Agency to expand procurement opportunities for small business

Small businesses would get greater access to federal contracting opportunities under a new program unveiled Thursday by the Small Business Administration.

The Business Matchmaking Program, a partnership between SBA, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Hewlett Packard Co., will connect small business owners with federal, state and local government procurement officers seeking to award contracts for goods and services at events in several cities across the country.

The program was officially launched Thursday after two successful pilot projects in Cleveland and Washington last year.

"When I talk to small business owners, they say 'Mr. Administrator, we want the same thing big business wants-more business,'" SBA Administrator Hector Barreto said Thursday at a breakfast announcing the new venture. "I don't want it to be where small business owners have to get on a plane, come to Washington, knock on doors and hope something happens. The Small Business Administration can be more than just access to capital."

To participate in the venture, Chamber of Commerce members and procurement officials will enter information about their companies on the Chamber of Commerce's Web site and will be matched according to the information provided. The two groups will then meet face-to-face at regional events. The first two events are scheduled for March in Orlando, Fla., and April in Houston. Another 13 events are tentatively planned in other cities, including Atlanta, Birmingham, Ala., Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Seattle, St. Louis, and Washington.

"We will bring procurement officers armed with contracts to these cities and they are going to make deals," a Chamber of Commerce official said.

A participant in last year's pilot version of the matchmaking project said the program reaches beyond handing out business cards. "These are meetings with people you can actually draw business from," said Heidi Berenson, owner of Berenson Communications Inc. in Washington.

Another pilot program participant, Dan Ferguson, owner of Covers Manufacturing in Mansfield, Ohio, said he found the program helpful in creating new opportunities for his business. One of his matchmaking meetings was with the Interior Department. "I got excited that this could open doors for my company that I hadn't thought of before," Ferguson said.

Barreto is creating an advisory procurement council to help identify more federal procurement opportunities for small business and said his agency would monitor the program to gauge its success.

"This is not just the flavor of the month, this is something we're going to stay focused on," Barreto said. "We're going to track this by results and measure what actually occurs. That's really where the rubber meets the road."