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American Express recently launched a multi-partner initiative to assist small businesses during the economic downturn by helping them tap into the many opportunities for increasing their business through government contracting.
Each year the U.S. government spends hundreds of billions of dollars on procuring goods and services, and it wants small businesses to have a piece of the pie. The federal government is the world’s largest single purchaser of goods and services. With an additional $787 billion in economic recovery funds along with its yearly $400+ billion in procurement, the government represents one of the few major opportunities for business growth in today’s economy.
“America’s small businesses have long been considered the engine of our economy, and we need their ingenuity and resourcefulness more than ever to help create jobs and get the economy back on track,” said Susan Sobbott, president of American Express OPEN. “Business owners need more business. New customers directed to small business are essential to forge the path to economic recovery. The federal government is a big customer who can make a big difference for many small businesses.”
The government aims to award as much as 23 percent of federal contracting dollars to small businesses. Yet, many small business owners don’t know how to go about procuring a government contract. According to a survey of 1100 small business owners, 40 percent of business owners do not have any knowledge about how to apply for federal contracts. In addition, 40 percent are not sure whether or not the product or service their business offers is purchased by the federal government.
The new program launched by American Express OPEN, entitled Victory in Procurement (VIP) for Small Business, seeks to help all small business owners gain the knowledge and connections they need to capitalize on government contracts. The program was launched in partnership with Business Matchmaking (www.businessmatchmaking.com), SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business,” and Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) (www.giveme5.com).
The VIP program aims to assist small business owners secure $1 billion in government contracts and sub-contracts through its services. It does so by making a series of educational resources available to business owners and helping them tap into existing resources and networking events for small business owners sponsored by its partner organizations.
- Virtual Classroom: VIP’s new interactive website gives small business owners the chance to get step-by-step training in how the government contracting process works, including hands-on training, in-depth guides, case studies and checklists to assist business owners in the various steps of the contracting process.
- Matchmaking. The American Express VIP program sponsors a Business Matchmaking’s procurement matching system, as well as matchmaking events that enable small business owners to hook up with procurement officials from federal, state and local government agencies.
- Networking. The Amex program further encourages small businesses to network and team up with other businesses across industries and geographic regions via the Teaming USA online networking tool, as well as Teaming USA events.
- Coaching and Mentorship. The VIP website offers a portal through which business owners can get access to one-on-one coaching and mentorship opportunities, e.g. via the Amex’s Advisor on Government Contracting, SCORE’s speed coaching program, and WIPP’s Give Me 5: Education and Access for Women in Federal Contracts program.
- Educational events. The Amex VIP initiative also co-sponsors conferences and educational events to give business owners a chance to learn best practices when applying for government contracts, connect with other business owners and form relationships with procurement officials at major government agencies.
American Express issues an array of small business credit cards as well as credit cards predominantly geared towards affluent consumers. Unlike other credit card issuers (with the exception of Discover Cards), Amex is both an issuer of credit cards and an electronic payment transaction processor.
