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Government Business Made Easy
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Business New Haven
7/10/2000
By: Priscilla Searles
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Owners of small businesses are often unaware of the many resources available, frequently at no cost, to help on the road to success. One such resource is the Procurement Technical Assistance Program.
Free to Connecticut companies with annual sales of less than $10 million, the program is funded by the state's Department of Economic & Community Development and the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Logistics Agency. With offices in West Haven at the University of New Haven as well as New London and New Britain, its primary function is to provide technical assistance to Connecticut businesses that sell - or desire to sell - products and services to federal, state and local government agencies.
“People are unaware of the great variety of products and services purchased by government agencies,” says Elizabeth Horton, director of the program in West Haven. “Small businesses don't know what the state is buying, what they might be able to sell to the government. It could be anything from fabric to accounting services and anything else you can think of. The state funds this program because they want small Connecticut businesses to succeed, and in fact try to do business with them.
“We help people identify which agencies may need their product or service,” says Horton, “then assist with the process of bidders list application. We have a service that screens the database enabling us to provide specific business leads. Our computers are programmed to search out specific categories based on a code system. The computer does this during the night and in the morning the client receives a list, either by fax or e-mail. It's a custom bid-matching process.
“Both the state and the federal government list what they are looking for on web sites,” explains Horton, “so we train people to work with the computer and the search process. People have to be electronically capable, know where to look. People shouldn't be afraid to check us out, We're user-friendly and people have nothing to lose but a little of their time.
“We solicit clients all the time,” says Horton. “Our senior analyst is out every day. We visit chambers [of commerce], business organizations, attend business events, get referrals, go anywhere we can think of to spread the word about our services. I even got one client at my church after I handed him my business card.
“Sometimes people come to us before they are ready for our services. If a business is not off the ground, not ready to sell to the state or federal government, we'll send them to other organizations such as SCORE [the Service Corps of Retired Executives] to help them develop a business plan, for example.”
However, says Horton, “If clients are ready to look for possible buyers for their product, we're here to provide information, to help people understand the bidding process, develop proposals, comply with contracts-administration requirements. People shouldn't be afraid of doing business with government agencies. It's not nearly as complicated as some people think, especially with our assistance.”
- Priscilla Searles
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