Your Government Goals for 2020

It’s 2020 and the year is still gleaming fresh. If you’re a business owner who would love to bolster your Government of Canada (GC) client revenues, the time is ripe for new goals and a motivational to-do list. (Or if you’ve never supplied services to the federal government and would like to, check out Winning Contracts with the Government of Canada.)

Be a GC supplier of choice

What’s different about this year? Well, 2020-21 will be the first full fiscal year in which the new, higher ceiling of $40,000 applies to sole-sourced service and construction contracts. Last summer, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat raised the limit from $25,000 — the first jump in 23 years. Sole-sourced contracts, known as “directed contracts,” don’t have to go out to competition. Federal buyers can direct contracts to the supplier of their choice, provided they can justify why they chose that supplier.

This development is great news for very small businesses, such as most editing firms. Editors will get to spend more time working, and less time marketing and writing proposals.

But you still need to land a contract, so you’ll still have to do some marketing! Here’s how.

Your marketing to-do list

Apply to get your firm registered on ProServices: This mandatory supply tool is a list of pre-approved suppliers that more than 100 federal departments and agencies are expected to use for most professional services contracts worth up to $106,000. This is the best supply tool for micro-enterprises. Your firm, operating under an official structure such as a sole proprietorship, needs only to have been up and running for at least a year, and you only have to supply one client reference — no project samples.

ProServices features 158 job roles. Editing falls under Category 10.11, “communications consultant.” The next deadline to apply to get on ProServices is March 31. Learn more in Perks of Being a Federal Supplier Aboard ProServices.

Up your marketing game using LinkedIn: Tenders for services contracts over $100,000 don’t have to be published on Buyandsell.gc.ca, the GC’s tendering website. That means nailing any type of contract is often the result of marketing efforts. My 2017 blog post How to Market Your Services to the Feds proffers lots of suggestions.

But it’s 2020 and, in the intervening years, the GC has carved out a unique position for itself on LinkedIn, the world’s largest business networking platform. “Today, GC is, by far, the leading government org on LinkedIn globally,” says Jennifer Urbanski, LinkedIn’s senior government lead for Canada. Follow Urbanski on LinkedIn; in her posts and long-form articles, she provides excellent tips to optimize the way you’re using the platform.

While your marketing juices are flowing, consider giving your words some design cachet by using free social media post templates courtesy of Australian wunderkind Canva.

Stay in the know

As you wait for those marketing efforts to blossom, dive into this reading list for more government insights. You’ll be better prepared for contracting with federal clients.

• Canada.ca Content Style Guide
• Top 10 content design lessons the Canada.ca design team learned in 2019 (plus other savvy blog posts courtesy of the Canada.ca blog)
• Doing business with the government

Do you have any tips for working with the Government of Canada?

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