Use our quiz to gauge whether your business is ready to contract with the government.
Do you wish you could test yourself on whether you know what you need to do to get a government contract? Well, while this "quiz" is not meant to be a serious scientific assessment, it will get you thinking about the government market, what areas you may need to work on, and what will be expected of you and your company. So, with that in mind, here are the categories for scoring:
Criteria | Score |
Size of Business | |
If you have one to 500 employees and are committed to winning a government contract and willing to do your homework, give yourself +10. | |
If you get impatient quickly or plan on making only a half-hearted attempt to win a contract, give yourself -10. | |
Financial Capability | |
If you are financially capable of performing a contract and are going after the government market in order to increase or stabilize sales, give yourself +10. | |
If you are going after a contract just to stay in business, give yourself -20. | |
Quality Assurance Program | |
If you have a general QA manual, give yourself +5. | |
If your manual complies with a commercial quality or government standard, give yourself +10. | |
If your quality assurance program complies with the international standard (referred to as an ISO standard) for your industry, give yourself +25. | |
If you have no formal, documented quality assurance program, give yourself -10. | |
Office Efficiency | |
If you keep good records and have an efficient way of finding information, give yourself +10. | |
If it takes you a while to put your hands on a piece of needed information and you run your office on the "I know it's here somewhere" principle, give yourself -10. | |
EDI and E-Commerce | |
If you have the necessary equipment for doing business using e-commerce, give yourself +25. | |
If you don't have a computer and modem, count yourself temporarily out of the game. Start shopping now. Lose all points! | |
Internet | |
If you know how to do all the tasks we just talked about, give yourself +10. | |
If you can only play games, give yourself -10. If you lose to your kids, subtract another -5 points. If you know enough to go to your teenager and get some help, give yourself 5 points. | |
Bonus Points | |
Do you know how to get "specs & stds"? If you think that getting "specs & stds" means getting something out of your eye, give yourself -10. If you know that a spec is a specification or standard for a specific product or service, give yourself +10. | |
Do you believe that all you have to do is send in a bid and no matter what price you quote, it will be approved (like that $300 hammer you heard about 25 years ago)? If you do, give yourself -25. If you believe that your price needs to be competitive, give yourself +25. |
OK, now for the rating: