Helping Small Businesses Find Government Contracts

By Mike Switzer

Published September 22, 2017 at 5:26 AM EDT

The U.S. government is the largest single purchaser of goods and services in the world, awarding approximately $500 billion in contracts every year. The US Small Business Administration has offices across the country and in our state that work with the small business community to facilitate acquiring those contracts.

Mike Switzer interviews Michael Corp, lead business opportunity specialist with the SBA's South Carolina district office in Columbia, SC.

Tags

Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

See stories by Mike Switzer