The event is hosted by LSI Business Development Inc. (LSI), Tuesday, 15 May 2012, 8:00 am – 4:00 pm, at the Sheraton Midwest City, Reed Conference Center, Ballroom D, 5750 Will Rogers Road, Midwest City, OK 73110. The cost to attend is $40 per company, invoiced upon registration.

THE PURPOSE of this workshop is to guide Small Businesses through the Federal procurement process to compete for large Federal contracts by forming teams. LSI will provide hands on counseling, mentoring, and specific guidance designed to enhance small businesses’ ability to compete for large Federal contracts.

TO REGISTER, contact Montoya Graves at mgraves@lsiwins.com or contact LSI direct at 405.741.0700 NO LATER THAN 4 MAY 2012.

You can also register online at GovEvents.com: http://www.govevents.com/details/6083/teaming-and-strategy-development-to-capture-federal-contracts

Just so you know, this was 100% human error. The interesting thing about this was the response. We had a large number of new signups (and a few confused people as well because of our small mistake). We had phone calls from people thanking us for letting them know, and we spoke to several people who had never heard of Bidspeed and were actually very grateful for our small error.

We also had a few (very few) people who were quite upset with us for sending them unsolicited email. We think we’ve smoothed this out but if not, we are happy to explain in detail. Just to be clear, we sent exactly one email message and we have made a full apology and explanation.

Our first error was that the email was intended for small companies in the Oklahoma and seven surrounding state region. If you are not in that region then we may need to connect you with one of the other grant awardees who are servicing your geographic area.

The second error was that your account had not been created for you and your password is not as it was specified in the email.

However, you may still sign up for Bidspeed and you will still receive the same extended trial period afforded to other grantees. To register your company for the extended Bidspeed trial click here: http://register.fedbidspeed.com.

Finally, Bidspeed is hosting a Webinar on Wednesday, March 28th, 2012 at 11:00 AM PDT. We encourage you to attend. To reserve your spot for the webinar click here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/351869992.

This webinar will explain the pilot program, what you can expect from LSI, Bidspeed, and the SBA, and what you will need to do in order to take full advantage of the resources. Please try and attend. We will leave time for your questions during the webinar.

The webinar also demonstrates the new teaming functionality in Bidspeed and how you should use it to help establish teams to pursue active opportunities.

The slides from the webinar can be downloaded here: http://video.fedbidspeed.com/LSI-SBA-TeamingBrief-Webinar-3-28-2012.pdf

Webinar – April 12, 2012 (#4)

Legislatures are taking a stand to make sure contracts are set aside for small businesses. Rep Sam Grave’s, Government Efficiency thorough Small Business Contracting Act, is not only increasing the small businesses contracting goal by 2% but is also enforcing that the goal will be reached. To ensure the rules are followed new punishments will be placed on government officials not following the new small business contracting goals. The executives which don’t ad hear to the new goal could face losing their bonus pay or sabbatical. Other government officials such as Rep. Bill Owens have also took action to make sure contracting goals are reached, by creating a bill that will cut agencies by 10% for missing small businesses contracting goals.

The NETCENTS-2 is a five year $9billion procurement program for a range of network-centric supplies and services, including hardware and software for networking and various engineering, software development, system integration, security and telephone services. The NETCENTS-2 is based on the original Network Centric Solutions program.

$11 billion dollars, roughly half of the NETCENTS-2′s contracts, are set to be awarded to small businesses. Those contracts which are not set aside for small businesses, are required to have a minimum of 23 percent small business subcontracting. There will also be two small business companion contracts, for networking operations and application services available

The NETCENT-2 is going to be a promising contract to pursue in the coming quarters of this year for small businesses.Van Buren also said “The use of small business is a key part of the partnership between government and industry, and also critical to the innovation and broader Air Force transformation in 2012″.

• New to Federal Government Contracts?

• New to the Bidspeed Software?

• Interested in DIBBS

• Looking for More Advanced Bidspeed Training?

• Interested in Teaming?

To access Bidspeed University please click here

For additional support please click her

Know Your Capabilities

The first thing you must know before attempting to respond to a Federal Government solicitation, is you must know your companies capabilities. What is your company good at? What have you done in the past? What can you provide to the Federal Government? The wrong idea is to first find what the Government is purchasing and then trying to produce that.

Sources Sought

Sources Sought is one of the best tools to compete against large companies in the Federal Government arena. This is because the Government contract sector is highly competitive, and small businesses must use every advantage they can to win contracts. By responding to a Sources Sought, this is a way to get your foot in the door.  This does not mean that by responding you will win a contract, it does not even mean you will be considered for a contract, but it does mean it will increase your chances. It will increase the likelihood that the Federal Government will provide opportunities which meet your company’s capabilities, and set aside contracts which meet your set aside classification.

Set Asides

What are Set Aides? According to the Encarta World English Dictionary, “Set Aside” means to reserve something, to keep something, especially time or money for a specific purpose. This is exactly what a set aside is, part of the U.S. Government’s  Small Business Act states that the Federal Government is required by law to reserve a variety of procurements which are partially or totally for small business participation.  Which means that the Government must set aside a percentage of all Federal opportunities which meet certain small business set aside classifications. For more information regarding “Set Asides” and codes for classifications please go to http://www.fedbidspeed.com/set-aside.

In conclusion, if you are a small business, and you would like to respond to Government solicitations, first know your capabilities and set aside codes. Second respond to all sources sought relating to your business. By taking these three very simple steps you will greatly increase your chance in winning more Federal Government contracts.

Read full press release here: Bidspeed and LSI Press Release