Federal Marketplace Series

The Tech Council of Maryland's Federal Marketplace series is a full schedule of educational and networking events designed to teach members how to do business with the Federal Government.

The Federal Marketplace Series will focus on the three following educational deliverables:

What you need to know about doing business with the Federal Government
An insider's view of federal agencies and their visions for future needs
Information exchange with fellow prime and subcontractors

Partnerships

Tech Council of Maryland and TEDCO are partners on selected Federal Marketplace Series events.

Staff Contacts
Mark Glazer, Director Tech Alliance
Telephone: 240-453-6212 E-mail: mglazer@techcouncilmd.com

Click here for details

Sept-Oct TargetGov Teleconference Schedule

Click the date for more details


September 7, 2006 -- How to Break Into the Intelligence Agency Market: There are 15 Intel Agencies controlling billions in contracting dollars. Attend this teleconference to open the door to this secretive market.

September 21, 2006 -- Non-Profits, Grants and Government Contracting Learn how your not-for-profit organization can take advantage of grants and business opportunities available through the federal government.

October 5, 2006—Two Tracks! 8(a) Certification -- Will It Help You Win More Contracts? 2 Tracks: Choose the one that is best for you or attend both for full information. Attend both and save $40!
Over $15 Billion in federal contracts are set aside for those companies meeting Minority, Disadvantaged, HUB Zone or other certifications. Do you qualify for certification? If so, how do you get certified and then use that certification to open the door to business opportunities? Attend one or both TargetGov Teleconferences for answers!

October 19, 2006 -- Two Track GSA Teleconferences -- Track 1: What a GSA Schedule Is and How to Obtain One from and Track 2: Now That You Have a GSA Schedule, Learn How to Use It to Get Contracts. Getting a GSA Schedule can be one of your most effective business development tools for the federal governemnt market. Attend these two teleconferences to learn how to get a GSA Schedule and how to use it effectively!

Sept 11-13 WIPP 5th Anniversary Summit

Sept 11-13 WIPP Leadership and Legacy: 5th Anniversary Summit
A Vision and Voice for the Future
2006 Fall Leadership Conference
September 11-13, 2006
Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill
Washington, DC

Announcing:
Steven Preston, Administrator, U.S. Small Business Administration
Keynote Speaker, WIPP Gala

Steven Preston, confirmed as Administrator of the US Small Business Administration came from The ServiceMaster Company, where he served as their Executive Vice President. In that capacity, Mr. Preston led the Strategic Services team, including IT, Six Sigma, Strategic Sourcing, Strategy and Acquisitions. He served previously as the Chief Financial Officer of ServiceMaster, the Senior Vice President and Treasurer of First Data Corporation, and as an investment banker at Lehman Brothers.

WIPP is proud to welcome Administrator Preston and looks forward to working with him.

WIPP is the vision and voice for the future. If you run a business, you must attend.

Click here to register for WIPP's 5th Anniversary Leadership Conference!

7 Stories: Your News Update

1. October 18th meeting, 11:30-1:30 p.m., Women Doing Business with the Government. Special Secretary Sharon Pinder is the keynote speaker and Gloria Berthold willtalk about the "how" to do business with federal, state and local government agencies. Sponsored by the Business Women's Network of Howard County



The Business Monthly


2. A Golden Opportunity for Women Business Owners in a $15 Billion Market -- The federal, state and local government agencies located in and around Howard County are looking to do business with women-owned firms in unprecedented numbers. One of the key reasons is that women-owned firms in the U.S. are growing like never before. Click here for the full story

3. Turning Small Talk into Big Ideas
To be a successful entrepreneur, the people you know are as important as your ideas. At least accoding to Toby Stuart, a professor at the Harvard Business School and the winner of the 2007 Ewing Marion Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship. Stuart received the Medal for his pioneering research into social networks and their effects on entrepreneurship. His work points to the dynamics of networking and proves that successful entrepreneurs need more than good ideas and intelligence. Click here to learn more about the Ewing Marion Kauffman Prize Medal.

Click here to read the rest

SBTV Highlights Author: Gloria Berthold

SBTV is the first television network on the web devoted 100 percent to the small business market - from business start-ups to established enterprises. We believe that being an entrepreneur is a way of living - not just a way to make a living.

Founded in 2000, SBTV is becoming the number one choice for small business information on the net. The average viewer stays on our site for more than 30 minutes at a time. Business owners rely on SBTV because it provides expertly produced content by professional journalists and industry experts that is informational, practical and compelling.

Click here for A Step-by-Step Approach to the Federal Acquisition Marketplace by Gloria Berthold

Click here for Build Your Business by Becoming a Government Contractor by Gloria Berthold

Busy, busy, busy schedules!

August 30-Sept 1 Visit the TargetGov booth # 226 at MED Week in DC



NEW Teleconferences to Help You Build Your Government Contracting Business


September 7, 2006 -- How to Break Into the Intelligence Agency Market: There are 15 Intel Agencies controlling billions in contracting dollars. Attend this teleconference to open the door to this secretive market.

September 21, 2006 -- Non-Profits, Grants and Government Contracting Learn how your not-for-profit organization can take advantage of grants and business opportunities available through the federal government.

October 19, 2006 -- Two Track GSA Teleconferences -- Track 1: What a GSA Schedule Is and How to Obtain One from and Track 2: Now That You Have a GSA Schedule, Learn How to Use It to Get Contracts

Federal Contracts and Small Business

Federal Agencies Slammed on Set-Asides
A new report from Democratic members of the House Small Business Committee is highly critical of Federal small business set-aside contracting practices. According to the study, nearly $12 billion in contacts have been mislabeled as small business set-asides. In reality, these contracts were awarded to large corporations, universities and non-profits. With this new data, the report claims that federal agencies provided only 21.5% of their contracts to small businesses, missing President Bush’s target of 25%. Overall, the report notes that Washington’s small business support efforts warrant a “D” grade. Twelve federal agencies also received failing grades for their poor performance in small business contracting, with the Departments of Education, Energy, and the US Agency for International ranking as especially poor performers. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) has formally asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate these practices and to suggest ideas for improving the small business contracting process.

To learn more about the July 2006 House of Representatives Small Business Committee Democratic report on small business set-asides, Scorecard VII, Click here



The Impact of New Contracting Rules on Small Business
In last week’s NDE-news, we highlighted a study that criticized federal agencies for their poor performance in doing business with small business. New research sponsored by the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy offers some potential good news on this score. The research examines the effects of government-wide acquisition contracts on smaller firms. These contracts were introduced in the 1990s with the intention of creating a more performance-based, streamlined process for government agencies seeking to procure technology (especially information technology services) from the private sector. The shift was needed. Prior to the changes, information technology contracts could take up to two years to complete. In the meantime, the purchased technology had become obsolete. However, some observers feared that the new process might make reduce the amount of small business contracting. Fortunately, it appears that the new process is working fairly well—at least in terms of providing opportunities to smaller firms. The use of government-wide acquisition contracts has grown rapidly, and the small business share of this market has also grown. In total, small business set asides account for 31% of all spending on these contracts, and that number has continued to grow. One take-away from this research is that it is possible to implement more effective business management practices while also meeting the government’s commitment to sharing business with small and medium-sized firms.

Access the August 2006 US Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy-sponsored report, The Impact of Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts on Small Business (No. 279), by clicking here

Looking for Funding? Go Online

As social networking sites continue to expand, entrepreneurs are now seeking to use these technologies as a way to build peer funding networks. Several interesting new businesses have emerged in the peer-to-peer lending market. The UK-based Zopa.com was one of the first such efforts while Prosper.com is a recent entrant on this side of the Atlantic. The sites work as follows: a user posts his or her request for funds. Other users review the requests, and then decide if they want to invest(alone or in a group).


The sites serve as a marketing vehicle for those seeking funds, and then they help manage the transactions that occur via the site. At Prosper.com, current opportunities include funding for a new business in New Orleans, paying off student loans, and new equipment purchases for an existing business. While these sites are fairly new, they may offer a new method for financing entrepreneurial ventures.

To learn more about Zopa, click here

To learn more about Prosper, click here

Creating Valuable Customers with A Contact Manager

ACT! has certainly proven itself to play an important role in government contracting business. From simple contact management to contact segmentation, you may feel it has accomplished everything you hoped it could. Is there more?!

With nearly 3 million people using ACT! as a contact manager, there must be a group of people that are getting more out of the application than maintaining a history of customer touch points. So, how do you leverage ACT! and the existing contact data to bring more value to your business? What makes a lead more valuable than another…document downloads, webinar signups, requests for more information?

Click here to see the rest of this post

Begin With Financing Strategy Early to Avoid Headaches Later

By Todd Crandell

If you’re part of the TargetGov community, you appreciate the fact that business, even business with the federal government, is done through communication. Deals don’t happen by trading paper via fax and email. Deals happen because two people sit down together and hammer out a win- win. RFQ’s typically raise more questions than they answer, and RFP’s are almost always followed up with some sort of due diligence on the customer’s part.

Dialogue between vendor and customer is essential to build sustainability, credibility, and scalability to a relationship. All good business people understand communication’s importance. However, one issue my firm has seen happen to too many aspiring companies is that their communication is focused on winning the deals, but not necessarily on the terms and conditions that govern them.

Full Story Click Here: http://www.targetgov.com/Content.asp?id=2334

Nominate Top 100 MBE

NOMINATIONS SOUGHT: Maryland’s Top Minority Business Enterprise Awards

Maryland’s Top Minority Business Enterprise Awards salute minority and women business owners who, through their innovation, sacrifice, and dedication, provide products and services that fuel our state’s economy. These enterprising risk-takers are living the American dream of business ownership by providing significant value to their clients, professions and communities.

Winners will be honored at an awards ceremony at the Inn and Conference Center, University of Maryland University College, in Adelphi, Maryland, on FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27. Additionally, winners will be featured in a special magazine in The Daily Record, and promoted around the State by the Governor’s Office of Minority Affairs.

For More Information Click Here: http://www.targetgov.com/Content.asp?id=2335

This seminar is intended for businesses that are considering competing in the Federal market, or those that are in the early phases of entry.

Date: Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Time: 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Cost: $149.00 (no credit cards - checks payable to Howard County EDA)
Location: The Center for Business and Technology Development, The Thomas Dorsey Building 9250 Bendix Road, North, Columbia, MD 21045

Speakers
Government Business Development
Gloria Berthold, TargetGov
Sessions will cover the 5 key Steps to Procurement Success

1. Basic definitions
2. Identifying Who Buys What you Sell
3. Finding Business Opportunities
4. Finding Decision Makers
5. Effective Strategies and Tactics

Government Contracting—Overview
Dennis Smythe; Government Contractor Resources,
LLC Session will cover the following topics
1. How the Government Buys
2. Myths Associated with Government Contracts
3. Minority, Small Disadvantaged Business Certifications
4. Contract Administration and the FAR

Accounting for Government Contracts
Rhonda J. Tomlinson,
CPA,Government Contractor Resources,
LLC Session will cover the following topics
1. Components of Government Contract Accounting
2. Specialized Rules and Regulations
3. Policies and Procedures
4. Document and Best Practices

Valuable Handouts Included Presented by
Government Contractor Resources, LLC
We help you navigate the contracting maze!
For More information or to register:
The Center for Business and Technology Development
Phone: 410.313.6550

GSA Spending for IT to decline this year

Federal spending by the General Services Administration for information technology is expected to sink again in fiscal 2006, the second year in a row, according to one research firm's projections.

After achieving an all-time high in fiscal 2004, annual spending through GSA's multiple-award schedule contracts for IT products and services will decline 1 percent this year to $16.3 billion, following a 2 percent drop in fiscal 2005.
The downturn is driven by decreasing IT services sales on the GSA schedule. Input predicts a 5 percent decline in the IT schedule's services sales for fiscal 2006, which is a mirror image of the 5 percent annual growth expected for the federal IT market through fiscal 2011.

Winning the Contracting Game

Billions of dollars in federal contracts are supposed to go to small businesses. What really happens, and how do you get your share?

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jul2006/sb20060726_724414.htm?chan=smallbiz_smallbiz+index+page_today's+top+stories

’….Big business winning some contracts set aside for small business isn't new, but the current magnitude is unprecedented. In December, 2004, the SBA Office of Advocacy released a report stating that 39 large corporations in 2002 received over $2 billion in contracts that the administration had mistakenly counted as small-business contracts. The New York Times reported recently that last year at least $4.9 billion worth of contracts, coded as small business, went to 13 of the largest government contractors…’

CCR Name Lockdown

Notes: D&B Name Address Lockdown becomes active with release 3.06.3. This CCR revision will render most CCR registrants unable to change, directly in CCR, their Legal Business Name, DBA (Doing Business As) and Physical Address. They must correct name and address information for those fields at DUN & Bradstreet (D&B). Then the registrant will return to the CCR registration, which will only pull that data from D&B. Countries not monitored by D&B or not recognized by D&B must make all their own updates in CCR, after they become active

Fax Law Update

Federal Communications Commission rules going into effect Aug. 1 codify, after nearly 15 years of regulation, exactly what constitutes an established business relationship. The FCC, which issues regulations for implementing the law, attempted to further limit the advertisers’ reach in 2003 with stricter rules. But Congress instead opted to step in and amend the statute itself with the Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005.

Under the regulations about to take effect, advertisers can still send unsolicited faxes to recipients with whom they have an established business relationship or from whom they have express written permission. The commission now defines an established business relationship as a prior or existing relationship formed by two-way communications, with or without a money transaction.

The rules clarify that senders can only use fax numbers voluntarily provided by the recipient. However, the sender does not have to demonstrate how it obtained the fax number if it can prove an established business relationship prior to July 9, 2005. The changes also create a requirement for “opt out” language in the fax directing recipients to a cost-free mechanism for removing themselves from a fax list. The law still allows private parties to sue for a violation, with damages of up to $500 per faxed page or $1,500 per page if the court finds a willful violation. Although seemingly insignificant sums, these fines add up quickly in the class-action suits often brought against mass-fax advertisers.

Separately, the FCC can fine up to $11,000 for each fax violation it discovers as part of an investigation.

For companies distributing faxes, the most significant element of the rule changes is the opt-out language. If a fax does not have the right opt-out language penalties can be quite costly.
Note: This information is not meant to replace appropriate legal counsel. For updated information concerning lax communications contact your legal counsel.

USA Today: How small firms lock down data

In Baltimore, business owner Gloria Berthold hasn't allowed her five employees to store customer data on laptops since she founded TargetGov in 1997 to help companies win government contracts.

At first, she worried she was being too restrictive. But lately she's been reading stories about workers losing laptops to thieves or accidents while on the road. "I just don't want to lose sleep worrying about who has access to laptops," she says.
As TargetGov's offerings grow more sophisticated, so do its information-security needs and costs.

Berthold's most valuable asset is a database of federal, state and local government employees who take bids on contracts for computers, office furniture and other goods. She sells subscriptions to the database, which customers access online through TargetGov's website.
Two years ago, Berthold spent $50,000 rebuilding the site so it would be more secure. The information is encrypted, or scrambled, so unauthorized users can't read it in the unlikely event they hack into the site.

The database is now stored at a remote computer server instead of at her office. And all customer records are now stored on a separate computer server, also away from her office...."
Click here for the full story

Federal Fiscal Year End = Use It or Lose It

We have now entered the fourth quarter of the federal fiscal year. Are you taking advantage of this timing to bring in summertime business and sow the seeds for next year's (which starts October 1) business?
The federal government spends over 50 percent of the year’s budget between July 1 and September 30 because of “use it or lose it” requirements. This means that government spending is at its yearly high right now and vendors can take advantage of this spending by knowing who is placing the orders.
It is your job as an informed vendor to research the budgets and know what the agencies are planning to spend. In addition, it is important to market your company to the appropriate people within each individual agency so that they know what you offer.
When is the fiscal year end for federal government agencies?

For Full Story Click Here: http://www.targetgov.com/Content.asp?id=2325

BRAC Teams Forming NOW

Let us know if you would like to be considered for the teams we are putting together to address the local and nationwide Base Re-Alignment and Closure (BRAC) related contracting opportunities.

These are wide-ranging, long-term opportunities related to the specific needs regarding the mandated base closures such as construction, information technology, staffing, moving processes and more.

There is no fee or long-term commitment for this first step to let us know that you are interested.

Click here to send us an email and please mention BRAC Teams in the Comments field. We look forward to working with you!

New SBA Administrator

The US Small Business Administration (SBA) has a new Administrator.

Steve Preston, was confirmed by the Senate in late June, and was formally sworn in last week. Preston is the 22nd Administrator since SBA was first created in 1953. Previously, Preston served as Executive Vice President at The ServiceMaster Company, a major franchising operation. Preston has not offered a lot of details about his vision for SBA, but we hope that he will continue the agency’s strong support for America’s entrepreneurs.

To view a Small Business Administration press release about Preston’s swearing-in, click here.