Compliance-Readiness Provides A Government-Contractor Advantage

What We Want to Be, Not What We Have to Do –
How a different perspective on Compliance can transform a Government Contractor

Businesses entering the government contracts market often feel besieged by all the paperwork required to comply with government contract terms. The Small Business Administration (SBA) discusses the importance of compliance this way:

“In order to participate in government contracting, you must comply with all laws and regulations. The federal government’s purchasing process is governed by the Federal Acquisition Regulation.“

Are you prepared for all rules and regulations you must follow as a government contractor? Are you too busy to focus on those rules and regulations? Does the word “compliance” make you nervous? Do you view compliance as something you just “have to do” once you get the contract, it’s just part of overhead? Do you think of compliance a problem taking up time and money? Is compliance way behind your technology and business development activities on your focus?

What a missed Opportunity!

You should instead consider compliance with the Federal Acquisition Regulations and other requirements as a chance to do what is right, and a bright spot to help you win projects!

Prime contractors live and die on compliance issues. And the Contracting Officer (CO) on every government program relies on compliance as an objective measure of performance. Both of these people, the Prime and the CO, are looking for team players who won’t pose problems with compliance. In short, your business will be assessed and evaluated by the CO or a prime contractor based on various factors, including compliance.

So, imagine that one of those individuals, the buyer at a prime contractor, or the CO in a government program, has a look at your records. Are they going to get a warm and fuzzy feeling that working with you is going to be easy? Or are they going to think, “Gee I like this company’s technology, but it’s going to be a pain bringing them along the proper compliance path.” Are your records haphazard? Are there gaps? Do you have the proper internal programs in place? Is there any evidence that you even know what all the compliance issues are?

A small business can benefit by taking the right perspective when it comes to compliance – seeing compliance as an opportunity to present its business as a quality, trustworthy organization, a company built upon integrity. By embracing compliance, your business will display itself to others as a business that cares about doing the right thing. As a result, by maintaining a “compliance-ready enterprise,” others will feel more comfortable working with you…because your business can be trusted to do what is right.

View compliance as an indicator of the quality of your business. Make it a priority that you and your business take the time to do what is right, because this is who you are – a business that can be trusted. As a result, not only do you minimize the risk to your business that non-compliance poses, but your business presents itself as an organization that provides value to its customers in part by being easy to work with on compliance matters. Yours will be a Quality Company!