Government spending represents over ⅓ of ALL spending in the United States.

And it’s expected to continue to increase as the years go by.

But where is this money actually going? Who is profiting from government spending?

Government contractors.

According to GovExec, Federal Contract spending was expected to exceed over $600 billion over 2020.

That’s a lot of money going into the hands of businesses that are set-up to get government contracts.

In this post, we’re going to teach you how to make the government a customer of your business by getting government contracts.

If you want to learn HOW to get government contracts for your business, then you’re in the right place.

Are Government Contracts Legit?

If you want to know if this stuff works, then we’re here to tell you it does.

We recently went through all of these steps of our marketing business, LYFE Marketing, and was successfully approved as a government contractor.

We decided to apply after we spoke at the Inc. 5000 conference, where we did a panel discussion on Good Growth versus Fast Growth.

Everyone on the panel was talking about how they grew their business quickly and gave some advice for the people in the audience.

There was a lot of good information that was shared, but there was one gentleman named Bruce who basically said he grew his business by MILLIONS of dollars through government contracts.

We figured he wasn’t lying because obviously, Inc Magazine trusted him as a speaker at the INC 5000 conference.

And secondly, his company has ranked near the top of the list at #191 out of the top 5,000 fastest growing companies in the world.

It was at this exact moment that we realized that people are actually getting RICH off of government contracts!

We mean, in the past we’ve had people call us and try to sell us some $6,000.00 package to register our business and do “all of this paperwork”, and we always thought it was a scam.

Once we realized government contracts were legit, we decided to figure out how to do this ourselves.

And we’ll be honest, it was a little confusing.

There isn’t a lot of information on this online and many people aren’t talking about it… probably because they don’t want YOU to get in and compete with them.

But today we’re going to give you all of the information you need to get registered as a Government Contractor.

So let’s start with the basics.

What are Government Contracts?

Government contracts are agreements that outline business transactions between companies and government entities.

Federal government agencies are required to publicly list their contract opportunities.

Where Can You Find These Contract Opportunities?

Most government contract opportunities are listed on SAM, which stands for Systems for Award Management.

To find contract opportunities, go to beta.sam.gov and you can start searching for government contracts.

SAM is an official website of the US government. And the best part is, you can use this website for FREE.

This is where you will register to do business with the US Government and find government contracts.

Now, in order to actually bid on a contract opportunity, you have to be registered as a government contractor.

So here are the steps you need to take to register your business as a government contractor.

Steps on How to Register Your Business as a Government Contractor

Step 1: Determine if your business is fit for government contracts

In order to bid and win government contracts, you’ll need to sell products or services that the government actually buys, and at a competitive price.

Yes, you may have heard of government contracts that are reserved for certain types of businesses.

For example, there are government contracts that are EXCLUSIVELY set aside for women-owned, minority-owned, and veteran-owned businesses.

There are also contracts that are specifically set aside for disadvantaged businesses or businesses that are located in underutilized areas.

If any of these circumstances fit your business, then you should DEFINITELY take advantage of government contracts.

And, by the way, if you don’t fit these circumstances, you can still take advantage of and win government contracts.

But REGARDLESS, at the end of the day, you need to sell something that the government needs.

If you don’t, it doesn’t matter what kind of circumstances you are in, you will have a hard time winning government contracts.

The good news is that there is A LOT that the government spends money on. So search around on SAM to find out what they are in need of.

Step 2: Use the SBA’s Contracting Guide to Aid You in Registering

Once you have determined that you sell something the government needs, then you need to register as soon as possible.

Here’s the link for the SBA’s guide to becoming a government contractor. You can go ahead and click this link AFTER reading the whole post.

And if you’re getting worried, don’t, we’re not going to leave on a cliff with some link in this post. We’re still going to show you the steps we took to register.

Though, if you ever get lost along the way, use the link above as a guide. This is the exact guide we followed to register as a government contractor.

You don’t need to pay someone to do this for you.

Step 3: Get Your DUNS Number

In order to register as a government contractor, you will need your DUNS number.

A DUNS number is a unique 9-digit identification number for the physical location of your business.

You can register for your DUNS number on fedgov.dnb.com.

You can also search to see if you already have a DUNS number for your business. When we did this, we already did.

But when you’re registering or reviewing your DUNS account, CAREFULLY review the information.

If ANYTHING is inconsistent from what’s on your application to register in SAM to your DUNS information, you may be rejected.

We know this because our first application was rejected because our address was not correct. Well at least we thought it was, but we think one letter or something very small was wrong.

Either way, you can save yourself the headache by carefully reviewing this information.

Make sure your business information is consistent across everything that you do to decrease your chances of being rejected.

Step 4: Find Your NAICS Code

The second thing you will need for your application is your NAICS code.

A NAICS code is basically a code that classifies your business based on the particular product or service you supply.

This isn’t something that you have to register for.

You just need to determine what industry your business is in and find the NAICs code that best matches your business industry.

For example, for our accounting firm, all we had to do was search the NAICS database for accounting. Then, we could choose the code that best represents our firm.

To get your NAICS code, you’ll need to go to census.gov. Here’s the exact URL that will take you directly to the NAICS database where we just performed a search query.

Step 5: Get Your Employer Identification Number

One of the last things you will need before applying is your EIN or your Employer Identification Number.

Your EIN is what you will use as your Taxpayer Identification Number in your SAM Application.

If you have filed business tax returns in the past, you should already have one and can locate this number on your tax returns.

If you do not have an EIN, you can easily apply for one on the IRS website.

Step 6: Register with SAM

Once you have your DUNS number, NAICS code, and EIN, you should have the information you need in order to register with SAM.

You can register at sam.gov.

You will first need to create a user account. And once your user account is created you can process registering your entity.

Then once you start registering your entity, it will ask you a series of questions about your business information.

But it should be a pretty straightforward process for you since you’ve already done the hard part by getting all of the information we discussed in advance.

Once you submit your registration in SAM, you will need to wait for them to review your registration and approve you for government contracts.

Step 7: Find and Win Government Opportunities!

Once you are approved, you will be able to create your profile inside of SAM.

Be sure to carefully create your profile, because government agencies often use the database to find companies that they want to do business with.

But don’t sit and wait on opportunities to come knocking on your door.

Go to beta.sam.gov and start looking for opportunities.

For example, if your business offers engineering services, go to the search engine, change the filter to “contract opportunities” and type in engineering.

Then select contract opportunities that you are interested in.

Once you select an opportunity, you will be able to verify if the opportunity is still active or not.

If so, review the description, attachments, and contact information of the decision-makers associated with the opportunity.

If you meet the criteria of what they are looking for, then you can submit a proposal to bid on the government contract.

In your proposal, be sure to specify your experience, credentials, capabilities, and why you are the best candidate to win the contract.

If you do this successfully, you can end-up winning government contracts that can propel your business to make thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars like in the example we provided at the beginning of this post.

So by now, you should have all the information you need to begin bidding on government contracts.

By the way, our accounting firm offers bookkeeping, accounting, and tax services for small businesses. We do not assist with getting government contracts.

But if you need help with this process, be sure to review the information that we have provided here. You can also bookmark this post so you can easily get back whenever you need to.

Quick Recap of How to Get Government Contracts

Let’s recap the content of today’s post.

Today, we discussed how to bid on government contracts and how we successfully did this for one of the businesses we own.

As discussed, the government spends close to $600 BILLION per year on federal contracts.

And there are specific opportunities that are set aside for small businesses, women-owned businesses, minority-owned businesses, and much more.

The process to become a government contractor is not as complicated as it sounds. All you need to do is sell something that the government needs and meet the registration requirements.

We went over this and explained the common things that trip people up when they apply – which is getting their DUNS number, NAICS code, and Taxpayer Identification Number.

Once you have this information, you should have what you need to make registration easier for yourself.

But remember when obtaining this information that you review and ensure that your business information is consistent.

If something is off, like your name or address being misspelled, then it can delay the registration process.

Once you register and are approved, then government contracts become fair game. Use beta.sam.gov to find contract opportunities and do everything you can to win them.

That’s it for today!

Again, if you need help in propelling your business by having accurate financial reports or some sound financial advice, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We’d be happy to help!