Ever wondered how small businesses can navigate the complex world of government procurement and increase their chances of winning contracts? We've got you covered in this insightful conversation, where we explore the history of SAMgov, its relation to the GSA, and the crucial role of the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS code) in finding relevant opportunities. We also discuss the importance of special set-asides for small businesses when submitting proposals.
Relationship-building is key when it comes to securing government contracts, and we reveal how you can use tools like SAMgov to boost your chances of success. Discover the differences between pre-pandemic and post-pandemic contract awards, and learn how small businesses can strategically leverage RFIs and RFPs for maximum impact.
Finally, join us as we delve into federal procurement trends during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyze the decrease in actions posted by the National Transportation Safety Board and the increase in total dollars spent for procurement opportunities by the Small Business Administration. We also examine the implications of politics in the federal contracting game and discuss the strategic resource allocation in the Department of Veteran Affairs and the Department of Defense during the pandemic. Don't miss this engaging discussion on government procurement and federal contracting opportunities for small businesses.
Ever wondered how small businesses can navigate the complex world of government procurement and increase their chances of winning contracts? We've got you covered in this insightful conversation, where we explore the history of SAMgov, its relation to the GSA, and the crucial role of the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS code) in finding relevant opportunities. We also discuss the importance of special set-asides for small businesses when submitting proposals.
Relationship-building is key when it comes to securing government contracts, and we reveal how you can use tools like SAMgov to boost your chances of success. Discover the differences between pre-pandemic and post-pandemic contract awards, and learn how small businesses can strategically leverage RFIs and RFPs for maximum impact.
Finally, join us as we delve into federal procurement trends during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyze the decrease in actions posted by the National Transportation Safety Board and the increase in total dollars spent for procurement opportunities by the Small Business Administration. We also examine the implications of politics in the federal contracting game and discuss the strategic resource allocation in the Department of Veteran Affairs and the Department of Defense during the pandemic. Don't miss this engaging discussion on government procurement and federal contracting opportunities for small businesses.
Hello and welcome back to the Country Intelligence Report. We are your hosts, Spencer Bentley, Tyrell Cummings and Devin Floorzak. Today we are going to be discussing SAMgov, the big sort of central repository of all things having to do with government contracting, bids, procurement and generally just discussing the world of government procurement posting. This is something that all federal contractors have to become intimately knowledgeable about. If you're looking to make a real push to grow your business as a federal contractor, you have to become very literate in everything having to do with SAMgov and how the contracting process plays out, really from beginning to end. So we'll just dive right in here. First is just the basic question of what is SAMgov and how did it get to be the main site for government procurement activities? Gentlemen, I'll just pose this generally to the both of you.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so I actually started working with SAMgov back when it was a beta site, i believe around 2020. And really that's the only information I can do about SAMgov. Obviously, we use it a lot here at Country Intel And I didn't really do too much background information because most of the stuff that we do is we actually use the site to look up things. But I thought it was interesting to look up the history of it, especially its relation to the GSA, as the GSA has transitioned from before it was just a product, services and policies provider to the federal agencies and to help the agencies also operate in an efficient and cost effective manner, and before I guess it really only covered office space, transportation, communication systems, but eventually it involved into providing tools or equipment and non-tactical vehicles to the United States military. And now currently, which I did a little bit more background research to, is that I guess the GSA now, as we all pretty much know, pretty much oversees the acquisition of goods and services needed by federal agencies.
Speaker 3:
And I think that's an important caveat because, as a small business, i know that Joe and I have looked into state and local level opportunities before And typically, where I've gone at least to find those was just local municipality sites to find those opportunities And, in general, sometimes I would think, well, why aren't these just on SAMgov? And the reason why that is is because, like we said before, samgov is more so for federal procurement versus at the state and local level. Those are on might be on a different couple sites. I know the main one is called BendNet Direct, so that's something that we might want to look into if we're looking to get on the state and local level. Or a lot of towns and villages typically have their own small procurement sites which, again, myself and Trel have definitely used before in the local Ohio area. So there's a lot of ways to go about it.
Speaker 3:
But if you're just looking at the federal side, i think SAMgov is the way to go. And yeah, so pretty much the baseline history is that GSA wanted to streamline and enhance the procurement process, where they already had SAM back in 2012. But there's a bunch of other sites that different agencies were using, such as FedBizOps, FPDS, cfda, department of Labor had something called Wage Interernations Online, and so pretty much what happened was all these sites got combined into SAMgov back then And then recently, in 2020, samgov entered into its beta phase, where they essentially did a relaunch, and that's pretty much where I started using SAMgov And I ultimately think it's very helpful And, yeah, it's definitely something where, if you're interested in working with the federal government, you need to have access to SAMgov and definitely know how to use it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, this is. It's definitely the big one in the room.
Speaker 4:
What are your thoughts? Yeah, it's definitely essential. You know if it's a business or a small business trying to get out there and and when. You know, i guess when an RFP or get out there and try to partner with someone else on a particular RFP, definitely need to learn. Learn about samegov, get familiar with it.
Speaker 4:
No, go and input your information, your company's information, your company's NAICS codes, which is the North American classification, north American industrial classification system. I think that's what it is. I'll top my head. I apologize for that, but basically it's going to describe what your, what your business does, and so you can go out there and find different, different RFPs or RFIs that are out there that actually fall under the same NAICS codes that you are, that your company works under. So that's just one way to kind of kind of know your results, or you're not just looking at everything out there.
Speaker 4:
You know, i'm sure you're trying to find the ones that are going to fit your capabilities, the ones that are out there, looking for certain time frames. You know you'll see some out there where for an RFP, it's going to give you and it's doing five days, which almost impossible to do Not saying it's not possible at all, but you probably do it, get it done. Your proposal may not be as clean as what you want it to be And your odds of winning that is going to be even lower than it already is, especially if it's not a special set aside like small business or ADA or hub zone or whatever designation is veteran owned, you know, whatever those destinations are, you know that's something where, for small businesses, you probably will have to look at those categories to see where you can really fit in best and where you're going to have the best chance to win, so you're not wasting your resources putting a bit together when you have almost zero chance to win it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's a really good point. And just to unpack that a bit more, because this is, you know, a really, really important topic specifically for small businesses that are looking to break into this particular line of government contracting, you know what is the main sort of use case or how can, how can Sam and BitNet direct be directly useful to a smaller contracting business And what do you think some of the advantages of using sites like that? maybe?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, And obviously you know, like we said, these sites are very useful and you definitely need to know how to use them And Terrell's example especially if you're mixed code, that's a good way to look at in general what sort of services your company is involved with and looking to get active in, And companies can have more than one mixed code. I know we have a primary one and it's definitely very helpful to obviously to know that, but to also know the sorts of opportunities that are posted around that, especially in Samgov, where you can just search opportunities by the mixed code And you can also set up, you know, different alerts to. You know even email you automatically when a new opportunity comes out around that mixed code too. So it definitely helps small businesses increase awareness regarding the sort of procurement opportunities that the government is posting And it's definitely something that if you are a small contracted business, you should know how to use these certain tools, In addition to the safe searches and alerts that you can sign up with Samgov And I don't mean to sound like an advertisement, but these things are really helpful And I don't think that a lot of companies know that they're out there for use.
Speaker 3:
Something else that Samgov provides is historical industry metrics Regarding contracting, And so you're able to download standard reports going back at least a decade on federal contracting And even on the allotment of work that has been given to small contracted businesses as well.
Speaker 3:
So I know something that we look into at least, as if you're looking into getting into DOD, you can definitely check out and see how many dollars are given to small businesses each year to Or, excuse me, how many dollars the DOD gives to small businesses each year.
Speaker 3:
You also look at the total actions, So just the raw amount of opportunities that are posted from the DOD.
Speaker 3:
But something else that's useful is just looking in general at the federal procurement space, at other agencies Such as veterans affairs, the FDA, NIH, etc.
Speaker 3:
So pretty much something that I think that we could definitely do as a company which we have started doing was just taking a look at in general small business activity between all the different federal agencies And seeing which ones are trending up as far as getting small businesses involved with their procurements. And if you can identify, you know, agencies that might have more of a keen awareness towards small businesses and getting them involved, you can almost target those agencies and just look at saying like hey, you know NIH, for example, you know they might be ramping up their small business work And if you have an agency like that that's looking for, you know, small business involvement, there's just more opportunities there maybe than other agencies. So there's definitely different tools to sort of identify and target which agencies you might want to work with, if it's not the DOD, Because, as we know, you know getting into the DOD space as small businesses is definitely tough And you can see that from the metrics as well.
Speaker 4:
And one thing piggyback on that Devin one thing to think about. You know, when the small businesses are out there, looking at Samgov trying to find RPs that are out there for small businesses, one thing that I would also suggest doing is looking for RFIs as well, which is research for information. So at times the client, the potential client, is putting that out there to see what kind of interest they can generate from small businesses, or they put an RFI out there And it may not be small businesses initially, but if enough small businesses respond to that RFI, then they can make it a small business and you can get a better chance of winning that opportunity or partnering with another company and utilizing your small business designation to win that opportunity And you can get experience that way as well. So that's just something to think about kind of in the long term.
Speaker 4:
Usually, if it's an RFI, it's done well in advance when the RFP is going to be out, but you have an idea, kind of, of what the statement of work will be. You just won't have all of the technical details. That's usually provided within the RFP, but you at least know all right. Here's generally what it is. Is your company capable of doing it? If so, please answer these questions. You got to answer the questions you send in and if no small business answer those questions, they're going to definitely designate it as small business. Or if it's already small business and you answer those questions, then they know that, okay, never heard of this company before but they are interested in this opportunity and they say they have these capabilities. So when they may hopefully when they receive it, your actual bid, when the RFP comes out they'll remember that going forward.
Speaker 4:
But even with samgov, it is still about who you know. So ideally, if you can have a relationship with whoever the client will be prior to I know that's hard for small businesses, but once you're actually in there, you have their relationships then you can probably work with that client to be on the other side. When they do write the RFP, they write it to your capabilities. That way you have a better opportunity to win the business by having that relationship prior. So that's just the you know kind of the backdoor games that take place as far as when trying to win these bids.
Speaker 4:
You know a lot of times winning it just by having the best work and everything doesn't always happen like that. A lot of times you have that relationship with the client beforehand or you have to have a relationship with being come before. Maybe they decide to bring you on or someone that's done a lot of work with that client previously. You can link up with them, become a subcontractor with them and then boost your past performance. You know there's different ways to get into that game. It's never I would say it's never really straightforward, but you know it's just ways of increasing your odds of winning and getting more business that way.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, and in general, i think a good lesson learned from that is you know whether you're looking at the statistics or you know you're reading procurement opportunities that are just posted on Samgov. In general, you just got to get involved with using Samgov and any other tools that might be available for procurement opportunities, just like you know, like I said, samgov or BIMnet Director, you know anything along those lines Because you know the more you interact with the sites and actually read what's in there and read what's being posted and sort of see the trends of agencies regarding where the money is going. That can only benefit your small business and ensure that you know. Eventually you might have some work coming your way.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, i mean those are excellent points all around, and I think one thing that small businesses really have to keep in mind is that you know these are all tools that should be utilized, but you can't rely overly on any one thing to draw me some great points. And one point that I think is universally true is that people work with people. They like You know you can be. There's a lot of qualified candidates out there, a lot of qualified companies out there that can do the work, but ultimately what tends to win a lot of awards? you know obviously competence and the ability to do the work is heavily weighted. But also, you know prior relationships matter. Standing relationships matter. You know good working relationships matter.
Speaker 1:
If you have a prior relationship with an individual or if your company has a prior relationship with a certain department or organization. You know it's not rocket science. Chances are you have a leg up there with securing whatever contract may be out there, compared to your contemporaries that have never done work with you know, whoever it may be. So just keep that in mind that relationship building is a huge part of it. And Samgov, bitnet you know these are all tools that need to be utilized and used in unison with one another And you can't let go of the fundamentals of actually relationship building, which is a big thing.
Speaker 1:
So, looking at this, notice that there is a huge difference, and we were discussing this a little earlier. There's a difference in how government contracts are being awarded both, or there has been a difference in the pre-pandemic pandemic and then post-pandemic era. I'm just wondering your thoughts around that and what some of the data has shown us on the difference between how small businesses have been impacted, say, from the pandemic era, when they may have been a larger emphasis on it, to right now, where we're technically the post-pandemic era.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, and I can definitely speak to this, looking at some of the statistics from the standard reports from Samgov, and if you were to segment out pre-COVID, during COVID and post-COVID, so pre-COVID I sort of marked it as January 1, 2018 to March 10, 2020. During COVID was March 11, 2020 to about a year later, march 1, 2021. And then post-COVID was just March 1, 2021 until today, and I was really curious about this just because I just wanted to see in general, who was posting work during sort of a normal standard time of pre-COVID versus who's posting more or less work during actual COVID. And then what does it look like now post-COVID? So I'll just walk through a couple of things that I saw and I'll be referencing total actions and total dollars. So, as I might have mentioned before, total actions, it's just a metric that Samgov uses to denote how many procurements were posted greater than $10,000 for a certain agency. And then total dollars is just total dollars allotted for those procurement opportunities.
Speaker 3:
So one of the things that I saw interesting during pre-COVID was that, from March 1st 2018 to March 10th 2020, the National Transportation Safety Board had a decrease in actions posted, which to me I'm not gonna say I'm a master at knowing what's going on over there. But in general I think there were some changes in legislation during that time period regarding especially the train industry regarding safety standards and those sort of taking a downturn. So I thought that was interesting because when you see changes in legislation or different things being passed in Congress or Senate, to me it's just like sometimes a lot of it will just go over my head and I feel like the average American doesn't really look into it. But when you actually look at the data, such as this, you can see that there's an actual impact of things being passed in DC. So that I just thought that was, in general, pretty interesting. And then looks like during COVID, as far as total actions that were posted, all three of these were kind of interesting that the greatest decrease in total actions posted were as Social Security Administration, office of Personnel Management and Corporation for National Community Service. So pretty much these three agencies during COVID had the least or a little bit more or less amount of work compared to the pre-COVID period that they were posting, which obviously makes sense. Most of these are on the ground personnel doing work, whether it be federal or state side. So it definitely makes sense that there is definitely a down crease within these agencies. Work here And then, lastly, post COVID, as far as the total work that was being posted by federal agencies looks like.
Speaker 3:
Actually, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the EPA and the commodity futures trading commissions all had decreases in actions posted from March 1st 2021 until today, which the one that obviously sticks out, or the two actually sticks out is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the EPA, which I wouldn't say it's mind boggling, but obviously tensions are rising globally And you would think that both of these, whether it be with a warring crane or certain climate stuff that's going on, such as the wildfire, spoke you would think that there'd be more work being done within these agencies. Now we'll move on to just the total dollars, the only thing that I thought was really interesting well, for pre-COVID looks like the Federal Election Commission increased their work by about 14%, which that makes sense. We had an election during them And, like I said, current events or things being passed, when there's stuff going on, it might go over a lot of people's head, but when you look at the data, you definitely see an impact there, and the only thing that maybe I found of note during COVID was that the small business administration as far as total dollars being spent and being lauded for procurement opportunities, increased by 427% compared to pre-COVID, and I thought that was really interesting because I think it definitely shows that there's increase in reliance on small businesses in general during the COVID period. So I'm not gonna say if we ever get back to times like that, but that's definitely something good to know where, if there's an increased tension in the country, we might turn, as a federal government space, back to small businesses And then, lastly, post COVID, the only thing that I thought was interesting was the Institute of Museum and Library Services increased their total dollars spent for procurement opportunities by 136%, which again that logically just makes sense that where people are getting out and doing stuff and if I really just see, like this, my increase they're spending on the works that they're putting out.
Speaker 3:
And of course, we should note that we're just sort of looking at agencies that weren't the DOD or Department of Veterans Affairs, just because within the federal procurement space, the DOD and the Department of Veterans Affairs are the dominant leaders as far as the amount of actions being put out, along with the amount of dollars putting out as well. What are your thoughts on that? Does that really surprise you that? you know, obviously maybe not the DOD, but I was kind of surprised that Veterans Affairs at least was putting out a lot of work as far as procurement opportunities.
Speaker 1:
It doesn't really surprise me, i would say. You know there's a lot to unpack with those findings, especially from the point of view of a smaller business. You know trying to navigate, you know what this all means and it's about. You know. In hindsight, you know obviously we can dissect it, But in the moment, you know, seeing those drop offs and particular agency requests, things like that, you know, i think it's really important And one of the takeaways is that if you're looking to get into this space in general, be it with the DOD or, you know more broadly, with a federal government agency, you have to remain flexible in your approach. You have to really have a pulse on what's going on in Washington in terms of you know what sort of legislation is being passed. Like you said, devin, that's something that really you have to become in tune to, even if it's not your particular cup of tea to follow politics. If you're going to get into the federal contracting game, it's a must Because you know, as the politics have been flow, so does the funding, So does the appetite for expansion in particular agencies. It really does. It starts with the politics and then sort of emanates from there. Granted, the DOD is one of the one of the tent poles. It's never really going to fluctuate from one year to the next, just the way our political structure set up. But for those looking to get into other aspects of the government, you know you really have to understand that certain agencies are going to be feast or famine at times And it really depends on the political winds and which way they're blowing. So that's something to definitely stay on top of and get in tune with.
Speaker 1:
And also, you know the decrease in certain opportunities can be attributed to a lot of things.
Speaker 1:
You know politics are one thing, but also, like, say, for instance, you know why the EPA isn't expanding more work now, especially I think it's incredibly salient now, seeing as we're in the middle of this storm of fog and noxious fumes blowing in from Canada right now. But it could be attributed to, you know, expanding contracts with existing contractors or, you know, keeping the work inside or expanding the actual, the actual agency itself, which then you know they stay higher from the from within, and you know all different types of things can be attributed to it. But that doesn't mean that you should stop pursuing these opportunities, because you know it's if everybody's looking and having the same idea that you know it's not right right now, that could be your opportunity to get in. And if you're the one that's tenacious enough to follow these, these RFPs, and respond to them and, you know, keep your your, your approach diligent, then you'll be the one that actually wants to contract. So just some things to keep in mind for the small business owners out there.
Speaker 4:
And I'll say specifically, when you reference Department of Veteran Affairs, you know I could maybe see that them increasing over the past few years, especially during the pandemic, because a lot of their locations obviously you're dealing with VA hospitals and whatnot there and they do a lot of survey work at those different hospital locations nationwide. They do put those opportunities out there on Samgov And I mean there's a lot of opportunities to do it. I know they typically are small business As far as doing that. so you know I just figured with the pandemic that took place and everything, it would not surprise me if they wanted to get feedback during the influx it took place during those years. That's just a thing off top of head, real quick, just if it wouldn't surprise. those opportunities came up more and more because of that.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, and actually as far as the VA goes, i thought it kind of makes sense that it looks like there was an increase in the total actions that were posted and also total dollars spent during the COVID period. But it was pretty clear that post COVID, within the last two years, that that might have been an outlier as far as what the VA was doing for contract opportunities during that time And the amount of dollars that they were awarding as well to procurement opportunities. But as we said, the DOD and NVA the big two players in the federal procurement space. It's definitely worth paying attention and seeing what's going on in both agencies. I thought it was interesting should connect the DOD though that especially in the early three to six months of the pandemic, the DOD put out a lot of contracting and procurement opportunities. But we didn't see that increase in spending during that period And to me it just seems like that might suggest a need for a strategic resource allocation during those times where they still had to get stuff done. But maybe they were just being strategic with the money and making sure that stayed at bay until times were a little bit more clear. But I think that one thing that is a small contracting business.
Speaker 3:
If we're trying to look at trends is if we can look at the pre and post COVID era as sort of our normal time periods.
Speaker 3:
I think that's a good thing to look at And it definitely appears that within the second quarter of each year so in 2018, 2019, 2022, and then now even 2023, you definitely see an increase of actions posted on SAMgov during these periods.
Speaker 3:
So if you're looking for a specific time period, that's definitely a good way to first figure out when things are going to be posted. But that's definitely when you want to be paying attention to SAMgov and any other federal procurement site. And I think the maybe a second thing to look at well, it's obviously the dollars, but the dollars don't really follow the same amount of trend as the actions being posted. But I think a lesson learned is, as long as there's work out there, such as you know, procurements being posted definitely pay attention to that, and it looks like, actually, that the second largest increase in dollars was during the July to September period, and looks like that held true in 2018, 2019, and 2022. So maybe, if you know you're trying to figure out a good time period on when to pay attention to SAMgov, i think I would look at second quarter and then third quarter, maybe more closer to the fall, and those two sort of time periods look to be, you know, a good time to be looking at SAMgov and seeing what's being posted during that period.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, Also think about when it gets close to the end, close to the end of fiscal year and they have a certain percentage of those companies, have certain percentage of small business dollars or percentage that they need to use. They're really pushing a small business RFPs out there. So, like Devin said, that third quarter I think could be key as far as getting that putting it to the federal government. We want some business there. Thank you for listening to the country intelligence report. Please like and subscribe to stay on top of the latest developments with the show. For more information on the country intelligence group, please visit our website at wwwcountryintelcom.
Speaker 2:
You can also be found across multiple social media platforms at Country Intel. Thank you.