In 2007 My Success Gateway participated in the Kaufman Foundation’s entrepreneurshipweek.   Now it looke like this private foundation grabbed a .gov domain and reinvented itself.  They do provide great information for entrepreneurs.  This will be an interesting development for small businesses working with the government.  This is a much better way for the government to stimulate the economy rather than purchase $600 bills from the Chinese and distribute like confetti.

Check out this New York Times Article

For years, a good way to guarantee a laugh was to walk into a room of small business owners and announce, “I’m from the government and I am here to help you.”

Entrepreneurs were more used to dealing with red tape, endless delays in getting an answer to a question and federal employees who were frequently less than helpful.

But there are some government agencies worth your time. Consider, for example, these four:

The Small Business Administration Answer Desk provides a toll-free number (1-800-U-ASK-SBA), and an easy to remember e-mail address (answerdesk@sba.gov) to handle questions not only about S.B.A. programs, but small business problems in general.

“Free one-on-one counseling is also available locally to help entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs in the areas of financing, management technology, government procurement and other business-related areas,” the site promises.Entrepreneurship.gov The Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration and the Kauffman Foundation, whose mission is to “foster a society of economically independent individuals,” have teamed up to offer online resources that are intended, as the Web site says, “to help build economies that foster entrepreneurship worldwide.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/business/smallbusiness/05toolkit.html 

Public Source Government Contracting Databases and Information.  It can be helpful to familarize yourself with these contracting databases.  This too is the short list of information.  Happy web surfing.
FedBizOpps.gov is the single government point-of-entry (GPE) for Federal government procurement opportunities over $25,000. Government buyers are able to publicize their business opportunities by posting information directly to FedBizOpps via the Internet. Through one portal – FedBizOpps (FBO) – commercial vendors seeking Federal markets for their products and services can search, monitor and retrieve opportunities solicited by the entire Federal contracting community.
The goal of FPDS-NG (Federal Procurement Data System) is to make procurement information transparent and easy to find for every user – from the experienced contracting officer to the curious member of the public. 
IAE is a secure business environment that facilitates and supports cost-effective acquisition of goods and services in support of mission performance.  Deploy a single point of registration and validation of supplier data accessed by all agencies.
EGOV Expanding E-Government is the President’s goal of utilizing technology to improve how the Federal Government serves you, citizens, businesses and agencies alike. This website provides an overview of the program, the Presidential E-Government Initiatives and the Federal Enterprise Architecture.
Founded in 1949, GSA serves as a centralized procurement and property management agency for the federal government.  GSA manages more than one-fourth of the government’s total procurement dollars and influences the management of $500 billion in federal assets, including 8,600 government-owned or leased buildings and 208,000 vehicles.  GSA helps preserve our past and define our future, as a steward of more than 425 historic properties, and as manager of USA.gov, the official portal to federal government information and services. 
USAspending.gov, a re-launch of www.federalspending.gov, provides this information to the public, as collected from federal agencies, in an easy to use website. The data is largely from sources: the Federal Procurement Data System, which contains information about federal contracts; and the Federal Assistance Award Data System, which contains information about federal financial assistance such as grants, loans, insurance, and direct subsidies like Social Security.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is known as “the investigative arm of Congress” and “the congressional watchdog.” GAO supports the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and helps improve the performance and ensure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people. GAO’s work includes oversight of federal programs; insight into ways to make government more efficient, effective, ethical and equitable; and foresight of long-term trends and challenges.

The National Women’s Business Council (NWBC), sponsor of womenbiz.gov, is a bi-partisan federal advisory council created to serve as an independent source of advice and policy recommendations to the President, Congress, and the U.S. Small Business Administration on economic issues of importance to women business owners. Members of NWBC are prominent women business owners and leaders of women’s business organizations.

This is the short list of Private Federal Contracting Database Aggregators are excellent places to save time and money to narrow down the number of bids you receive so you can concentrate on the government contracts that best fit your needs.  It is also important that you make calls into government agencies and develop relationships.

FedBuying Intelligence is the most powerful sales tool in the federal market. It searches five years of public bid data and tells you “who bought what”. Enter your product/service using keywords, Product/Service Codes, or NAICS Codes and find the solicitations and awards for the Contracting Officers and Contract Specialists who bought your product/service. Contact data including telephone number and email address is provided for each buyer in a downloadable spreadsheet. 

Eagle Eye offers off-the-shelf and custom CD, DVD and web database applications, programming services, training, custom reports, lists and studies that help organizations grow their government business practices through the smart use of information. Our clients include commercial, non-profit and agency executives seeking to maximize the return on their government research, marketing and sales budgets by targeting and qualifying opportunities faster and more efficiently. 

Find RFP connects government contractors and government agency buyers. Find RFP is a pioneer in online government purchasing and e-government, and a leader in providing government RFP, government bid and government contract finder and notification services. 

Established in 1983, International Data Base Corporation (“IDBC”), which operates under the trade name BidNet, is a leading government bid aggregation and e-procurement service provider. In August 2004, IDBC was acquired by Mediagrif Interactive Technologies Inc. (TSX: MDF), a world-leading developer of e-business networks and provider of complete e-business solutions. 

GovernmentBids.com service aggregates daily opportunities from over 18,000 public-sector websites, government publications, public meeting reviews and supplemented by our team of research experts. To complement our existing service of over 10,000 state and local listings, 15,000 Federal agency listings, we have broadened our jurisdiction to include International opportunities that are open to companies looking to further expand their business. In our continued commitment to deliver outstanding service, we are also focused on assisting smaller companies access more government and sub-contracting opportunities.