How Women Entrepreneurs Can Leverage the Federal Government Contracting
Over the past few years, there’s a growing trend of women business entrepreneurs across the United States. What triggering its growth is that federal agencies are increasingly looking to do business with women-owned firms like never before?
Endeavors to Financially Bolster Women Entrepreneurs
The
federal government, along with many states and local government agencies,
maintain goals regarding the contracts they target for women-owned businesses.
The federal government's goal is 5% of the more than $300 billion in federal
contracts which amounts to $15 billion in business opportunities that should be
won by women-owned firms. This is both good news and bad news. The bad news is
that this goal has never been reached. The good news is that there is a greater
opportunity now than ever before for women-owned firms to tackle and win
contracts from any Government marketing agency.
How Profitable is to do Business with a Government Marketing
Agency
Precisely,
it’s a great opportunity for women entrepreneurs. Though the law was enacted
five years ago that proposed regulations will be implementing the formal
women's federal procurement program, it was not implemented in reality.
However, the SBA has finally issued the regulation for implementation. The best
part is that it allows federal contracting officers as well as any
particular government marketing agency to
"set-aside" specific procurements for women-owned businesses. This is
quite a confidence boost for the qualified women-owned firms to kick start
their business.
Can women-owned businesses handle these opportunities?
The
answer is a resounding yes. According to a report released by the Small
Business Administration, women-owned firms increased nearly 20 percent over the
latest period. No wonder, why the federal contracting agencies offer a large
number of set asides for the women owned firms. Today, when a government
marketing agency releases projects for bidding, they also decide the
percentage of set asides keeping the needs of women entrepreneurs in mind.
The
Center for Women's Business Research states that, “Businesses majority-owned by
women of color have grown at leaps and bounds. The number of firms increased by
more than half (55%), number of employees increased by nearly two-thirds (62%),
and annual sales revenue increased by almost three quarters (74%)”. Quite
obviously, any government marketing agency will focus on
getting the job done by women entrepreneurs.
Final Thoughts
Firms
owned by women have the knowledge and capacity to perform well, while acquiring
projects from government marketing companies. Generally their
biggest hurdles are learning how to disrupt into the market and working within
government processes, rules and regulations. There are a number of
organizations that are poised to help women-business owners tackle this
profitable market such as the SBA and the National Women's Business Council.
It’s indeed a complicated maze, but worth tackling as they are kind of lifetime
earnings.
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