Why should you make the government your customer, you ask? Because the government
is the biggest spender in the world with small businesses. In this video, I'm sharing
how you can decide for yourself if the government is your customer,
and I'm giving you stats to back it up. If this is your first time on the channel,
welcome. I'm Felicia Streeter over at feliciastreeter.com where I help small businesses
just like you get through government contracting. I help you guys with the information overload,
those bidding nightmares, and not having a step-by-step sequence formula
that you can follow. That's what I provide here on this channel to get you to the finish line
of becoming a government contractor. Now, if this is your first time,
then make sure you subscribe to the channel and go ahead and turn on that notification bell so
you get notified when I drop new videos right here on the channel and when I go live.
I've helped thousands of small business owners get into government contracting and get their piece
of the billions of dollars the government is spending with small businesses every year. So
let's get into the government is spending millions with minority owned businesses every year.
You know how you set goals every year in your business? Well, guess what? The government
does the same thing every year. So they have a physical year that starts every October and ends
every September 30th. During that time, they have goals that they've set aside to spend
money with small business owners just like you. Minority owned businesses, whether you're a woman
owned, a service disabled vet, a disadvantaged business, I'm talking about you. Is that you?
All right I want to share with you the goals of the government every year as
far as setting aside contracting dollars for minority and small businesses.
For small businesses, their contracting goal every year is 23% of their contracting dollars. For
small disadvantaged businesses, it is 5% of their contracting dollars. For service disabled veteran
owned businesses, it is 3% of their contracting dollars. For a woman owned small business,
it is 5%, and then for their HUBZone businesses, it is 3%. Those are their goals every year. Every
year they have these percentages set aside as it relates to the contracting dollars that they want
to give to minority and small businesses. Now think about this. The government is spending
billions every year with small businesses. So if you do the math,
if you get your piece of the pie, it could be a nice little piece and keep you really full.
So let me break it down even further. I want to give you some dollars. These are going to be in
billions of dollars what the government spent in 2020 as it relates to small businesses and
minority owned businesses. So I'm going to break it down by set aside again for you guys.
In 2020 for small businesses they spent 145 ... We're going to round this, and I'll show you the
charts but ... 146 billion is what they spent with small businesses. With small disadvantaged
businesses, they spent 59 billion. With service disabled veteran owned small businesses, they
spent 24 billion. Women owned small businesses, they spent 27 billion, and with HUBZone
businesses, they spent 14 billion. So that's a lot of money going to small businesses.
They're on track in 2021 to have their percentages as such: Small business, 26%.
Small disadvantaged business, 11%. Service disabled vet, 4%. Woman own small business,
5%, and HUBZone 2%. So in most categories, they're actually exceeding their goals as it relates to
how much they want to give to small businesses as it relates to their contracting dollars.
Now, you may be saying, "You know what, I'm not ready to be a prime yet.
I want to sit in the subcontracting position first." That's cool. Now you may just want to
stay as a subcontractor throughout your career as a government contract, and that's cool too.
These contracting dollars are being spent with prime contractors as well as subcontractors.
However you want to get in, always talk about your approach. When you look at each opportunity,
you have to decide what is your best approach as it relates to you being able to win that contract.
It doesn't matter whether you're a prime or a sub, contracting dollars are being spent with
minority and small owned businesses. So you can get in whichever approach works best for you.
Let me know in the comments, are you a small business or a minority owned business? Let me know
down in the comments who I'm talking to. Let me tell you, once you have
your certifications, it's more important than ever to know a couple of things; your capacity
and what you bring to the table. Now, all certifications have their unique
requirements, but they're even in more demand, some more than others, depending on whatever
NAICS code that you play in. So depending on what you're going to offer to the government,
some NAICS codes as it relates to a particular set aside certification,
may be in more demand than others. But let me tell you, you want to be prepared. You don't want to
wait until you have an opportunity before you, to think "Huh, maybe I should get a certification.
Because if you wait that long, let me tell you, the opportunity that you're
looking at at that point it's too late. With the right mix of certifications, okay so have
the right certifications, and I believe you should have all the certifications for what you qualify
for, but when you have the right mix of that, in addition to your capacity and your capabilities,
you'll be in high demand. Before we wrap up, I do want to share with you
some of the different types of contracting opportunities that are available for you as
a minority and small owned business. One of the areas the government purchases a
lot with small business is with products. So if you have a product that you can provide,
you're a supplier. Maybe you offer office supplies. Maybe it's tools to work on
vehicles. You could provide furniture. It could be food,
toiletries, things like that. The government buys it all. So if you provide a product,
trust me, you're probably in high demand with the government as a small business owner.
Now, if you provide a service, the same things apply. They are looking for you too. Maybe you
do construction. Maybe you have a training company where you do professional training
and development. You could even be a realtor in real estate, a broker, something like that.
Maybe you provide janitorial services. You could also be in trucking and transportation. You could
provide administrative services; bookkeeping, accounting, project management, project closeout,
medical billing and coding. I mean, the list goes on.
What I'm trying to share with you guys is that the government buys pretty much everything. If
you look around wherever you're at right now, more than likely the government buys that too.
So if you've thought about government contracting, I say, check it out for sure. Or if you're new to
this, you just heard about government contracting, still check it out. See if it's a good fit for
you. And for those of you guys that are in the private sector now, you're already making money in
your business, let me tell you the transition into government contracting could be a game changer
for your business as far as your revenue, your growth, scaling your business, increasing your
profit margins. I always tell people, check it out. See if it's a good fit for you.
Now, the first step you want to take to be ready to do work with the government when opportunity
presents itself, you want to be prepared, you want to be proactive. Step number one
is to make sure you're registered to do work with the federal government, and that's going to take
place by completing the SAM registration. Let's recap really quickly. I'm not going to
recap everything. If you're on the fence about government contracting, if it's a good fit for you
or not, this is you on the fence, you don't know if you want to actually go over the fence or not,
again, they're looking for you. If you're a small business, small disadvantaged business,
woman owned small business, minority owned small business, service disabled veteran owned small
business, or if you have a business that's in a HUBZone, they're looking for you. They have
opportunities set aside specifically for you. This is especially important, especially if you
already have a successful business in the private sector, you're doing work,
you have a successful business, meaning you're making money, you're generating cash flow,
the government is looking for you. Now, if you need help, this can be overwhelming,
remember I told you, I help you guys with the information overload, not knowing where
to start, those bidding nightmares, so if you're experiencing any of those things
and you want help along the journey to become a government contractor, then definitely reach out.
I'll put the link down below. You can reach out to me and book a call and let's see if it's a good
fit for us to work together with me helping you get to the finish line and becoming a government
contractor. I'll put that link down below. Now, if this is your first time, don't forget,
subscribe to the channel, turn on the notification bell. And while you're here, go ahead and like
this video. All right? Until next time, remember, you're just one contract away. Bye for now.