Basic Requirements for Government Contractors

Meet the Basic Requirements for Government Contractors!

With billions of budget just to cater each government agency’s needs, you may have already been considering working with the government. However, there are basic requirements for government contractors that you must meet.

LIST OF REQUIREMENTS

1. Gather the necessary codes.

Before you bid on any government proposals, you need to have the necessary codes which you will use to identify your business in the federal arena and classify the products and services that you sell for credit reporting.

DUNS number

A Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) is a nine-digit identification number assigned to identify your business and to track your company’s credit record.

If you have various locations, then you need to get a different DUNS number for each business location.

In registering for a DUNS number, you can either request via this toll-free telephone number, 1-(866) 705-5711, or through the D&B website.

Make sure that in your registration process, you already have all of your important business information which includes your legal name, address, trade name, telephone number, contact name and title, and number of employees in that specific location.

If you are also doing a home-based business operation, then you need to highlight this during your registration.

NAICS code

A North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is a six-digit long code that helps classify the types of products and services that you supply.

If you provide a wide variety of supplies, then you can also have a multiple NAICS code.

You can view the NAICS code list from the U.S. Census Bureau or by contacting the bureau through 1-888-756-2427 or on their email address, NAICS@census.gov.

2. Meet the size standards.

In order to qualify for contracts that are reserved only for small businesses, you need to meet the size requirement set by the Small Business Administration (SBA).

This size standard defines the maximum size of your business which also includes your subsidiaries and affiliates.

It is assigned to each NAICS code and you can only qualify as a small business if you have 500 or fewer employees (manufacturing companies) or with an average annual receipts of under $7.5 million (non-manufacturing businesses).

However, the definition of which can be considered as a small business varies by industry.

You can view the different size standard requirements for each industry through the SBA’s table of small business size standards or using their tool to determine if you qualify as a small business.

3. Register in SAM.

Most importantly, you need to register in the System for Award Management (SAM) database to properly represent your business in the federal contracting arena.

In registering, you primarily need to create an account first. You can either choose an individual user account or a system user account. However, it is preferred to create the latter.

After creating an account, you can already register but make sure that you appropriately fill all of the information.

Depending on the complexity of your business, your registration might take about an hour and it can also take an average of 7-10 business days to process in the database.

Other than that, you should update your SAM profile on an annual basis or when a certain change in your business information is made. The updating or renewal process might take for approximately an hour before it becomes active on your SAM profile.