It is now August and the federal government will be closing its accounting books in September. Your business contacts are just finding out now how much money they have to "use or lose." Contact your government contracting officers and end users to see if they need your consulting "assistance" in "allocating" this money. Come September, it will be too late. Make your calls today to offer your professional recommendations on how they can spend the additional funds appropriately (on you, of course).

When calling the potential client, I tell them I am making a "courtesy call." For our purposes, I will call it a "strategic call." Set yourself up for success in September. Help your government contacts create a wish list of items (things you sell) and give them three best values on why they should sole source it to you. Are you a local, small, 8(a), woman-owned, veteran-owned, HubZone business or GSA schedule holder? Federal buyers can simply sole source to you or simply obtain two quotes besides yours and make their purchase quickly and easily. Why not give them the names of your friendly competitors or obtain the quotes for them?

As discussed in other articles, you must follow the rules. In doing so, you will make the buyers' jobs easier. By making your strategic call today, you'll help the buyer get through the crazy "September buying" time and they'll demonstrate their appreciation by becoming a repeat customer.

If you haven't yet built relationships in the government sector but you've been considering pursuing this great opportunity, you need to know that the government buys everything. Here are some prime examples of bids and awards that that have recently been posted:

*U.S. Special Operations Command recently hired a company to create a comic book series for children in the Middle East. The contract is worth $93,160.00 for the first twelve books with an option of $92,160.00 for the following years. The solicitation states, "In order to achieve long-term peace and stability in the Middle East, the youth need to be reached. One effective means of influencing youth is through the use of comic books. A series of comic books provides the opportunity for youth to learn lessons, develop role models and improve their education."

Yes, the federal government even buys comic books! To restate my point, the government buys everything imaginable! Using Fedmarket's federal bid opportunity search engine, I located, among others, a bid opportunity requesting bids for pool tables, Foosball tables, dart boards and other recreational products for an Air Force Base located in Europe. I also found an opportunity for a company willing to feed and "muck" horses for the U.S. Customs Service.

And you thought the government was so serious!