Many federal, state, and local government agencies will typically require that your company be registered with them before they can do business with you.

For example, if you wish to do business with the Federal government you must register with the Central Contractor Registration (CCR). Government agencies and private industry are only required to register in the database once with subsequent requirements for annual updates. Registering with CCR automatically registers you with every Defense agency. Registering with local governments varies from one government agency to another.

Different government agencies tend to do things differently. So be prepared to discover that selling to one government buyer is much different from selling to another.

You may be required to fill out multiple pages of paperwork to mail in, or it can be as simple as a 10 minute online form. Sometimes, if you're selling to a state, or especially a local government, there may be no registration requirement, particularly for lower- priced products.

Registering to do business with government agencies can be cumbersome. Focus first on only those with whom you will actually conduct business in the short term. Don't spend too much time until you've determined there's a reasonable probability the agency is going to become a customer.

Contracting officials search the Find RFP database to identify qualified small business contractors. Therefore, any small business that wants to sell to the government should be registered on Find RFP.