The STLP provides short-term working capital to eligible firms for work on transportation contracts. Here we answer some basic questions about the STLP program.

In a nutshell, what is STLP?

The STLP is an initiative to help small businesses gain access to working capital through a working line of credit necessary to participate in transportation related contracts.  STLP guarantees eligible firms a direct loan from a bank at the current prime rate plus two percentage points.

Who is eligible to receive financing?

Three types of businesses are eligible to receive financing:

•  Firms that have received DBE certifica­tion from a state or local transportation agency;

•  Firms that have been certified by the SBA as an 8(a), Small Disadvantaged Business, or HUBZone; and

•  Firms that have received a disability rating by the U.S. Veteran’s Administration and have certified themselves as an SDVOSB.

Please note that start-up businesses are not eligible to receive a STLP line of credit.  These businesses should instead contact SBA regarding other possible forms of financial assistance.

What activities can the funds be used for?

The STLP provides revolving lines of credit to finance accounts receivable arising from “transportation-related contracts.”  “Transportation-related contracts” meet the following criteria:

•  Work involves the maintenance, rehabilitation, re­structuring, improvement, or revitalization of any of the nation’s modes of transportation; and

•  Work is for any public or commercial transportation provider of any federal, sate or local transportation agency. 

The funds can be used only for covering short-term costs of performing the contracts being financed.  For more information, please go to http://www.osdbu.dot.gov.  

Are you interested in selling to the military or other federal agency? Local governments? State agencies?

If your answer is “Yes” to any of these then mark your calendar for the Procurement Technical Assistance Center’s (PTAC) 15th Annual Government & Business Contracting Opportunities Conference to be held March 12, to help introduce local businesses to the government market and to improve your chances in obtaining government contracts.

The event is designed to give local businesses who seek government markets an opportunity to meet key personnel in government procurement face to face. Buyers and contracting officers from various federal, state and local entities will be present as exhibitors and seminar presenters. Please mark your calendar and plan to attend the 15th Annual Government & Business Contracting Opportunities Conference.

This will also provide a great opportunity for the business community to come together for education on procurement related topics. Participating agencies include the City of Corpus Christi’s Engineering and Purchasing, Texas Department of Transportation, U S Small Business Administration, the U.S. Navy, Corpus Christi Army Depot, Texas HUB Program, General Services Administration, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Del Mar College, Nueces County Purchasing, Corpus Christi Independent School District, Education Service Center Region 2, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Service Corp of Retired Engineers (SCORE), ACCION Texas, Corpus Christi Regional Transportation Authority, Housing Authority of Corpus Christi, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and Kingsville.

To find out more information and to register please call Margie at 698-1025 or Sean at 698-2221. Don’t miss out on this opportunity that may eventually be very profitable for your business!

The Del Mar College Procurement Technical Assistance Center will hold our 15th Annual Government and Business Opportunities Conference on March 12, 2008 at the Solomon P. Ortiz Conference Center in Corpus Christi. This event is the highlight of PTAC’s efforts to connect the small businesses of the coastal bend with government buying activities. Registration is $35.00 and includes lunch. Set the entire day aside!

The conference will provide three great ways to gather valuable contracting information for your business. First, come and meet contracting and purchasing professionals from Federal, State and Local government buying offices. Second, attend one of the breakout sessions and learn how to sell to the government. And finally, visit the exhibit area and collect information about selling to local offices of government agencies.

Will this be your first time to visit a procurement conference? Perhaps you have been to several! If you are a rookie or a seasoned veteran at events like this, there are some specific things you can do to make the very best of your attendance at the procurement conference. Do you have your elevator speech ready? How will you reach your goals for the conference? How do you set goals for the conference? Are you ready? We can help you! Mark your calendar for Valentines Day! February 14, 2008! PTAC will have a special seminar title “How to Maximize your Time at the 15th Annual Procurement Conference”. The seminar is free of charge and will be held at the Del Mar College Center for Economic Development at 3209 S. Staples in Corpus Christi.

PTAC’s mission is to help small business sell to the government. The Conference on March 12th is our Premier Annual Event to accomplish this mission. To make sure you get the most of it, come to an outstanding seminar on Valentine’s Day on maximizing your time at the conference! For more information call PTAC at 698-1025. Happy New Year!

Del Mar College has entered into an agreement with the Department of Defense, Defense Logistic agency to help small businesses sell their goods and services to the government. Although the program has Federal roots, PTAC assists with state and local opportunities as well. Selling to the government can be a challenge…for many reasons. There are lots of rules and regulations, and they change on a regular basis.

On September 1, 2007, the State of Texas has changed the departments that handle procurement. The HUB certification process is now handled by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. The TPASS – Texas Procurement and Support Service is under the Comptroller and has the mission to lead the State of Texas procurement and contracting communities with enhanced services, innovative systems, and best practices to further encourage competition and operational efficiency for the benefit of state agencies, local government entities, and the vendor community.

The Comptroller now owns the CMBL Program (Centralized Master Bidders List) and the HUB (Historically Underutilized Business) Program. If you want to sell to the state of Texas, you should register on the CMBL at http://www.window.state.tx.us/procurement/prog/cmbl/
PTAC can assist your with any questions you might have related to this process.
If you are a minority or Women Owned Business, then I would recommend looking at the HUB Certification. You can view the HUB applications at http://www.window.state.tx.us/procurement/prog/hub/hub-forms/
PTAC has extensive experience assisting small businesses with the HUB application process. If you want to know if you qualify, just give us a call at 698-1025 or 698-2221.

If you are in the computer or communications business you need to know that the CISV Program has been revoked. No real need to go much further explaining a program that no longer exists, but you should be award of the way the State of Texas purchases IT, computer and communications goods and services. Call us or visit www.TexasOnline.com to see the website for the Department of Information Resources.

Is that enough change for you? There is plenty more, and even more coming. This is always the way things go…just when you think you have learned how to do business with the government, the rules change. That is why PTAC is here! Just give us a call.

Panel backs bill to boost contract opportunities for veterans
October 22, 2007
Government Executive.com
By Andy Leonatti CongressDaily October 19, 2007

The House Small Business Committee approved a bill on Thursday designed to increase opportunities for veterans to have a larger role in procurement of federal contracts.

The measure (H.R. 3867) as passed by 21-4 vote. The passage was bipartisan, with four Republicans voting to adopt the bill. It gives priority to service-disabled veterans in contracting and implements a the Small Business Administration Women’s Procurement Program, which House Small Business Chairwoman Lydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., said had taken too much time.

The bill places veterans who are small business owners at the top of the priority list for receiving federal contracts. Velazquez said the move would “eliminate the barriers that veterans face in receiving non-competitive contracts.”

The committee struck down an amendment from Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md.,16-8 to strike a subsection of the section from the bill that required veteran business owners be given priority.

The subsection that Bartlett wanted to strike would remove a competitive element from HUB Zone contract procurement in the event of multiple HUB Zone businesses submitting contract offers. The HUB Zone is a SBA program designed to employ people and place businesses in historically underutilized business districts in rural and urban areas.

Bartlett was opposed to the part of the bill, warning that it “denies the benefits taxpayers get from competition.”

Democrats said striking that section would harm veterans’ business ownership opportunities. Bartlett and House Small Business Committee Ranking member Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, said they were not opposed to reducing veterans’ opportunities.

Velazquez said that veterans have received less than 1 percent of federal contracting.

The bill also implements an executive order from the Bush Administration that set forward a goal of no less than 3 percent participation by service-disabled veteran businesses in federal contracting.

To implement the executive order, the bill requires the Small Business Administration to provide service-disabled veterans the proper education, information and training for participating in the federal contracting process.

The bill also sought to provide more procurement opportunities for women by fully implementing the SBA’s Women’s Procurement Program. The program allows for the waiver of competition requirements in contracting if two or more offers come from female majority-owned businesses that are economically disadvantaged and are in an industry where female businesses are underrepresented.

Every five years, the head of the SBA must also conduct a study to identify industries in which female-owned businesses are underrepresented.

The bill also extends the program length for the 8(a) Small Disadvantaged Business Program, which provides assistance to socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses. The original length of the program for a business was nine years.

Bartlett offered, but then withdrew and amendment that would have prevented the change in the length of program from occurring. Bartlett said nine years was enough for a business to mature, but Velazquez insisted an extra year would make a big difference.

Written by: Sean Smith of PTAC

Are you ready?

I just took a call from a client. He is in need of PTAC help – Right Now! He needs to have a higher bonding level because there is a job he wants to bid, but he can’t meet the bonding requirement. Although I am pleased the client called PTAC for assistance, I would have rather received a call from him about six months ago.

I know how busy it gets when you are running a business. I worked in a small business for twenty five years. Every day you start with a list of a hundred things to do, and by the end of the day after doing two hundred things, the list has a hundred and fifty things on it! You wear many hats and perform many jobs. But I want to add one more job title to the long list you already sport – Planner!

Whether it is securing bonding, applying for a government certifications like federal 8(a) or HUBZone; even some of the registrations for government contracting –these things take time. Often these items are the only things that stand between you and the opportunity you have been working toward for years. They exist at all levels of contracting – federal, state and local. Will you be ready when that opportunity comes knocking?

Here what you do! Call us, make an appointment and let’s sit together and discuss your plans. Let’s talk about the registrations that the government will expect you to have completed before you bid. We should look closely at the ownership and structure of your company to see if there are any certifications for which you may be eligible. We can work together to prepare you to meet your government contracting goals. Let’s put the PRE in preparation!

If you are not a PTAC Client, please call 698-1025 and talk to Margie. If you are already a PTAC client, feel free to call anyone on the staff listed below.

Sean Smith 698-2221
Margie Silguero 698-1025
Hector Vidaurri 698-1180

Mark your calendar for May 10th! Del Mar College PTAC will host its 14th Annual Government and Business Contracting Opportunities Conference on the morning of May 10th at the Del Mar College Center for Economic Development – 3209 S. Staples.

The theme for this year’s event is “Connect”. We seek to aid you in your efforts to connect to government purchasing agents, other government contractors and agencies who exist to assist you in your business. We encourage you to attend the conference and to connect to the exhibitors. Our exhibitors are representatives from federal, state and local government offices that have local purchasing authority. They need goods and services, they seek local sources, and they seek small businesses. Do your goods and services meet their requirements? Can you be one of their vendors? This event provides an opportunity for you to connect with them and find out.

Conference attendees can learn how to connect with the government at seminars. The seminars are designed to give you very specific and direct instructions on how to connect with the government contracting opportunities. The seminar presenters will be government employees who have experience and knowledge about their agencies procurement process, including requirements, registrations, certifications, how opportunities are publicized and how to make headway through the system. Seminars will run through the morning at a schedule to be provided upon your arrival.

The best kept secret from our procurement conferences is the opportunity to connect with other businesses. Between seminars and around the exhibit table, you will find people who might be willing to partner with you in the pursuit of government contracts.

The opportunities and information to connect will be so plentiful, you might want to bring someone else from your business so you won’t miss a thing!

For more information or to register,
call Margie today at: (361) 698-1025