Sandia steps up small business recruitment - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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Otero-Bennett and co-owner Ginger Atwood launched theird Albuquerque-based consulting business in 2003 witha $20,0009 contract from in Tennessee. But the womejn began bidding on consulting workat Sandia, and in they won a $3 million contract to do safety analysise on Sandia projects. “It gave us a huge opportunitty to show we can do the same work as big companies and produce an evenbette product,” Otero-Bennett said. “It made us Now, we stand a much better chance to bid onfutures business.
” To extend those kinds of opportunities to more New Mexicok firms, Sandia’s Small Business Utilizatio n Department is launching a seriees of town halls in Albuquerque to educate entrepreneursw about how to bid on procurement said Department Manager Don Devoti. The forumss will target small businessesin general, but disadvantaged firms, in The Small Business Administration defines smallp businesses as those employing under 500 and whose annual saless range from $0.5 million to $27.5 depending upon the industry. “We’re especially looking for women-owned, minority-owner and veteran-owned small businesses,” Devotii said.
“We want to orient them abouyt how to do business with Sandia to help more companies take advantagr ofcontracting opportunities.” The outreach effort bega with a first-ever Sandia economif impact summit on Jan. 22 at the attended by about 250 education andcivic “Many businesses don’t know just how big an impact we have on the locaol economy,” Devoti said. “Wwe wanted to demonstrate the depth ofopportunitiesz available.” Just under half of Sandia’w $2 billion-plus annual budget goes to procurement of goods and servicese with local and out-of-state In fiscal year 2008, that amounted to $987 million, Devoti said.
Of that $341 million went to New Mexicol firms, about 82 percent of it to small Thatincluded $127 million for disadvantaged companies. Devoti’s office sets target each year for the percent of money that will go to smal l anddisadvantaged firms. For FY 2009, Sandia wantes 48 percent of all procurements to benefigt small businessesin general, in New Mexick and elsewhere. To date, it is exceedingt that goal (it’s at 51.8%) and its goal for women-ownes businesses.
But it’s underperforming on targetsz for other disadvantagedcategories (see bar To boost performance, Devoti’s department plana five town halls in the coming months, each one targetinhg a different supplier diversitt category, including women-owned businesses, veteran-run firms, the SBA’s 8(a) and HUBZone-certified tribal entrepreneurs and small businesses in John Woosley, the SBA’s New Mexico districtg director, will join the forumx to discuss his agency’s “When businesses get contracts, they ofteh need financing to buy Woosley said. “If it’s construction, they need surety We can provide both ofthosed things.
” Woosley also will review the federal stimulus plan, which increases SBA’s permissible loan guarantees to 90 waives financing fees, and elevates maximum SBA surett bonding from its previous $2 million to $5 million now, and in some $10 million. “We’ll reviewe all that and discuss other federal and state contractingy opportunities in addition to Woosley said. Anna Muller, presidenr of NEDA Business Consultants, said any small business interested in contracts with Sandia can benefit fromthe “We’re thrilled that the labs are going the extraa step to teach companies about opportunities and builed capacity through training,” Muller said.
“Hats off to