We can answer any questions you might have, as well as completing the entire SAM registration process for you. Government contracting can be profitable and rewarding, so take the plunge and give Federal Contractor Registry a call today.