Small firms get coached on landing government contracts

Hexacon’s commercial business “isn’t as good as it has been, and we’re eager to get new business from wherever we can,” said Johnson, whose soldering irons are used to make cell phones and computers, milkshake machines, and vacuum cleaners.

A representative of the General Services Administration taught this morning’s workshop at the Union County Economic Development Corp. on how to sell to the government through the GSA procurement system. Union houses one of New Jersey’s two federally financed Procurement Technical Assistance Centers; the other is located at New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark. Both centers offer counseling and workshops for small businesses that want to learn how to do business with the government.

Today’s workshop was an introduction to the GSA system, in which small businesses pre-negotiate their products and prices with GSA. Federal agencies can buy directly from GSA businesses; in such cases, they don’t have to put their contracts out for bid. Each year, some $50 billion in federal procurement is done via GSA, out of the total federal procurement of about $300 billion.

Maryann Williams, director of procurement programs at the UCEDC, said the number of small businesses seeking help getting government contracts has doubled in the past six months. She coaches businesses on how to complete the complex GSA application, which she said can take time-pressed small businesses months to complete.

Henry Rudorfer’s Garwood metal pipe-manufacturing company, Standard Nipple Works, supplies pipes for plumbing equipment and has seen sales decline with the housing slump. The 80-year-old company does some government work, and is looking for more to replace commercial business that’s been hurt by the recession. “Business is contracting, and the government is another area to sell our products,” said Rudorfer, who now has 16 employees, and has laid off eight workers in the past year.