I often get asked questions about whether small businesses should bother with public sector contracts in the UK. The reason for this is because all too often, small businesses find it hard to identify contract opportunities they can bid for successfully because government contracts often run into multi-million pound sterling. Well, the truth is, small businesses are welcome in the public sector supply chain but they are not clear about the process of doing so. Many small businesses waste time trying to bid for contracts that violate what is known as the proportionality rule, which states that contracts should not be awarded to a business if it is more than 25% of its turnover. Ignorant of this rule, and in the absence of quality feedback from the public buyers, many small businesses give up and don’t know how to progress.
If you are a small business and you want to sell to the public sector, you first need to understand these basic facts. You need four policies in place and you must be a viable business with no criminal record. If a contract size is too big for you to bid successfully, you need to bid for subcontract opportunities with the main contractors that win the big contracts(known as the first tier suppliers). Most times, small businesses do not know who these main contractors are and so cant access them for opportunities. With the support of my business, you can find them very easily and begin to showcase your business with the right organisations. We will show you how to find the NHS Trust, Central and Local Government Contractors so that your business will immediately start selling its services to more public sector buyers than you will ever imagined. These main contractors have within their contracts with government organisations to utilise the services of small businesses. By contacting them with your policies (H&S, environmental, quality assurance and equal opportunity policies) and whatever else they need, you will be doing them a great favour. So, if you are selling services which is used by public sector organisations, and you really want to sell successfully to this sector, remember that you can either bid for the main contract if it does not violate the proportionality rules, and you have all the remaining paper work in place including proof of viability or you can go for subcontracting opportunities.
If you need more clarification, post your question to me or you can download a free e-book on this subject from www.businessservicessupport.com/public-contracts or watch my video on the subject