When considering a government contracting opportunity, it's crucial to assess whether your business is a good fit for the project and can meet the requirements. This evaluation should focus on two key areas: Scope and Capabilities.

Your first question in the checklist addresses this directly: "Is the scope of work within our expertise?" This is a critical consideration because it determines whether your company has the knowledge and experience to successfully complete the project.

For example, if you found an opportunity for a Project Manager with the State of California. Once we open the Request for Proposal or RFP, you want to take a look at the Scope of work or the services the agency is requesting.

Evaluating the scope is about identifying what your business can do and can you provide ALL the services listed. This first part is about your core competencies and expertise in your personal opinion. Do you feel your business can do the job?

The question you need to ask yourself is do you believe your business has the capability to perform the services. By capability, I'm referring to the resources, technology and personnel needed now to do the job. We will get into gathering other resources later. But for now this is a simple gut check. If you were offered the job now, could you start tomorrow?

Financial resources may not immediately concern small business owners because they believe the government will be reliable with payments. The reality may be very different, it may take 30, 60 or even 120 days to get paid based on the agency. Some agencies are notorious for taking their time to pay invoices. So what considerations do you need to make?

Is the contract size appropriate for your business? This question asks if the amount of money you will receive for the contract is enough for the amount of work you're being asked to do. Many times RFPs will have a budget or contract award amount to look for but not always. This may be a question for the Q&A period to ask the agency to evaluate the opportunity.

The next question is about the financial stability of your business to carry out this contract. Financial stability includes the financial health of the business based on your financial statement. Is your business financially stable to do business period. The other consideration is going to be working capital and cash reserves. Can you carry out the duties and services of the contract before you can invoice the agency. As I mentioned before, it may be several weeks before you can bill and until you are paid, so you will need to have the financial capacity to carry out the contract.

The last question is about allocating personnel and resources to this contract. The biggest question is if you have the personnel now and enough people to carry out their normal duties while working this contract if awarded. The other consideration is the borrowing capacity. In the event, you might not have current financial capability, you may need to borrow extra funds to complete the contract but you should not overextend yourself.

In the decision making process, you may need to be registered with specific agencies or have certification to propose. So what kind of registrations would you need?

Depending on the RFP and type of contract you may need to register to meet certain requirements. For federal contracts, you will need to be registered with SAM.gov to receive a Unique Employer Identifier Code.

For State or local governments, you may need to register as a vendor to propose. Many trade contracts will require workers to be paid prevailing wage and require a registration with the Department of Industrial Relations in California.

The last registration you might be required to have is for bonding. You may need to have and provide a certificate of insurance to meet the minimum requirements. If the proposal requires you to have these certifications before your proposal is submitted, is this something you have that meets the requirements?

On the other hand, a RFP may require a contractor to possess a specific socioeconomic certification. This will depend on the agency and industry. Many times these can be preferences that can give you an edge but if it's required, do you have these certifications? You can do a document search, CTRL or CMD + F, and search "set aside" or "Preference" to identify any required certifications or local preferences that

Here is where we get into the nitty gritty of can we actually win this contract? Winning a government contract is largely about how competitive you can be. The government is always looking to get a product or service better, faster and cheaper. Demonstrating this will help you identify your competitive edge with any particular opportunity.

Competitive advantage includes a couple of different considerations. The first is a unique set of skills or capabilities. If you have identified that you do have a unique set of skills or method that helps your business do the job better, faster, and cheaper within the confines of scope and budget then this is a definite yes. The way you can demonstrate this within a proposal but also on a capability statement or through past performance with a project of similar scope where you completed it faster than timeline required or under budget.

The other way to be competitive is by having a strategic partnership. This means if you are a General Contractor, you may have or need partnerships with other trades like electrical, HVAC, concrete to partner with as needed. If you do projects in different markets or States, then having relationships with local providers is definitely an advantage when bidding that includes a local preference or to minimize travel costs for bidding.

As a small business, you are inherently riskier than a larger corporation that has experience in government contracting and a proven track record. As you are evaluating contracts, you will need to assess your risk associated with your opportunity.

The first question you need to answer is if there are any risks associated with opportunity. Assessing risk is about what can go wrong and how to minimize those risks like: not completing the project, personnel issues or financial risks.

When managing these risks especially with government contracting, you want to have contingency plans. These contingency plans will be your Plan Bs for mitigating any risks for any project. For example, if you have never done government contracting a required contingency might be a performance bond to ensure a completion. Having contingencies for other other risks like having a line of credit to protect your cash flow or having extra temporary workers on standby to help with overload when the project might be too big and have some budget available to help with these plans.

After carefully evaluating all aspects of a government contracting opportunity using the checklist provided. Now it's time to tally up those checklist scores and make the call:

28-33 points: Green light! This opportunity looks tailor-made for you. Get cracking on that proposal!
15-27 points: Yellow light. Take a closer look at your weak spots. Can you address them before moving forward?
0-14 points: Red light. This might not be the right fit. But hey, there's always next time!

Remember, it's okay to say no to an opportunity if it doesn't fit your business's current capabilities or strategic direction. Sometimes, the best decision is to wait for a more suitable contract that better aligns with your strengths and resources.