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Business Opportunities
Small Business Development
Bonding
The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority is committed to the San Diego region
and ensuring that local small, disadvantaged, disabled veteran, and other small
business enterprises have every opportunity to do business with the Airport.
Recognizing that the main barriers for small businesses have been those that have
been imposed by a lack of access to bonding and to financing, the Airport’s
Bonding and Contract Financing Assistance Program assists small contractors in obtaining
bonding and financing for Airport contract work.
Program Services:
- Bonding and Financing Consultation and Technical Assistance
- Bid, Performance and Payment Bond Guarantees
- Contract Financing Guarantees
- Contractor-Focused Workshops and Seminars
- Accounting Services
- Funds Administration Services
Enrollment Information - The San Diego County Regional Airport
Authority Bonding and Contract Financing Assistance Program is open to all experienced
and licensed small businesses interested in participating.
To obtain more information, please contact:
Darlene McKinnon
(619) 400-2571 or click here
to send an appointment request.
Bid, Performance, and Payment Bond Guarantees
A surety bond is a three-party agreement whereby the surety company
assures the project owner (oblige) that the contractor
(principal) will perform a contract in accordance with the contract documents. When
a contractor requires its subcontractors to obtain bonds, the contractor is the
obligee and the subcontractor is the principal.
Surety is designed to prevent a loss. The surety pre-qualifies the contractor based
on financial strength and construction expertise.
There are three basic types of contract surety bonds:
- Bid Bond - Assures that the bid is submitted in good faith and
that the contractor will enter into the contract at the price bid and provide the
required performance and payment bonds.
- Performance Bond – Protects the owner from financial loss
should the contractor fail to perform the contract in accordance with its terms
and conditions.
- Payment Bond – Assures that the contractor will pay specified
subcontractors, laborers, and material suppliers associated with the project.
Workshops and Seminars
The Bonding and Contract Financing Assistance Program offers a regular series of
workshops. Below are descriptions of them. Class sizes are small to allow for more
personalized instruction, so pre-registration is a requirement.
If you are interested in obtaining a current schedule or need more information,
please click here
- Bonding 101: This 2-hour workshop is a requirement for participation
in the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority Bonding and Contract Financing
Program. The workshop will answer questions such as: What is surety bond? What
is a surety company? What is a surety broker? What do bonds cost? How Do I get a
bond? Why can't I just buy a bond? What is my bonding capacity? Why do I have to
pre-qualify? How do I increase my bonding? And much more…
- Funds Administration--How it Works: Funds Administration (a requirement
of the Authority’s Bonding and Contract Financing Program) is an underwriting
tool sometimes required by a surety company as a condition for obtaining a bond.
This 2-hour workshop covers Funds Administration, how the process works and, most
especially, how the use of the tools can help you to better manage your business.
- Unique Aspects for Being a Successful Contractor at the San Diego County
Regional Airport Authority: This 3-hour workshop provides an in-depth overview
of those conditions that are unique to the San Diego County Airport—ones which
every contractor needs to consider in their bidding, pricing, and performance of
the work. Some of the topics that will be covered include: airport terminology
(e.g., gates, perimeter, and airside operation vs. landside); insurance; security
requirements, including work beyond the Security checkpoint, etc.
- Airport Safety and Security Requirements - This workshop focuses
solely on the airport safety and security issues you must address in order to be
a successful contractor at the airport. Failure to address these issues may also
affect your bid amount. In addition, understanding OSHA regulations and having an
individualized Safety Plan is a requirement for securing Airport work and,
more importantly, for ensuring the safety of your workers and your job site. The
workshop is led by the Airport Safety and Security specialists, and they want to
make sure that you are successful in addressing these issues.
- Introduction to QuickBooks for Contractors: A 4-5 hour “Hands
On” workshop (using computers) to help you to learn QuickBooks for Contractors
as well as assist you in:
- Understanding the “language of business and accounting”
- Learning to do job costing
- Learning to create estimates
- Learning to use Percentage of Completion
- Modifying reports and investigating anomalies
- QuickBooks for Contractors (Intermediate Accounting Software Techniques
& Processes – 4 Hours In this workshop you will learn intermediate
QuickBooks techniques and processes tailored for contractors: Topics include job
costing, creating estimates and change orders, progress billing and percentage of
completion, customizing reports and more. Exercises include entering estimates,
progress billing, job costing and reviewing job costing reports. This is a hands-on
workshop. Participants should have completed Basic Bookkeeping Part I and Introduction
to QuickBooks, or be familiar with the concepts covered in these workshops.
- Understanding Financial Statements for the Contractor: This
workshop will focus on helping you to learn: (1) How to Read A Financial Statement—what
you need to know and what others (like a banker) are looking for; (2) Understanding
Cash Flow; (3) Understanding the Percentage of Completing Method of Accounting;
and (4) How to Lower Your Taxes. This 3-Hour workshop is taught by a CPA who works
exclusively with small and emerging contractors.
- Prevailing Wages De-Mystified: This workshop focuses on Labor Compliance
in the Public Works arena. It will help you to understand the Government Regulations
and procedures associated with Prevailing Wages. Learn what contractors must do
to comply with the law (certified payroll records; payment of applicable prevailing
wages; apprenticeship requirements; maintaining Workers Compensation insurance).
We will provide you with resources to help you beyond the class, so that you are
able to stay on top of this important requirement (and avoid the penalties associated
with non-compliance). This workshop is being taught by an expert in the field.
- Statement of Values / Work in Progress: Confused? What are they?
How do you do them? Where do you begin? What does it show you? Why use it? All
this and more will be addressed in this 3-hour workshop led by a CPA who specializes
in working with small businesses in the building and trades industry.
How Funds Administration Works
The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority’s Bonding and Contract Financing
Assistance Program is administered by Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services,
a company that has developed, implemented and administered contract-specific surety
bonding and financing programs for many West Coast municipalities, and is pleased
to do so for the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.
The 13-year success of these programs have resulted in the growth of numerous general
and subcontracting businesses, and has provided access to opportunities which heretofore
were unattainable because of the barriers imposed by lack of bonding and/or financing.
Key to the success of these programs has been the partnership between
Merriwether and Williams and the contractor, the broker, the lender, and the project
owner. Working together, these partnerships have served to mitigate the traditional
risks associated with these opportunities. Another key component of the program
is Funds Administration.
Funds Administration (“FA”) is an underwriting tool sometimes required
by a surety company as a condition of obtaining a bond. It is also required by the
surety bond program to protect a guarantee provided to a surety on the contractor’s
behalf.
Although there are a number of FA companies utilized by various surety companies,
the process is often similar: Essentially, progress payments are sent to the FA
Company instead of directly to the contractor. It is the job of the FA to make sure
the right people get paid the right amount at the right time. This includes payment
to subcontractors, suppliers, etc., and to the contractor for their overhead and
profit.
To help you better understand the process and to incorporate these tools into the
management of your business, we regularly offer a workshop on Funds
Administration.
How Partnering Works
Key to the success of the Bonding and Contract Financing Program is the partnership
between Merriwether and Williams (program administrator) and the contractor, the
broker, the lender, and the project owner. Working together, these partnerships
have served to mitigate the traditional risks associated with contracting opportunities.
Our partners all specialize in working with contractors. One of the services
of our program is to link you to these partners and help you to establish a relationship.
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Surety Brokers – Our surety broker partners help you to develop
a relationship with one of our surety partners to facilitate your obtaining bonding.
Lenders – Our lending partners make working capital loans
to program participants. They also provide counseling and training.
CPAs – Most contractors need to have a relationship with
a CPA who understands the industry and can provide them with timely financial statements.
Many surety companies and lenders often require CPA-prepared financial statements. One
of the features of the program is to help you establish these relationships and
access these tools.
Contracting Opportunities at the Airport
The Bonding and Contract Financing Program services can be used for all Airport
Contracting Programs. Click on one of the links below for information on future
projects and how to register your business in our Vendor Management system.
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