BRAC Business Initiative Aims to Level the Playing Field for Contractors

By Susan Kim, STAFF WRITER

Local small businesses are becoming increasingly involved in the Base Realignment and Closure Business Initiative (BBI), and local leaders are hoping this will help better prepare businesspeople to break into the world of defense contracting.
In 2009, the Fort Meade Regional Growth Management Committee discovered that, although the expansion of Fort Meade would likely increase opportunities for small businesses, these companies often had difficulty traversing the complexities of the defense contracting environment.
Left with only anecdotal information, the committee could not recommend appropriate actions for small and minority businesses. In 2009, the BBI was created to document the Fort Meade region defense contracting environment so that the conditions that define it are more transparent to the small and minority businesses that must function within it.
To accomplish this, the BBI will track and document the actions of 20 small and minority businesses during a one-year period that ends in July.

A Business Magnet
The BBI has already attracted more than 400 companies. Kent Menser, director of Howard County's BRAC office, said that businesses from as far away as California have joined the BBI as partners.
"We have more than 120 companies from Howard County, more than 54 from Baltimore County, more than 35 from Anne Arundel County and 34 from Prince George's County, with a smattering from counties across the state."
Thirty-three companies are from counties outside the state, he said, including locations in Texas, California, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania.
The Partner Company Group within the BBI provides all small businesses in the region the opportunity to receive BBI information as it is produced. The group also participates in all BBI functions and forms the core of a formal, structured BBI Networking Group.
Each member of the networking group submits contact information as well as a capabilities statement and three products or services. This information goes into a database that each member will be able to access.
Bob Lieb, Anne Arundel County's special assistant for BRAC, said he believes the BBI will give businesses a more accurate and transparent picture of the world of defense contracting.
"Businesses are trying to figure out how to get in around that outer circle," Lieb said. "The BBI doesn't promise you business.
It promises you will gain an understanding of the process."

Test Companies
Mobern Lighting is one of the BBI's 20 test companies that will share its process of landing business within the defense industry. The role of test companies is to work to obtain contracts from defense agencies or defense contractors in support of Fort Meade, while BBI staff documents Mobern's actions and experiences, including contacts made, obstacles and best practices.
Bob Claire, Mobern's director of special projects, said he believes the BBI will help the entire small business marketplace. "We feel that being a test company is a way of helping to monitor the marketplace," he said, "and we've always been fairly active in the community."
Mobern also found a new business partnership with another test company, Trifecta Industries, a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business. Trifecta supplies packaging machines and eco-friendly housing to the federal government and others.
"As a test company, we're definitely getting our name out there," said Trifecta President Sean Keyman.
The BBI also has selected advisory companies to share their knowledge and best practices derived from their successful experiences in the defense contracting field.
Menser said that he hopes the BBI model will continue to evolve as the defense contracting market changes. "We may try and redo this again with a larger regional approach," he said.