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.

<strong>Prerequisites</strong>
<ul>
	<li>Valid, legally formed entity with company name</li>
</ul>
You can read about it further here: <a href="http://www.dnb.com/">http://www.dnb.com/</a>

The actual application is here: <a href="https://iupdate.dnb.com/iUpdate/companylookup.htm">https://iupdate.dnb.com/iUpdate/companylookup.htm</a>

This application 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.

See below for the steps involved in the registration.

Step 1: Search for a business name.  This is to verify your entity. Since you are starting a new business, this search should be fruitless.