Small Business Jobs Act of 2010

On Sept. 27, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Small Business Jobs Act, the most significant piece of small business legislation in over a decade. The new law is providing critical resources to help small businesses continue to drive economic recovery and create jobs. The new law extended the successful SBA enhanced loan provisions while offering billions more in lending support, tax cuts, and other opportunities for entrepreneurs and small business owners.

·       New Law Puts More Capital in the Hands of Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners

·       New Law Strengthens Small Businesses’ Ability to Compete for and Win Contracts, Including Implementing Recommendations from the President’s Task Force on Federal Contracting Opportunities for Small Business

·       New Law Promotes Small Business Exporting, Building on the President’s National Export Initiative

·       Law Expands Training and Counseling

·       New Law Provides $12 Billion in Tax Relief to Help Small Businesses Invest in their Firms, Create Jobs

·       Treasury Department Provisions

Please read more about the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 at the following link: http://www.sba.gov/content/small-business-jobs-act-2010

Congressman Questions Agencies on Small-Business Advocates’ Authority

Senior executives at several Cabinet-level departments received letters Aug. 5 that asked why their small-business advocacy offices have not been given the authority the law dictates.


Chairman of the Small Business Committee’s Contracting and Workforce Subcommittee, wants to know why departments’ office of small and disadvantaged business utilization (OSDBU) officials don’t have access to top officials to deal with small-business problems, such as contract bundling and paying firms promptly.


The Small Business Act requires that heads of a department’s OSDBU should “be responsible only to, or report directly to, the head of such agency or to the deputy of such head.”


It’s not happening, according to a Government Accountability Office report from June.

The Small Business Government Contracting “Past Performance” Challenge

As a small business begins the proposal submission process to federal government agencies or to prime contractors the past performance challenge is a major challenge. By definition a start-up company in government contracting has no direct government agency past performance projects to site in meeting the requirement in requests for proposals (RFP’s) for historical references to similar projects in terms of size, duration and complexity.

Past performance data must be specific to the enterprise bidding a contract. It cannot site historical references to performance of individuals now in the company when they were with other firms, achievements by predecessor companies or successful projects that the current company did not perform as its current entity. The purpose for this rigid perspective by the government is to avoid "Fronting" a new enterprise with misleading information to obtain a high past performance rating.

So how can a new organization or one that is new to government contracting muster a response to the past performance challenge?

One of the Steps that Supports Emerging Small Businesses in Doing Business with the Government is Identify and Analyze Opportunities and Risk.

Before you pursue an opportunity, you first need to analyze the elements of opportunity and risk to understand if it is a worthwhile. Companies do not  have infinite resources, so it is essential that your company employ a standardized methodology for all sales personnel to assess and prioritize opportunities. Having developed an understanding of the opportunity, you will next want to understand your competitors. You will want to identify each competitor or competitive team, what they plan to offer, and how they and their solution are viewed by your customer.

To be effective, you need to develop a “win strategy.” To do this, you need to answer two simple questions from the customer’s perspective: 1) “why us”, 2) “why not our competitor”. Part of this win strategy will also include a “customer positioning and contact plan” with specifics on who, when, and how to convey this message to key executives and decision-makers in the customer’s organization. The win strategy will also serve as the basis to develop the proposal win theme.

10 Tips for Better Contracting: Relationship Advice for Contract Managers

1. Learn about the program manager’s expectations and goals. Contractor and customer need to figure out milestones that point out progress.

2. Establish goals for the program that deal with cost, schedule, and performance with top management based on the contract’s requirements.

3. Get agreements in writing to be clear on issues.

4. Build a solid team in order to meet all parts of a contract, have a strong financial manager and strong contract specialist.

5. Arrange a schedule for meeting regularly, whether in person or otherwise, whichever fits the circumstance.

6. Meet the points of contact in the program manager’s office. Contractors need to develop more than arm’s length relationships. It’s also important to know the chain of command in the program office.

7. Realize that bad news doesn’t get any better with age,  a program manager—or anyone, for that matter—doesn’t want to be blindsided with problems.

8. Grow tough skin. Contractors need to learn patience, and when people get upset, they should take the high road.

9. Don’t take comments personally.

10. Finally, learn from the mistakes that were made.