I was having an discussion today with a good friend who, like me has been forced into unplanned entrepreneurship, about where he could find some business for his social media consulting firm. I asked him if he was registered in the federal Central Contractor Registry or the Virginia commonwealth registry, eVA. He had not heard of them or realized there was any advantage to going through all the hassle to do so. I implored him to do it because I am a big believer that when you are fishing for business its best to cast as wide a net as possible when starting out and even more so when the net is free. The Central Contractor Registry (CCR) (https://www.bpn.gov/ccr/) is the federal governments one stop shop for all contractors. The regulations for doing business with the government state that according to the FAR 4.11, prospective vendors must be registered in CCR prior to the award of a contract; basic agreement, basic ordering agreement, or blanket purchase agreement. In addition, pursuant to FAR 52.204-7, to register in CCR, a firm must have a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number. The DUNS Number is assigned by Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. (D&B) to identify unique business entities. So, the bottom line is that if you hope to do any business with the federal government you need to just go through the pain and agony of getting your DUNS Number and registering in CCR. There are some exceptions to the rule spelled out on the CCR site but for the average small business you should just do it. It really isn't terribly hard and the process is pretty self explanatory. I figured it out all by myself and if that's possible then anyone can do it. Its not without its challenges for a start up like mine. I had to really put my brain to work deciding what is the appropriate When I launched ScoutComms I made my way down to our county economic development office as soon as I registered my 'Doing Business As' (DBA) with the courthouse. The very helpful staff listened to my just made up pitch about what we would be doing then started rattling off things for me to do right away including registering in the electronic database for the commonwealth called eVA. As it turns out, here in Virginia to do business with both state and local offices you need to be in eVA just like the CCR for the feds. Fortunately, the registration required pretty much the same basic info. For both you are going to have spend some quality time figuring what your North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes are going to be for your business so that you can compete for the right opportunities and be found by agencies looking for your services. But, this is something you need to figure out anyway. Have I gone after a single opportunity offered by either of these databases yet? Nope. But if I seen one I like I am ready to go for it and if by some fluke of fate a deal falls in my lap I will be ready. I have already met with government officials in my travels and almost to a man the first thing they have asked me is "Are you in the CCR?" My recommendation to fellow entrepreneurs is its best to be able to say "yes" than say "What the hell is the CCR?" I am not much of a fisherman but I do know its a bad idea to leave your biggest nets on the dock because it was inconvenient to load them on the boat.
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