If you’re interested in selling your products and services to the federal government you need to become acquainted with the FBO online marketplace where government buyers are required to advertise bid opportunities.  FBO, also known as Federal Business Opportunities or FedBizOpps, is a tool for businesses to search, monitor, and retrieve opportunities solicited by the federal government.  It’s a free service for any type business.

In addition to bid opportunities, FBO also provides information such as awarded contracts, lists of interested vendors and upcoming government conferences. Bid information can be located by keyword searches and North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes.

Information provided on each bid opportunity:

• Names and phone numbers of buyers
• Agencies buying your business’ products and/or services
• Performance or delivery period
• Place of performance
• Description of the products or services being purchased

Tips:

• As required by the Small Business Act and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act, contracting officers must disseminate information on proposed contract actions expected to exceed $25,000 in FBO.  (The few exceptions are highlighted in the Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 5 https://www.acquisition.gov/far/.)
• Also, you’re likely to run across numerous acronyms and business classifications when navigating business opportunities. Here are two resources that you‘ll find useful along the way.

For more information about locating federal opportunities, please visit https://www.fbo.gov. If you’d like to learn more about how to win bids and to do business with large corporations and federal, local and state government agencies sign up for training or a consulting session.