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In this episode of FedBiz’5 we host Anthony D’Attore from FedBiz Access to discuss open solicitations, and what you need to know to move forward (or not). The key is not to spend time chasing open solicitations that you cannot fulfill.

Solicitations, sometimes referred to as ‘opportunities’, are requests that solicit bids to initiate the procurement process for goods and/or services. These solicitations can take a multitude of forms or notification types.

• Open Solicitations 
• Open solicitations are posted in SAM.gov as an RFQ (Request for Quote) or RFP (Request for Proposal). There are databases that can aggregate and sort through this data to help you more effectively research for opportunities, which include the Market Intel Database.
• Special Notice
• Pre-Solicitation
• Sources Sought

If two or more  businesses respond to a source sought, when it goes to a solicitation, it will be set aside for small businesses. In addition, many sources sought notifications are automatically set for small business sources and have a ‘set-aside’ requirement. This means the govt has set-aside this award for a small business under a socio-economic certification. 

It's also an opportunity to create relationships with contracting officials and make a good first impression with your capability statement. If you can offer something unique, that's very often how a sole source contract is generated. That means you win, and the solicitation does not even go out for public bid. 

Once you receive the solicitation, you need to determine whether to move forward or not without wasting time on solicitations you cannot win. Since a solicitation can be as much at 100 pages plus, you need to quickly parse though it to make a “Go – No Go” decision.

1. What is it?  - Does the title or abstract pertain to your business? What type of solicitation is it? Can I meet the minimum requirements?
2. When is it due? - Can you realistically meet the deadline? Are better off getting in earlier in the process (RFI or Source Sought)?
3. Am I excluded? - Is there a specific set-aside for this solicitation? For example, if it's for a woman-owned business, and you’re not a woman-owned business, well stop because it's not written for you.
4. Where is it? - Where is the place of performance? Can you reasonably service the geographic requirements, or can you work remotely? For example, if you’re a janitorial company and the solicitation is for janitorial services in Japan. Well, if you are in Wisconsin, you probably can stop reading. 

If all four of questions line up, the fun begins because you can really start drilling down int

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