Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Step 2: Research and Know Your Material

Good morning again everyone! Today we see the second installment of Gateway to Government’s Seven Steps series. These steps are designed to help you as a small business owner or employee to gain an advantage over your competitors in the field of government contracting. Each step will look at a different but useful aspect of doing business with the federal government.

Step 2 – Research

Research is vital to any business venture, as we all know. Would you as a small business owner leap into anything without knowing a little bit about it? A little bit of background research can go a long way with government contracting, and can make the vital difference between winning a bid and languishing in the pool of those that ‘just bid.’

Take a few minutes to do some research on what the bid is asking for. Is it looking for a product that will be chosen purely on price? Something as simple as a Google search can turn up pricing from your competitors! Is the price you offer competitive enough to go up against other contractors, or do you compete on service? Delivery time? Bulk goods? Know what your competitive advantage is and you will be able to leverage it.

In addition, know what you are talking about. As you’ve seen here and so many times before, background research is very important. Be sure that you know your products and services and are knowledgeable in the area in which you are bidding. Not knowing the latest advancements in your field could be the reason you won’t get the bid – such as recommending the most ‘up-to-date’ Windows 2000 or XP, when actually Windows Vista is the most recent release.

No comments:

Post a Comment