I am fairly computer savvy when it comes to surfing the web but not an expert.

 

I started on the http://www.recovery.org/ website to view the available resources.  The website’s look and feel is very user friendly.  Navigating was fairly easy from the landing page.  There were three areas on this home page that caught my attention The first was the Opportunities Tab at the top, the second was located in the bottom right navigation panel entitled State, Local, Tribal and Territorial Information, and the third was a button located toward the bottom of the landing page placed in the middle that read Click here for Small Business Resources.

 

OPPORTUNITIES TAB 

The area of most interest to me was on the OPPORTUNITIES tab.  I felt if I were looking for available contracts this is where I would start my search.  Reading through the page I came across the FedBizOpps.gov and clicked through to the website.  This is the website that can be used to post, search, monitor and retrieve contract opportunities.

 

I started to register on the site and was asked for a DUNS number- oops! I didn’t have one! There was a message that said obtaining a DUNS number was free and only took ten minutes. I started the DUNS process but didn’t have the required business information, just a few items needed, nothing complicated, (I don’t actually have a licensed company) but was still able to register.  The next page is an agreement page that must be agreed to every time you log into the system, no biggie.

 

I went straight to the user’s guide link (PDF download available) located in the upper right hand corner of the landing page.  I wanted to review any other necessary steps I needed to take before submitting a bid on contracts.  I found that in order participate in bidding on government contracts one must be a registered contractor – ok, one more registration page.

 

Now that we have all of that out of the way, Phew!  We can start searching for contracts, back to the www.FedBizOpps.gov site.  The Find Opportunities link takes you to a page that looks, at first glance, pretty daunting if you aren’t used to search engines.  I started with the assumption that I wanted to look for construction jobs.  I went straight to the Advanced Search tab so that I could see all of the filters available for searching.  I looked though the classification code list and the NAICS codes and checked the boxes for all the codes that I thought fit into the construction area.  There a number of other filters available to narrow your search.  I clicked the Search button and, there they were, 27 opportunities.  I then refined my results by adding a zip code; turns out none of the opportunities were near me, oh well.  The other really cool thing this site offers is the ability to save searches and to be notified by email either daily or however you schedule the search agent.  You can also watch list contracts that interest you.  Pretty cool stuff.

 

State, Local, Tribal and Territorial Information 

The link on the Recovery.org website that links directly to each States recovery page takes you to a map where you can then click through to a particular state.  I clicked through to a few states and found that each landing page I viewed had a totally different “look and feel”.  Some of the pages listed the grants and projects available, while others just presented phone numbers for various departments to contact.

 

Click here for Small Business Resources 

This link takes you to the U.S. Small Business Administration website.  The site has a user friendly landing page and there is a link that prominently displayed Economic Recovery .  I clicked through and landed on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Page. Lot of great stuff for small business owners, I would visit this site just to see what it has to offer.   But, in the mean time, at the bottom of the page you will find a link that will Find Your Local SBA District Office.  Although each states SBA landing page is similar in layout the information presented changes, you might have to poke around a bit to find Recovery information.

 

That concludes the tour of the 2009 Recovery Act website expedition; it was definitely a learning experience for me.  I hope that you found the information useful.