New Jersey government bids for small agencies

Where New Jersey, its cities and counties post their bids, how to register, and the open ones that suit a small web, software, video or marketing agency right now.

Open right now

No New Jersey bids on our vetted list at the moment. New ones turn up most weeks; the free Monday email brings the best five.

Where New Jersey posts its bids

State bids: NJSTART. The State of New Jersey's eProcurement portal, run by the Division of Purchase and Property. Open bid solicitations can be searched from the public search page without signing in; many local governments and authorities also appear in it.
Register as a vendor: NJSTART Vendor Registration. You create one vendor profile in NJSTART and use it for every proposal, submit quotes, file an electronic W-9 and get paid electronically.
Technology buying: New Jersey Office of Information Technology (NJOIT) - For Vendors. NJOIT posts its own current bidding opportunities and procurement forms, and links to NJSTART. It also publishes the NJ Web Presence Guidelines.
Small business certification: Small Business Set Aside Program. State departments must make a good faith effort to award 25% of contract dollars for goods and services to eligible small businesses. You register with the Division of Revenue's Small Business Enterprise Unit in one of three gross-revenue categories.
Free bid coaching: NJIT APEX Accelerators: the state's APEX Accelerator helps small businesses with registrations and proposals at no cost.

Big city, county and agency buyers

Each of these runs its own bid page, and most want you registered in their system too.

Buyer	Bid page	Runs on
City of Jersey City	Open bids	BidNet Direct
Bergen County	Open bids	Bonfire
Essex County	Open bids	own website (Essex County Purchasing Portal)
Hudson County	Open bids	own website (Hudson County Purchasing Portal)
NJ TRANSIT	Open bids	Bid Express

Good to know

To qualify for the state's small business set-aside program, a business must have no more than 100 permanent employees and its principal place of business in New Jersey. source
Jersey City uses BidNet Direct for quotes, bids, RFPs and RFQs on all bids valued over $53,000. source
NJ TRANSIT uses Bid Express for all publicly advertised procurements and posts upcoming opportunities on a Procurement Calendar. source

Before you bid

Registering takes time, so do it before you find the perfect bid: how to get registered, and how to write a capability statement (with a free template).