PROFIT TALKS: Small Business and Vets Getting Contracts with the State of California

Diane Lydon joins us to discuss her work at a Business Outreach Manager for the State of California's Office of Small Business and Disabled Veterans Business Services (often referred to simply as OSDS). Helping small businesses and veteran owned businesses secure government contracts.

Operating under the mandate created by California Assembly Bill AB-2019, 25% of all state government contracts are supposed to go to qualified "small businesses". But finding those small businesses and teaching them the requirements and process of how to apply for these many contracts has been the challenge.

Which becomes the mission of people like Diane and others like the SBDC's local Contracting Center in Riverside (which we interviewed earlier) to assist small businesses of all shapes and sizes to seize this opportunity by registering, getting "small business certified" and then understanding the process and procedures to secure one of the many government contracts being awarded daily for every imaginable product and service from consulting and catering to construction and cleaning.

How to make it thru this maze of government agencies (with long acronyms) to the prize at the end? Start by going to www.CaliforniaEProcure.CA.Gov. And then contacting Diane or the local Small Business Development Contracting Center here in Riverside for more FREE ASSISTANCE in getting started and set up to securing your own government contract.

On this week's PROFIT TALKS podcast. Brought to you by your Orange County/Inland Empire Small Business Development Center (OCIE SBDC). Funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration and the California Office of the Small Business Advocate.