Large business subcontracting plans
Overview
- 23% of federal prime and subcontracted dollars are supposed to go to small businesses/companies with set-asides
- So when the government awards a mega-contract to a large prime they will often include a clause directing that large prime to subcontract a given percentage of the work to smalls generally, and to smalls with the various set-asides
What this means for you
- A hook to build partner relationships: Most prime vendors don’t want to work with new subcontractors, they’d rather do all the work and keep all the revenue. But:
- If a large business wins a contract with a subcontracting requirement
- And they are not achieving that subcontracting plan
- And you have a set-aside, and a capability that aligns to the work in the contract
- Then they are more likely to take a meeting with you and potentially bring you on as a sub
Rants and Reflections
My unscripted thoughts after coaching hundreds of small government contractors over the last 10 years
Other resources
List of further reading
Video Transcript(s):
Odds are that your first contract will be as a sub to another small business, so you need to find small businesses you could work with, and start building relationships with them.
And, FedScout makes this easy. Click on the partner button below and FedScout will show you all the small businesses in your industry that have won work at one of your selected sub-agencies.
And if you’ve uploaded your linkedin connections we'll do our best to identify people you know at each small business.
And like with customers, select the companies and the people that you want to target and we’ll add them to your relationship manager.