Are you sick of the government taking your tax dollars to bailout failing companies, and giving to causes and organizations you don't support? Well, now it's time to take action and get some of that money back for your own business. In a failed attempt to kickstart the economy, approximately 800 billion is being made available in increments, most of which is still available. Read on to find out how you can get in on the stimulus grant money action without buying that book from the guy with the question marks all over his suit!
Instructions
1. The first step is to assess what services your business provides, and how those services may apply to some facet of the public sector. Keep in mind that infrastructure (where most of the money is purported to go) is high on the list. This includes a lot more than highways, and can extend to many other municipal services such as water, sewer - even trash collection. Don't forget public housing construction, energy, education - it's amazing how many things the government has its hands in. If you think really hard, you can imagine just about any business could operate on the periphery of any number of these services.
2. Next figure out who you are going to deal with - the locals, the state, or the feds. Some of the stimulus grant money was just given (or set to be given) to the states as a sort of 'bailout' - and some of that money trickled down to the local governments. There will be different points of contact and different requirements for each level. For example, if you intend to bid work for the feds, you need to get a GSA Schedule and must be registered with the Central Contractor Registry - a bloated time consuming bureaucratic process.
3. The next place to go is your local Chamber of Commerce. They will have all the information that you need regarding application and bid forms for applying for local and state projects that are using stimulus grant money. They will not have all the information, however, and if you want specific tracking of actual federal stimulus spend and distribution, you will have to visit a watchdog site, such as recovery.org. You will also want to make sure you check into any Local/State/Federal procurement websites. You may have to navigate through a maze of links to get there, and every State site is going to be different.
4. Of course, as in all business, nothing beats the personal relationship. Attending local commerce meetings as an industry representative will further endear you to the people that control the money. It lets them know your serious. It's no different than courting a customer who may or may not be interested in what you are selling. However, bear in mind that many of these people are bound by extreme amounts of red tape and overbearing layers of management, and may not be able to act on your behalf. If you can get acquainted with someone who actually manages the project, you will have a better chance. Make sure you attend any public meetings on your target project and rub shoulders with the big guys.
5. Finally, after all the applications are in, you will wait a frustratingly long time for a decision. But if you get the bid you can take pride in knowing that your investment in federal taxes paid off handsomely!
