U.S. government agency purchases of good and services are a lucrative source of revenue for small businesses. The Federal government spent about $425 billion in 2007. We discuss several approaches for getting some of that work.

Federal government procurement spending increased by 10 percent from 2006 levels according to a 2007 article in Government Executive.

A lot of that money is for high value technical services and products. However, the government also needs services and products to maintain its building, to provide it clothing for the military and many other non-technical items and services. You can and should go after that money. Here are several things you should consider doing:

• If you don’t already have one, obtain a Federal Taxpayer Identification Number,
• Request a Dun and Bradstreet Number,
  All federal contractors must request a DUNS number in order to do business with the federal government. You need this to be a player in the Federal arena.
• Central Contractor Registration. Once you get to this web page, click "NEW" and enter your DUNS number into the Central Contractor Registry.

Next, you can explore, existing and announced federal business opportunities. You can search by the goods or service you provide and by agency. There is a separate place to register your company’s capabilities to assist in Hurricane disaster relief efforts if you are interested in that line of work.

Getting federal government business is time consuming. An alternative method is to be a subcontractor with a more established company that is doing business with the Federal Government. These companies are usually required to set aside contract money for small businesses.

We would start by contracting the some of the top 100 federal contractors in 2007. This will require some leg work to match your goods and services with those being provided. However, it might really be worth it.