Handyman Insurance, How to Form a Productive Partnership
How to Form a Productive Partnership While Safeguarding your Interests and Protecting your Small Business Eligibility.
In today’s Federal contracting market, a growing number of government contracts are set-aside for various types of small businesses. It’s no surprise that, in this highly competitive environment, cooperative contractor relationships – including teaming and joint-venturing – are increasingly popular among small and large businesses alike. Of the two, teaming has become more popular because it can provide more flexibility that joint-venturing, and can often be finalized more quickly than joint venture agreements. For this reason, teaming has become one of the hottest topics in Federal contracting.
However, though teaming is often talked about, it is just as often misunderstood. Many people overestimate the “flexibility” it allows for, and run afoul of the various SBA and VA small business regulations. Moreover, although there are many reputable, honest large business contractors out there looking for teaming partners, there are also one or two unethical large companies that will try to take advantage of small business contractors, using them as for their small business eligibility. These businesses care little about protecting the small business’ long-term eligibility or reputation. These things, together, can have disastrous consequences for small businesses, including the loss of small business size status and eligibility.
As a small business, it is critically important that, when teaming, you take care to avoid these types of problems. The key to doing that is to draft a detail-specific, enforceable teaming agreement that creates a productive partnership, but also protects your interests and eligibility. This article seeks to help you do just that by using the three “E”s: Enforceability, Exclusivity and Expectations.