Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) announced today (October 26) that its small business strategy has yielded a record level of small business utilization for Government Fiscal Year 2009 (GFY 09), which ended in September. During GFY 09, SAIC awarded approximately $2 billion in subcontracts to small businesses, reflecting a 21 percent increase from last year. This included approximately $727 million awarded to women- and minority-owned firms, and more than $335 million awarded to veteran-owned businesses. (Read More: https://bit.ly/2L2RIy)
SAIC is a prime government contractor (Fortune 500) with about $10 billion a year in revenue. If you are a small business, working as subcontractor for a prime like SAIC is one of the better ways to land a federal contract. However, they aren’t out there actively looking for you. If you find a federal opportunity that makes sense for your company’s products or services it may make sense to approach some of the larger primes and establish a contact in their small business or mentor program.
Regardless, you need to be looking for the opportunities all the time, especially for solicitations that have a small business set-aside element. Sometimes a small-business set-aside can be an opportunity for a relationship with a prime contractor. If you’ve found an opportunity that’s perfect for your company but could see needing help to deliver, a relationship with a prime contractor as your sub-contractor could be a creative way to make your first federal deal.
