Becoming a Subcontractor on Federal Contracts

There are two basic ways of becoming a subcontractor:  1) Teaming with a potential prime or, 2) being added to a contract after it is awarded.

1)  As you read this blog there may be hundreds of Requests for Proposals (RFPs) on FedBizOps or other Federal business opportunity search tools such as INPUT that may require products or services consistent with your capabilities. If you posses little or no past performance on government projects of similar size, scope or complexity then you will need to build your past performance as a subcontractor.  

This effort will require the commitment of both time and research for networking and relationship building with the right large and/or well established small businesses.  Do your homework on both the opportunity and the companies you seek to team with.  Present your capabilities relative to the RFP requirements, so that when these RFPs are released, you will be sought out as a teammate.  You want to be part of the proposal process from the start but....select your prime wisely and consider the following:

• Only (and I can't overestimate this point) team with companies who maintain the highest ethical standards.
• Look for companies that have excellent past performance with the customer or excellent past performance on projects of similar size, scope or complexity.
• Look for companies that have a strong reputation for innovation, value and highly competitive rates - the government will look for the same.

2) You may wish to utilize pre-existing agency wide Indefinite Delivery/ Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts.  These are large Government contracts, frequently with billons of $$ in contract ceiling, which have already been competed and awarded to large and/or small business primes.  The contract you seek must have sufficient contract scope to support a demand for your particular products and/or services.  It will require you to present a strong business case with the prime. They will be reluctant (for a number of reasons) to add you to the contract unless you fill a capability gap that the current team does not adequately fill.  You need to consider the following:

• There is no guarantee of work. This is primarily a license to shop with the supported agency. If you pitch a solution to the government (presumably you have determined that a need, and the resources to fund that need, already exist) and they like your approach, you will need a contract vehicle to put the work on - this is the benefit of having a large contract vehicle with sufficient scope already in place.
• You need to make sure, ahead of time, that their contracts office will use that particular contract vehicle - just because than can use it does not mean that they will. Sole sourcing a requirement is becoming increasingly difficult - you need a contract

Tomorrow: Part 4: Understanding the Commitment

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