<p style="text-align: left;">Before you can legally sell business to the Government, you need to register with a few organizations. To kick this process off, you need to obtain a Data Universal Number System (DUNS). It’s essentially a generic id number to identify your company.</p>

<h4>Prerequisites</h4>
<code>[list style="list3" color="red"]</code>
<ul>
	<li>Legal Company Name</li>
	<li>Company Address</li>
</ul>
[/list]

[info]
You can read about it further here: <a title="http://www.dnb.com" href="http://www.dnb.com" target="_blank">http://www.dnb.com/</a>
The actual application is here: <a title="https://iupdate.dnb.com/iUpdate/companylookup.htm" href="https://iupdate.dnb.com/iUpdate/companylookup.htm" target="_blank">https://iupdate.dnb.com/iUpdate/companylookup.htm</a>
[/info]

This takes time. In our experience, this could be a few days to two weeks. D&amp;B claims within 30 days, but realistically, unless you have Company name trademark issues, turnaround will be sooner. We haven’t paid to expedite this, but if you’re in a crunch, that option is available.  $49 ensures a 5 day turnaround.

See below for the steps involved in the registration.

<h4>Step 1:</h4> Search for a business name. This is to verify your business entity. Since you are starting a new business, with a fresh name, this search should be fruitless.
<center>[image icon="zoom" lightbox="true" title="D&amp;B Registration Step 1"]http://governmentstartup.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/DB.Step_.1.png[/image]</center>

<h4>Step 2:</h4> At the very bottom, click on the “Get a D-U-N-S number” link.
<center>[image icon="zoom" lightbox="true" title="D&amp;B Registration Step 2"]http://governmentstartup.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/DB.Step_.2.png[/image]</center>

<h4>Step 3:</h4> Fill out this form with <strong>your</strong> personal information.  This is <i>not</i> the form for your company yet.
<center>[image icon="zoom" lightbox="true" title="D&amp;B Registration Step 3"]http://governmentstartup.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/DB.Step_.3.png[/image]</center>

<h4>Step 4:</h4> Fill out this form with your company information.  Be sure to use your Legal Company Name and Company address.  When you reach the "Ownership" form, make sure you select the option that reflects your entity type.  The form will change to reflect the information required.
<center>[image icon="zoom" lightbox="true" title="D&amp;B Registration Step 4"]http://governmentstartup.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/DB.Step_.4.png[/image][image icon="zoom" lightbox="true" title="D&amp;B Registration Step 4b"]http://governmentstartup.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/DB.Step_.4b.png[/image]</center>