Urban and minority businesses can benefit by taking advantage of federal and state contracting opportunities. The federal government, alone, buys over $300 billion annually in all types of goods and services. Many federal contracts are targeted or set-aside for small businesses.

Many minority and urban businesses require a better understanding of not only what it takes to secure contracts, but how the bidding process itself works. These businesses often have challenges associated with developing joint ventures and strategic alliances to collectively bid on contracts, or conducting cash flow and profitability analysis on the contracts.
The UEP Founders are designing a model based on the Kauffman Coaches Program, designed by the Kauffman Foundation, as the driver for entrepreneurial invigoration and economic integration. 

Several examples of procurement resources that are made available to participants include: 

Business to Business Opportunities

• Business Roundtable

Federal Opportunities

• CCR - Procurement Marketing (register for contract  opportunities) 

• FedBizOpps - Federal Business Opportunities

• MBDA - BizMatch Tool 

• SUBNet- web.sba.gov/subnet/
  
  
• Business Matchmaking- www.businessmatchmaking.com