Network for Enabling Small Business Training

The Network for Enabling Small Business Teaming (NEST) is hosted by San Diego State University College of Business Administration – Lavin Entrepreneurship Center. NEST is funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration to help small businesses to identify large federal procurement opportunities, form teams, and submit winning proposals.

NEST is comprised of partners from academia, industry, economic focused non-profits, and others. Its main objective is to support local small businesses to pursue large (e.g., $10 million) procurement opportunities in the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Energy, Justice, and others as appropriate to San Diego small business clusters. As one of eleven awardees, NEST provides members the following services that assist small businesses teams in competing for multi-million dollar federal contracts:.

Teaming: NEST helps small businesses that have identified a large federal procurement opportunity find team members; facilitate discussions on alternative teaming strategies; and assist team members in executing a teaming agreement, allocating the scope of work among team members in the roles of prime and subcontractors, and developing proposal action plans and schedules. NEST also offers training on teaming-related topics..

Bid and Proposal: NEST Small Business Teams that are ready to bid are provided a Mentor/Coach once a viable opportunity is identified and qualified by the NEST Management team. NEST Mentors will provide as-needed consulting and guide the teams in preparing competitive bids..

Contract Negotiation: NEST will assist the small business team with pre/post award contract negotiations in order to secure a mutually agreeable set of terms under which the small business team will execute the contract.