Good Proposal Ideas For Government Contracts

When you find a federal Request for Proposal that you believe that you can perform, you also want to develop good proposal ideas that can reduce the government’s risk, and can also offer additional value.

The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) does not give a checklist of suggestions to create additional value. The burden is up to you to come with good proposed ideas that can peak the agency’s interest.

What Problem is the Agency seeking to Resolve?

When you start to create proposal ideas for specific government contracts, you should first think of the underlying agency problem. You can typically find this in the actual solicitation.

When you finally grasp the problem, you then want to brainstorm with your key personnel on some good proposal ideas and solutions that your competition may not think about. For example, the agency may be using an out-of-date system.

What if you can install a new system but can do so in a way that your company might be able to install updates given the changing world of technology? Do you think that the agency might be interested? These are examples of good proposal ideas that government contracting agencies might be interested in.

The government hates to spend more money in the next five years to re-procure yet another system. You want to come up with way of making your ideas stand out. Any idea that you offer must be well-thought out.

Develop  Good Proposal Ideas that are Realistic

When you submit interesting proposal ideas for a government contract, that not only resolves the current agency problem, but also can minimize future spending, you also want to ensure that the proposed offer is realistic. A good way to ensure realism is to also see if there are registered patents that are already in place.

Areas that lend themselves to government proposal ideas include:

• Computer programming
• Cell phone and cable networks
• Landscaping and design
• Roads and highway development

For negotiated procurements under FAR 15, you want to see how the government intends to rate your technical proposal approach. Typically, it is a pretty high score in the request for proposal evaluation process.

Your proposal ideas can inject additional value to the government. For example, in IDIQ contracts, an increase volume of task orders to your company could allow for discounts. This is an idea that many proposal writers miss.

Look Into Research and Development Government Contract Proposal (SBIR) Programs

A good way to implement and find out the viability of your proposal ideas is to look into The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is a United States Government program, coordinated by the Small Business Administration, and currently authorized through September 30, 2017, in which all federal agencies with extramural research budgets in excess of $100 million have a percentage reserved for contracts or grants to small businesses.

The percentage of funds reserved for each fiscal year follow the schedule below:

• not less than 2.6 percent of the total extramural research budget for fiscal year 2012
• not less than 2.7 percent of the total extramural research budget for fiscal year 2013
• not less than 2.8 percent of the total extramural research budget for fiscal year 2014
• not less than 2.9 percent of the total extramural research budget for fiscal year 2015
• not less than 3.0 percent of the total extramural research budget for fiscal year 2016
• not less than 3.2 percent of the total extramural research budget for fiscal year 2017

Under FAR 35, the primary purpose of contracted R&D programs is to advance scientific and technical knowledge and apply that knowledge to the extent necessary to achieve agency and national goals.

Unlike contracts for supplies and services, most R&D contracts are directed toward objectives for which the work or methods cannot be precisely described in advance. The primary purpose of this program is to allow you to come up with good proposal ideas that could possibly enhance your business objectives.

For further guidance on how to research and submit lucrative government proposal ideas, contact a government contracts consulting firm.

Contact a government contracts attorney at 1-866-601-5518 for a free consultation.