The U.S. economic stimulus program promises to inject up to $2 trillion of new government spending into the economy during the period 2008-2010. While a portion of this cash has already been spent or earmarked for specific purposes -- such as propping up woozy banks and buying bad mortgages -- the majority is yet to be committed. With the new presidential administration's desire to make major investments in rebuilding the nation's infrastructure, there are numerous potential opportunities for American businesses -- your business -- to profit.

However, many businesses have never had a government contract -- they don't know how to find out about them, they don't know how to bid on them, and they don't know the ins and outs of performing under them. Years ago, I used to be a contract negotiator for the Department of Defense. I can tell you that doing business with the government is vastly different than doing business with other companies. Volume after volume of procurement regulations control every aspect of the contracting process, and everyday things you might do with a commercial client -- such as take a program manager out to lunch -- are strictly forbidden. However, for those companies willing to spend some time learning about how the government contracting process works, and modifying their business practices to be in line with procurement regulations, the rewards can be quite worth their while. Once you get set up, Uncle Sam usually pays his bills regularly and on time. And despite rumors to the contrary, he's not going to go bankrupt anytime soon (don't forget -- Uncle Sam owns the printing presses).

If you've been thinking that you'd like a piece of the U.S. government's economic stimulus pie, then my advice is that you not wait one more minute -- dive in right now. There are a number of good sites on the Internet to start learning about how the government contracting process works, and how to find out about contracting opportunities that match with your goods and services. For starters, be sure to check out the government contracting sections of Business.gov and Business Owner's Toolkit. If your business is still a small one, also check with your local Small Business Adminstration office. Then get out there are start hunting!

Many companies have grown to billions of dollars of annual revenues doing work just for the U.S. government. Isn't it time for you to get a slice of that pie?