Ways to Find Customers 6

Can a home business or a one-person business sell to the government?

Home businesses that have the experience and capabilities do sell products and services to the government. The government, like any other customer, is primarily interested in a company's ability to perform the contract and meet deadlines.

Is there a lot of red tape?

Yes, there usually is. In fact, the red tape is the leading deterrent to most small businesses who want to sell to the government. You generally can get some help dealing with the red tape through local offices of federal or state agencies or at Small Business Administration branch offices. Those can be found by looking in the federal government listing in your phone book distributed by your telephone company.

How do I find out what the government wants to buy?

One way to find out what the government is buying is to search the business opportunity listings on Fedbizopps.gov. The site lists notices of proposed government procurement actions, contract awards, sales of government property, and other important procurement information. It is published every business day and contains approximately five hundred to a thousand notices each day. All federal procurement offices are required to place notices in FedBizopps.gov about proposed procurement actions over $25,000 and contract awards over $25,000 that are likely to result in the award of any subcontracts. These notices are organized into categories to make it easier to find the ones that might apply to your particular business.

You can get information about procurements that aren't published in Fedbizops by contacting local branch offices of government offices directly. Call them and ask if they have information available about selling to their agency, and how you can get it. Alert the small business officers to your website, and provide them with other sales materials you have. Be sure you are listed in the Central Contractor Registration (http://www.ccr.gov ). It's also a good idea to ask about possible subcontracting opportunities with prime contractors in your vicinity. Other sources of information that may be good leads to government contracts are cable TV, local newspapers, and state agencies.

What's a prime contractor?

A prime contractor is the contractor that has responsibility for a project.

What are the benefits of subcontracting?

Subcontracting work from prime government contractors gives small businesses the opportunity to participate in (and profit from) federal contracts by doing part of the work on big contracts. It is simply an indirect way of doing business with the government.

How do I find lists of prime contractors?

The Department of Defense and other agencies maintain lists of prime contractors. You can often get these lists at local government procurement opportunity fairs, through local branch offices of government agencies and through city, county, or regional economic or industrial development offices and on government web sites. Many of these offices have people specially designated to help small businesses wade through the red tape of selling to the government. If you have no previous experience working with the government, this help can be very useful, even if you will be subcontracting work from a prime contractor.

Will my business benefit by exhibiting at major trade shows?

Small companies that can afford the expense of the booth space, product literature, hotel accommodations, shipping costs for displays, and so on can benefit from exhibiting in trade shows if they have a product that works, is professionally packaged, and is ready to ship or be sold in quantity to customers at the show and afterward.

What do you need to stand out in a trade show?

You don't have to have the fanciest booth in the hall, but you do need a neat and attractive display in a good location for the booth to pay off. You also need to have the booth staffed. Empty booths with literature on the table but no one to explain it or demonstrate the product aren't going to bring in much business.

You will also need to have a sufficient amount of professional-looking literature to hand out. If you don't have literature or if it looks as if it was done by Aunt Tillie on her 9-pin dot matrix printer that needed a new ribbon, you aren't going to make many sales or impress many people.

In addition to the literature you have available at your booth, you should have press kits made up to hand out to members of the press or other important contacts who attend the show. Find out, too, if the show has a pressroom, and if so, if you can leave stacks of your press kits there for members of the press to pick up. That may get your literature to people who might not find your booth on the show floor.

Giveaways and gimmicks to attract passersby to your booth are useful, too. The giveaway doesn't have to be terribly expensive: samples of your product given away as contest prizes periodically during the show, T-shirts with your company name on them given away after each demonstration of your product(s), or even something as simple as a bowl of wrapped candies can attract people to your booth.

How do I decide which shows to go to?

Try to check out a show's history. Ask other vendors in your industry which shows have been most productive for them and which shows least productive. Ask which attract the most attendees and the most important contacts. Sometimes direct sale of your product from a booth isn't as important as the contacts you may make with businesses, distributors, or sales representatives who can help you bring in more business.

Is there any way to take advantage of trade shows without spending too much money for literature and booth space?

If your company is too small or new to comfortably afford its own booth at a trade show, you may benefit by helping someone else out in his or her booth, sharing a booth with another company, or simply attending the show and introducing yourself to large companies and distributors who could be useful contacts for you.

What about local trade shows? Are they worth participating in?

It can be cost-effective to exhibit at local trade shows if they attract the type of customers you want to attract. You may be able to get a booth at a local trade show for as little as $50 to $300 (depending on the size of the show and who's sponsoring it). Since the local shows are often specifically set up to encourage small business participation, the booth displays are often simple. Some companies will have nothing more than some brochures spread out on a table. A tabletop display of some sort—even makeshift—is preferable, though, since it will put your promotional material at eye level making it more easily viewable by passersby.

Can you go as an attendee and hand out fliers?

Doing that is frowned on (understandably) by vendors who have paid to work at the show. Bring business cards, introduce yourself, and hand out business cards, but leave your sales literature in your hotel room or home unless you are sharing a booth with another company.

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