In the 3/10/09 WSJ Small Business section, Kelly Spors notes that the federal stimulus bill mandates that the government “aims to award 23% of all contract dollars across all agencies to small businesses every year.”

There are several examples of new contracts recently awarded but the author notes the difficulties that small businesses have to secure government contracts. A company may have to invest a lot of employee hours to cope with the many regulations and abundant paperwork in order to bid a job. A former president of the Entrepreneur’s Organization says that it may be better for a small business to subcontract on a few projects to get some idea of what is required.

The government has a website where you can register and survey the various business contracts available.