Replies

I worked for a small computer rental and service company of about 120 people a few years ago. I attended an informational course on "how small businesses can get Federal contracts" hosted by the local Federal SBA in downtown Boston. The steps listed in becoming an approved vendor of the federal government were absolutley mind boggling. I took the 3 pounds of booklets, procedures, applications, and guidelines back to the owner of the company and he promptly threw them in the garbage. The SBA made it appear that only "approved" vendors get to do business with the Feds. That was already a lie as we did brisk business with the Federal Reserve in Boston, with the Department of Agriculture and after 9/11 we supplied over 500 servers and computers to Congress as they had to relocate for several months out of the Capitol building and offices. The SBA's own steps to becoming an "approved federal vendor" admitted that the process generally took about 6 months. A small business had to identify the ethnic and gender make up of it's work force. Had to reveal all of it's records and finances. It would have taken a full time employee to just get through the process. That is the federal government.