5 Mistakes to Avoid When Doing Business With the Government

Doing business with the United States government can be intimidating at first. For entrepreneurs, it is important to understand the common mistakes that companies make. Although making a mistake will not necessarily prevent you from winning a government contract. The fewer mistakes you make as a business owner, the fewer mistakes you will have to correct and the more professional you will appear to the government in doing business. We have provided a list of 5 mistakes businesses make and ways to avoid making them.

1. Make Offers for each government request Maybe you think that bidding with the government for every solicitation you post is the best way to win contracts and grow your business. But is not! By submitting a contract offer, you are communicating to the government that you can confidently deliver the requested product. Your proposal should reflect your willingness to commit to excellence. Anything less than what you promised will only damage your reputation, reducing any chance of winning government contracts in the future. If you are confident that you can meet your offer, then you should bid on contracts that you are comfortable with. But there are too many cases where contractors respond with offers to requests they can't fulfill. This results in the contractor breaching the contract and the government issuing a termination for default (T for D). This is one of the worst marks you can have on your government profile. If you are a small business, you do not need to bid on every contract you qualify for. It could hurt you in the long run.

2. You flip through the request for proposal document instead of carefully reading the details.

The Request for Proposal (RFP) is a document from a public agency to solicit proposals for a specific project. The RFP document contains all the governmental and technical requirements, from project details to the proposal format.

The document can be quite long at times, but you need to be patient to understand the information in the document. If you're just skimming through the RFP, you're likely to miss some details. It is important to read carefully and find out what the government really wants. No matter how small the detail may seem, it can make or break your proposal.

The government receives countless offers of contracts for its different projects. If they saw that your proposal did not follow their instructions, it creates a perception of unprofessionalism for your business. If you ignore details in the RFP, how can you not ignore details if you win the contract?

If you find it difficult to review the RFP, try bringing in a dedicated proposal team to help you. Some of this equipment can be expensive for small businesses. If this is not an option for you, you can always ask someone who has experience dealing with the government for a review. The more eyes you put on your proposal, the better it will be.

3. Your bid is too high or too low.

If you bid too high, the government agency will almost certainly ignore your proposal. Many government agencies award contracts based on the lowest technically acceptable price (LPTA).

When you don't have the lowest price in your proposal, it becomes very difficult for the government to award a contract. They base their estimates on a competitive market, and have no reason to award you when another company can deliver the same product for less.

However, pricing your proposal too low is also not a good strategy. The agency will consider your proposal too risky and unrealistic, since they have no guarantees of the quality of ridiculously cheap goods and services.

The government agency wants to hire a contractor that can provide quality service at a reasonable price. To help you know the optimal price range, you can see the similar contracts awarded that they have before located in FPDS-NG

There will be another post in the near future highlighting how to use this website effectively.

In a nutshell, do some market research to find out the right price range for the contract. Next, think about a competitive contract value that is high enough to ensure profits and quality operations, but low enough to be within the federal agency's preferred spending range.

4. You underestimate your competition

You should never underestimate your competitor's abilities, especially here in the government contracting industry. Your lack of knowledge about them can mean your downfall in the bidding. And that's why you should pay more attention to conducting market research before you start writing your contract proposal.

If you do not have investigative skills, we strongly recommend that you develop them. Researching your current market, as well as researching your competitors, can be crucial to getting ahead of the competition. If you understand how much your competition values ​​their products. You can then price your proposals based on that information to maximize your profits.

If you are a small business owner, you can use the Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS) tool to your advantage. This tool will allow you to view the profile of all registered small businesses. This search allows you to review past government contracts from your competitors. From there, you can begin to formulate a plan for how you can position yourself as a more favorable option than your competitor.

5. Your proposal is not specific enough to address the needs of the agency.

When you submit your proposal, the government wants to see a specific plan for how you intend to meet the contract requirements. If your action plan is too vague, they'll think you don't have what it takes to deliver.

So when you start writing your contract proposal, you should try to leave a great lasting impression on the agency, and you can do this by laying out your clear strategy.

With countless other government contractors vying for the contract, your proposal needs to stand out from the crowd. But you don't have to pull all kinds of tricks to get the attention of the federal department. Instead, structure your offer in a way that emphasizes how clear your proposed solutions are, and actionable.

Conclusion

While following these 5 simple tricks won't guarantee you a government contract, you can use them to stand out from the crowd of dozens of proposals. There are all kinds of business owners out there.

If you show the government that you're a business professional, and you can guarantee that you'll get what the agency needs, they'll likely return the favor by awarding you a contract.