Do you want to do business with the federal government? Would you like to get your share of the economic stimulus pie? Do you want to know where your tax dollars are going? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you'll want to check out Onvia's The Business of Recovery site.
Launched by Onvia, a Seattle company that provides businesses with information on government contracting opportunities from some 78,000 federal, state, and local entities, the Recovery.org site (still in beta as this is written) aims to provide real-time details about government spending.
The site will offer more detailed breakdowns of federal stimulus spending than the U.S. government's own Recovery.gov site. For instance, while Recovery.gov shows the overall amount of money being spent by local governments in a state, Recovery.org would not only show the specific projects, but include the exact dollar amount of each as well. Recovery.org also lets you view spending in detail by state, by Congressional District and by community.
The new site's goal is to make all stimulus spending transparent and available to the public at no cost.
Businesses can sign up for free for the site's Economic Stimulus Registry of State and Local Contractors. Once you sign up, you will be notified of upcoming state and local stimulus projects that your company might be eligible to bid on. You can also specify whether your business fits certain categories, such as small, minority-owned, or women-owned.
The site is tracking thousands of projects in industries including architecture and engineering, construction, IT/telecom, health care, operations and maintenance, professional services, transportation, water, energy and alternative energy.
In today's economy, the more sources of business you can get, the better. I've already signed my business up for the registry, so I'll let you know what comes of it.
Rieva Lesonsky