Being a government contractor can be a highly lucrative prospect. However, before you enter the government contracting game, assess your skills and determine if they are relevant and of use to the various government agencies. If so, the main route to netting a large profit is by setting the lowest bidding price while keeping costs low. As a result, the most profitable government contracts tend to be performed by those with a strong knowledge of what each project entails.
Instructions
1. Measure your own skills and abilities. Most government contracts lie in a highly skilled area such as construction, research or science. If you are going to build for the government, you should ideally have considerable experience as a construction manager. If you are going to help rejuvenate a forest, you should have a background in ecology. In other words, your skills should be matched to one or more of the various government agencies, such as the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior or the Department of Energy.
2. Find an opportunity with one or more U.S. government agency. The Federal Business Opportunities website offers a comprehensive listing of available opportunities. Such opportunities may be found by searching by state, sector or contract type.
3. Meet with the relevant government officials involved in your project. This may be done by networking. Meeting with such people will not only give a sense of what the project is about, but will also give you a clue to how much the project will cost you. Remember that the amount of money you receive from the project must be greater than the project's cost in order to net a profit.
4. Set a price. Government contracts are awarded through bidding, with competing companies submitting formal documents detailing how they would perform the job, how much each step would cost and what deadlines would be met. The contractor with the lowest price wins. Furthermore, government agencies are required to receive no less than three proposals before they pick a contractor. Thus, your bid must be the lowest of at least three competing proposals. The trick is to submit an offer that is not only competitive for the government but that will also net you a profit that is worth your time and energy.
