Managing Frustration When Seeking Stimulus Money

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Too Great an Opportunity to Ignore

The sometimes-absurd frustrations of dealing with bureaucracy are particularly off-putting for small firms that are used to doing business with the private sector. As he waits for building weatherization projects to be bid out (one factor delaying the process is the fact that many government buildings fall under the jurisdiction of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation), DePaola frets about what the contracts will look like.

"If they do put something out, it'll be 8,000 pages thick and you'll have to meet this criteria and make this disclosure. The beauty of our business is that we can sit down with a husband and wife at a kitchen table, make a sales presentation, and get a decision on a sale right then and there," he says.

It's natural to feel nostalgic about the simplicity of selling directly to consumers, but with the financial floodgates of the recovery program creaking open, small business owners would be smart to gear up for the learning curve involved in government contracting, says Ann Sullivan, president of Madison Services Group, a small Washington-based lobbying firm that works closely with WIPP (Women Impacting Public Policy), an organization aimed at women business owners.

"In this economy, with the sum of $787 billion and most of it being awarded in the next year, you just can't afford to ignore it," Sullivan says. Her organization has been doing recovery presentations for its members at conferences and regional meetings, and the reception has been enormous, she says.

Thousands of Government Contracts Each Day

Many other organizations—both private membership groups and nonprofits—are getting in on the act. North Carolina small business owner Marie Seneque says she will attend an event next month that aims to match small business owners with procurement officers from various government agencies. The event, sponsored by the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Small Business Contractors, is a way for Seneque to break into the contracting world.

"We are not within the big boys' network," says Seneque, whose company, EdComp, provides health care and education services through five full-time and 50 contract employees. She envisions her firm conducting its five-week nurses' aide training courses for hundreds of out-of-work Americans who could then be employed at hospitals and nursing homes, where aides are needed. But although she has done some government work in the past, most of the opportunities she sees through the recovery program are not for service providers.

Still, consultant Parvey says thousands of new government contracts come up for bids every day. "There are 10,000 sales opportunities a day and 9,500 of them are estimated at $25,000 and below. If a small business could get even four of those a month, that's pretty good," he says, and that doesn't count the new contracts that will stem from the recovery act.

More information on the ARRA and bidding on government contracts is available at Recovery.gov, USASpending.gov, Grants.gov, FedBizOpps.gov, and Benefits.gov.

Karen E. Klein is a Los Angeles-based writer who covers entrepreneurship and small-business issues.

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