Posted by Anna Urman on September 13, 2016
Virginia PTAC (and our nationwide colleagues) are happy to welcome you to government contracting. We will do our best to help you succeed at selling to state, local, and federal agencies.
Some businesses, however, aren’t ready for government contracting, and your meeting with a PTAC counselor, or your attendance at a class can be frustrating, overwhelming, and (let’s be honest), disappointing.
So let’s get this secret out of the bag: PTAC is not intended to help you start a business. That’s outside our mission, that’s something our grant funder (Department of Defense) specifically frowns upon, and that’s the kind of assistance we recommend you seek from our resource partners, such as the Small Business Development Centers, Women’s Business Centers, Veterans Business Outreach Centers, and SCORE.
In fact, before you meet with a PTAC counselor or attend even our introductory “Basic Training” class, we recommend that your company obtains:
Legal Requirements (for any business)
- State entity registration if your business is anything other than a sole proprietorship (LLC, Corp, LLP….)
- Federal Tax ID Number (TIN / EIN) from the IRS
- Business license from your state / locality (in Virginia, it’s called a BPOL)
- Business Plan
PTAC Counselors won’t usually ask to look at your documentation, unless they’re helping you submit a certification that requires above-mentioned paperwork. However, in order to start registering as a vendor to any government entity, businesses must meet certain basic requirements. If you are sure that you are going to pursue government work, get these out of the way. And as far as the Business Plan – again, while we don’t require written proof that you created one for your business, we do want to ascertain that you are serious, that you have considered the pros and cons and financials and business structure and have a plan. We will absolutely help you refine it, give you a reality check, and assist with a proof of concept; but if you’re not serious about your business, there really isn’t much we can do to overcome that.
Government Contracting Specific Pre-Requisites
- Identify your NAICS and PSC Codes (Federal)
- Identify your NIGP Codes (State / local)
- Register in SAM = obtain a CAGE Code & UEI.
This is a bit more of a chicken-and-egg category. Yes, we can help you figure out all of these codes and numbers and what you should select. However, the best advice at the outset is that you try to identify the codes that apply to your business. See if you can register in SAM. If you get those steps out of the way without a snag, then your meeting with your counselor can cover more in-depth, “next step” material. And if you do have questions or run into technical difficulties, that’s absolutely an area where a counselor’s perspective will be invaluable. (Hint: make sure the physical address for your Virginia SCC registration, Tax ID, and SAM is *identical* down to the letter and abbreviation).
You and your counselor should review your registrations during your session, and we will have some insight into additional / related / adjacent codes to consider. You’ll hear tips and tricks in classes. We’ll explain the purpose and utilization of all of these by your target customers. And we’ll give you next steps, like competitive and customer analysis, DSBS profile creation (and much more!) — built on the foundation of the basics you have completed. There’s a lot more to government contracting, so the sooner we get these “pre-requisites” out of the way, the sooner we can do some real work.
