Michelle Grünberg ⋅ Palmetto , FL iconnectu, llc ⋅ 25 years experience

The Women's Chamber if Commerce does a great job of connecting my business to complimentary bizs to create greater value to compete with the big guys. We are a DBE and it has opened many doors. If you want to know our experience, reach out. Love to help. Freedom isn't free, but our advice is! Thanks for your service to our country. -Michelle

Seth Lynch ⋅ Plano , TX Hewlett Packard ⋅ 15 years experience

Chris,

The approach you take is going to define how you approach the right partner. If you are looking for someone to provide staff, there are two ways to generally approach a partnership arrangement.

First option is to simply subcontract to a large staff augmentation company. You (your company) would have to qualify on your own to respond to the proposal, but if you lack a few key staff members or need a pool of skilled resources, contact staff augmentation companies (like Kelly Services for general staff, Aerotek or CSS for IT/Telco, Robert Half for accounting, technology, finance). Working with these companies is as easy as calling the local branch office. They can help you find the right staff. This approach though means you are their customer, so they are going to expect you to pay on their terms. Some may work with you to accept flowdown payment and other terms from the prime contract, but you will need to make that known very early.

The second option (and my guess where you really want to go) is really a joint venture approach. When you hear about most government contract 'partnerships' it is usually referring to a JV relationship. There are a lot of ways to construct a JV and you will need legal representation and an accountant to help you determine the right way to partner and make sure your interests are represented especially if you are dealing with a larger company.

The best way to find companies (even large ones. I worked for a $15B annual revenue company and routinely formed JVs with smaller, local companies with a specialized focus that gave us an edge). is to attend the bid conference for contracts you are interested in or attend M/W/DBE conferences held either by the government agency soliciting contracts or by some of the large contractors out there like Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Keiwit, Parsons, PB, HNTB, etc. They usually hold small business partnering events in areas where they are looking at buiding business.

Even though these are all big companies, they lave a few local reps in each area responsible for the business. Attending these types of conferences or proposal briefings in areas where you have interest or expertise, even if you aren't interested in the specific bid, will give you the ability to find those local reps. Once you meet them and establish a rapport, they will work with you on the bids you want to go after.

Seth

Christianah Adesida ⋅ Lorton , VA U.S. Army, Master Sergeant ⋅ 22 years served

Thanks Joe, I understand that aspect of teaming.What I don't understand is how can I partner up with another organization that can for example complete a staffing requirements for my organization?

Joe Paschall ⋅ Madison , AL nLogic, LLC ⋅ 26 years experience

Those terms are not specifically different. Partnering is teaming, but what has to be defined is the type of teaming/partnership. Generally speaking, a Large Business will be willing to Subcontract to a Small Business if the SB has the right socioeconomic status to pursue certain contracts (WOSB, SDVSOB, 8a, etc). You would need to get your paperwork done to define your socioeconomic statuses before a LB would be willing to discuss teaming.