Entrepreneur and Business Plan Sources Sought.pdf

This is a Sources Sought Synopsis published by the United States Air Force (the Government or USAF). There is no solicitation available at this time. Requests for a solicitation will not receive a response. The purpose of this sources sought notice is to conduct market research to determine whether there are businesses available capable of providing an alternative product that meets the characteristics below. The Air Force anticipates procuring this product as a FY26 base effort with a projected period of performance of 30 September 2026 – 29 September 2027. This effort will have three – one year option periods: Option year 1 - 30 September 2027 – 29 September 2028, Option year 2 - 30 September 2028 – 29 September 2029, and Option year 3 - 30 September 2029 – 29 September 2030.

Responses to this sources sought notice will assist in a determination of whether it is in the best interest of the Government to proceed with a competition.

FSC: 7630

NAICS: 516210

Size Standard: $47 Million

Subscription name: Entrepreneur & Business Plan

1. Description: The Department of the Air Force Library Program has the following requirement: needs Legal Reference Database that works with Gale Entrepreneurship and Business database package subscription.

2. Product characteristics an equal item must meet to be considered:

1. Must provide a Business: Plan Builder is a step-by-step online planning tool for starting, managing, and optimizing a business or nonprofit. The program’s intuitive dashboard walks users through five areas of exploration to develop a business plan focused on long-term success.

2. Must provide users with a direct path to additional resources and tools at their points of need, Business: Plan Builder provides integrated access to business: entrepreneurship and Legal Forms when libraries subscribe to any of these products.

3. Must help users explore what they can bring to the table as an entrepreneur and assess where they stand in preparing to start a business.

4. Must employ tools such as Canvas, Lean Canvas, SWOT, PEST, and Porter’s Five Forces to plan the high-level framework in which a business will operate.

5. Must provide break-even analysis that delivers insight to determine when a user’s business will be able to cover expenses and begin to realize a profit.

6. Must provide business plans that prepares users for presentations to potential investors and lenders—this section includes an executive summary, lean business plan, full business plan, pitch deck, and strategic marketing plan.

7. Must provide financial projections that provide a robust analysis of a company’s financial future, encompassing capital expenditures, sales, equity, taxes, inventory, and more

8. Must include an easy-to-browse home page features four key business stages—plan, fund, start, and manage. Users can also find information through lists of popular business topics, business types, and a “how to” collection of questions.

9. Must provide over 1,200 business plans from the Business Plans Handbook series give users a template for success.

Business plans contain all parts of a standard business plan including executive summary, industry analysis, business structure, and financial projections.

10. Must provide indexed collection of resources includes small business eBooks, 400+ journals and magazines, and directories listing thousands of associations, consultants, consulting organizations, trade shows, business information sources, and more.

11. Must provide overviews, news, magazines, journal articles, and recommended web resources keep small business owners up to date on their industries.

12. Must provide a database of legal forms to help support the DoW Libraries customers.

13. Must provide current, general use legal forms and guidance.

Database should provide legal forms from the fifty (50) states drafted by attorneys and law firms in subject areas from real estate, wills, bankruptcy, bill of sale, contracts, employment, incorporate, landlord tenant, living wills, name change, power of attorney, real estate, taxes, divorce, to other subject areas.

14. Must include backfiles and unlimited simultaneous access to content by users.

15. In addition to legal forms, this database should also provide legal Q&A, attorney directory, product descriptions, law digest with major legal case coverage, and comprehensive form description documents.

16. Needs to be able to browse by subject with visual topic map/finder graphic alternative to get regular search results

17. Needs to have notes and highlight features to articles/topics that can be downloaded or printed by customer for later usage and work seamlessly with Google and Microsoft customer personal accounts for saving information for later usage.

18. Needs to have a mobile application that allows users to save articles, citations, and links

19. Must provide free staff training and complimentary marketing services.

20. Must be able to provide statistics for each branch of service and other category.

21. Must work with contract POC to establish authentication methods to provide optimal accessibility for all eligible patrons.

22. DoW Libraries is looking for an established vendor in the library commercial marketplace and not a custom-built product/platform/subscription.

23. Must provide a single sign on login for all registered DoWL users - SSo methodology – SAML attributes are required for authentication

24. Security between the Website and server must be Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3

25. Must be able to supply or allow retrieval of database usage statistics by Branch of Service (Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Military OneSource/Other, and Navy)

26. Must have HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with long duration deployed on the servers to mitigate/prevent man-in-the-middle attacks

27. Website certificates should be RSA 2048-bits (SHA256withRSA)

28. VCL must be able to test the platform to evaluate if it meets requirements. Must provide username and password to view content on platform.

The Government will consider responses received within 10 days of issuance of this notice.

Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct a full and open competitive procurement or a small business set aside competitive procurement. The Government will not pay for any information received in response to this announcement. If the Government competes this requirement, a synopsis shall be issued utilizing the combined synopsis/solicitation procedure identified in FAR 12.603. If this effort becomes a Small Business Set-Aside, FAR 52.219-14, Limitation on Subcontracting, will apply. Therefore, small businesses that want to be considered for a small business set-aside should demonstrate how they intend to comply. A determination not to compete this requirement based upon responses to this notice is an administrative decision by the Government that is solely within its discretion.

Contractors should be aware of the following information:

1. Contractors must include the following information:

a. Points of contact, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers.

b. Identification as a large U.S. business, a small U.S. business, or a foreign business. Please note that size indicated should be based on the NAICS code for this effort listed above.

c. Identification of any other socioeconomic status including: Women-Owned Small Business, Economically Disadvantaged Small Business, 8(a), Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, Veteran Owned Small Business or HUBZone.

d. Company CAGE Code or UEI.

e. Capabilities Statement

2. This requirement is not intended for specific brand name products. Offerors are encouraged to suggest products other than those that may be specifically referenced by brand name. Responses must address how alternate product meet the product characteristics specified above.

3. Submitted information shall be UNCLASSIFIED.

Any information submitted by respondents to this sources sought synopsis is strictly voluntary. The Government will not reimburse the respondents for any costs associated with their response. This synopsis does not constitute a Request for Proposals nor does its issuance restrict the Government as to its ultimate acquisition approach. The Government reserves the right to contact the submitting parties, on an as required basis, for further clarification on material provided.

Respondents should not construe this notice as a commitment by the Air Force for any purpose.

Responses should be emailed to Contracting Specialist: SrA William Sasser, william.sasser.2@us.af.mil and Contracting Officer: Gustavo Guadron, Gustavo.Guadron@us.af.mil no later than 17 August 2026, 4:00 PM CDT. Any questions should be directed to both SrA Willliam Sasser and Gustavo Guadron through email.

mailto:william.sasser.2@us.af.mil