For a small business, being awarded a government contract is no walk in the park. In fact, simply figuring out how to find solicitations on which to bid is a task all on its own.
Though Kim Langenberg is now the area expert in the field, she knows this truth firsthand.
"When I started out I was in a small machine shop and my boss wanted me to start looking for bids," she says. "I found on the Internet that I needed to get registered first. It was a little bit daunting."
Eventually Langenberg found help at the
Procurement Technical Assistance Center, or PTAC, housed at the
Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce, where she now administers that assistance to other local businesses looking for help bidding on government contracts.
In 2010, the PTAC covering Ingham, Eaton and Clinton Counties helped successfully secure government contracts totaling more than $24 million. These 985 government contracts awarded locally are credited with creating or retaining 481 jobs in the region.
According to Langenberg, of those totals $18.4 million, 61 awards and 367 jobs were in Ingham County.
There are 11 PTAC’s in Michigan, and though they all operate differently, the Lansing satellite office is funded by the Department of Defense and the
State of Michigan, and their services are available to area businesses free of charge. Walking businesses through the registration process, searching for solicitations and holding educational sessions are some of the services offered by the Center.
Langenberg says that one-on-one service is one of the major benefits of the free program.
"If you have any questions, we’ll have the answer or we’ll find the answer for you," she says.
Source: Kim Langenberg, Procurement Technical Assistance Center
Writer: Natalie Burg, News Editor
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