Place your bids to government agencies

When she started her computer training business in a corner of her kitchen in 1984, Trish McClelland’s goals was quite modest: in her first year of operation, she hoped to earn $30,000.

McClelland reached that goal in just eight weeks. Today, the owner of McClelland Enterprises in Alexandria, Virginia says she owes her success largely to government contracts. Although her first two proposals were rejected, she has since won millions of dollars in federal contracts for her computer training programs and she has fulfilled over 20 contracts over the last few years!

As McClelland quickly learned, writing winning government proposals is a profitable skill any entrepreneur can master. At stake are hundreds of billions of dollars in local, state, and federal contracts for goods and services ranging from engine lathes to asbestos removal.

Many small business owners are surprised to discover that these contracts don’t go solely to Fortune 500 companies. In fact, in a typical year $63 billion in government contracts went to small businesses like McClelland’s. Although your business probably won’t be building America's first space station, you can win other lucrative government contracts by writing proposals -- ones that convince government agencies you are the company best qualified to assist them.