Hurry up and wait: Federal government contracting program for women business owners off to a slow but still promising start

In February 2011, the U.S. Small Business Administration officially launched its Woman Owned Small Business federal contracting program. That long, involved name basically meant that women entrepreneurs were supposed to start earning billions of dollars of new business by selling to Uncle Sam. {Read Ms. CEO coverage of the launch}

Of course that was before partisan skirmishes over the deficit, uncertainty about future federal expenditures and wild swings in the market cooled government spending all together.  A Congressionally mandated quota says the feds have to spend five percent of their annual small business budget with woman-owned small businesses.  Based on federal budgets back in February when the program started, women who were prepared for the opportunity stood to bring in a share of 21.5 billion in set aside contracts.  Today, with budget cuts, that number has been sliced almost in half to $12.6 billion in supposed contract set asides for women; but the government is still falling short of its mandated quota by a little more than $4 billion.Ann SullivanWith several billion still up for grabs, vast opportunity remains for women hoping to build a business-to-government revenue stream.  Ann Sullivan, head of government relations for Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) and president of Madison Services Group, Inc., says the fact that the government hasn't closed the gap on its five percent quota isn't uncommon. "It usually takes awhile for the contracting community to catch up with the law," she said.

"The federal fiscal year ends October 1 so we'll probably see a magnitude of activity around that time. A higher level of women-owned opportunities should arise in August and September," Sullivan said.  "Then the last quarter of the calendar year includes the first months of the federal fiscal year so there won't be much activity around then."

In the meanwhile, Sullivan and WIPP are working with women nationwide who still want to get in position for when the stars finally align around the five percent.  "What we're doing at WIPP is pushing to make sure [the WOSB program] is a success because we fought for it for 11 years," Sullivan said. "We've made a huge push so that everyone who needs to know about it, does."

Advice for those who aren't quite ready
By nature of the WOSB program, any company that wins a contract will be the prime contractor. Though the program doesn't require a certain number of years in business to compete for contracts, the owner and her staff will have to show they can do the work to win the contract and they'll have to deliver on their promises.  For women who don't feel quite ready for big contracts and the responsibility and work load that goes along with them, Sullivan suggests working under someone else's contract first. "Being a sub-contractor is a good strategy," Sullivan said.  "If you don't have your business together and you don't have the capacity to take on these contracts then you can get more experience under your belt by sub-contracting."

Sullivan says that despite all the bumps in the road up to this point women business owners that she works with across the country are still excited about the opportunity.  "They understand that there is a big difference between a goal and an actual program that has a mechanism for women to readily win contracts."

Budgets have been slashed and the government is still behind on their five percent standard but you still have a chance to position your company for success in selling to the feds. So get ready.