For a business you are starting
You are starting from nothing, or your business is brand new. Begin with how to set it up. After that the steps are the same ones every business takes to sell to the government.
Step 1: Start your business
Choose how the business is set up, register it with your state, get its tax number, the licenses it needs, a bank account and insurance. Each step has the government page to do it on.
Step 2: Get certified
Some government orders are kept for small businesses, and some for businesses owned by women, veterans or disadvantaged owners. See which certifications there are, who qualifies and where to apply.
Step 3: Get funding
On a government order you often pay your vendor before the buyer pays you. See the ways to cover that gap, compare what each costs as a yearly rate, and make a packet to take to a lender.
Step 4: Learn how to sell to the government
Five short lessons, about two minutes each: how small orders are bought, registering, pricing, what a quote is and is not, and delivering and getting paid. Every rule has its official source.
Step 5: Register where buyers look
A buyer can only order from a business that is on file. The list covers federal, state, local and utility buyers, in the order most businesses work through it, and you tick each one off as you go.
Step 6: Decide what to sell: products or services
Products and tools, or services? Choose a state and see the kinds of products and the kinds of services federal agencies bought there in the last twelve months, from public records. Start with what is already being bought.
Step 7: Find bids
What federal agencies are asking for now, read from the government's own site every day. Search it, and put a request you want to answer on your board.
Step 8: Find buyers
Who buys what you sell, where each one posts what it wants, and who bought it before and for how much.
Step 9: Quote, win and get paid
A buyer's request comes in and is read into lines. You price it, send the quote with your forms attached, record the order when you win, send the invoice, and see the day you are owed.
Step 10: Find vendors
Who can supply a product or perform a service a buyer asked for, with a link for each one. On a request you can ask several vendors for a price at once and compare their answers side by side.
Step 11: Find prime contractors
A prime contractor holds the contract with the agency and may hire other businesses for part of the work. See who holds federal contracts in your state, from public records.
Step 12: Find subcontractors
Need another business for part of an order? See small businesses in your state that already won federal work, so they know how government work is done, and members who listed themselves.
Step 13: Track your orders
Every purchase order with its lines, vendors, cost and profit, and what is late, not paid, or ready to invoice.
Step 14: Watch your cash
What buyers owe you, what you owe vendors, and where your bank balance goes over the next 13 weeks.
Step 15: Put up your supplier page
A page for buyers with your certifications and a one-page capability statement, and a button for your own website. A request sent from either lands on your board.
Already have a business? The same steps, without the setting up.
For an existing business