How to do business with the California government

California buys more than $20 billion a year in goods and services, and the state has written its own rules to push a meaningful slice of that toward small and diverse businesses. Every department carries a statewide goal of awarding at least 25% of its contract dollars to certified small businesses and at least 3% to disabled veteran business enterprises. Those aren't aspirations a buyer can quietly ignore. Departments that miss the goals in three out of five years can lose their delegated contract authority.

That's the opening. If you certify, you become the vendor a state buyer is actively looking for to hit a number they're measured on. Here's how to get registered, get certified, and start finding the work.

Start with the right front door: Cal eProcure

California runs its purchasing through the Department of General Services (DGS), and the system you'll live in is Cal eProcure at caleprocure.ca.gov. It's the state's eProcurement portal, and it does three jobs at once: it's where you register as a supplier, where the state's certification applications are filed, and where bid opportunities are posted in the California State Contracts Register.

Your first step is supplier registration. Create your account, enter your business details, and select the commodity and service codes that describe what you sell. The state uses these codes to notify you of matching solicitations, so take time here. Vague codes mean you miss bids meant for you.

Registration as a supplier is free, and it's separate from certification. You can register and bid without being certified. But registering is the bare minimum; certification is what unlocks the preferences below.

Get certified: SB, microbusiness, or DVBE

California's certification program is run by the Office of Small Business and DVBE Services (OSDS) inside DGS. There's no third party, no NMSDC or WBENC affiliate in this lane. The state certifies you directly, and the certification is free. You apply through Cal eProcure with the same login you used to register.

There are a few certifications worth knowing:

• Small Business (SB). Your business, counting affiliates, has 100 or fewer employees and averaged $19 million or less in annual gross receipts over the past three tax years. Manufacturers qualify on the 100-employee count. This is the workhorse certification for most owners.
• Microbusiness (MB). A subset of SB, assigned automatically when your gross receipts average $6 million or less (or 25 or fewer employees for a manufacturer). You don't apply separately; the state designates it.
• Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE). At least 51% owned by one or more disabled veterans, with daily operations managed and controlled by a disabled veteran who has a service-connected disability rated at 10% or more and resides in California. This is the program tied to the 3% statewide goal.
• Small Business for the Purpose of Public Works (SB-PW). A larger size standard, 200 or fewer employees and $46 million average gross receipts, for construction and public works firms.

One thing to flag for minority- and women-owned business owners. California does not run a standalone race- or gender-based MBE/WBE certification for general state purchasing the way some states do. The state's tools are the SB, MB, and DVBE programs. If your minority- or women-owned firm meets the small business size standard, the SB certification is your path to the preferences, and your diversity status still matters for federal work and for many local agencies and corporate buyers. See our state-by-state guide for how California compares to programs elsewhere.

Plan for the certification review to take a few weeks once your documents are complete. Have your tax returns, organizational documents, and proof of ownership ready before you start, because incomplete applications are the main reason files stall.

What certification actually unlocks

This is where the time pays off. Certified firms get real, mechanical advantages in how bids are scored.

The 5% small business bid preference. When you bid against a non-small business, the state applies a 5% preference to your bid for evaluation purposes only. It doesn't change your actual price; it lowers your number on paper so you compete from ahead. The preference is capped at $50,000 on any single bid. On a competitive solicitation, that 5% is often the difference.

The DVBE incentive. Bidders who use certified DVBE participation earn a scoring incentive that scales from 1% up to 5% depending on the level of DVBE work. It rewards both DVBE primes and non-DVBE bidders who subcontract to DVBE firms.

The SB/DVBE Option. This is the closest thing California has to a set-aside, and it's the fastest path to your first contract. For purchases of goods, services, or IT valued above $5,000 and up to $249,999.99, a state department can skip the full competitive bid and contract directly with a certified small business or microbusiness, as long as it gets quotes from at least two certified firms. A buyer trying to hit the 25% goal can hand you a deal under a quarter-million dollars without a formal solicitation. If you understand how a federal set-aside narrows the field, this is the same idea applied at the state level. Our explainer on set-asides covers the logic.

The subcontracting preference. A large prime that commits at least 25% of its bid to certified small business subcontractors can earn the 5% preference itself. That makes you valuable to primes chasing California work, not just to the state directly.

Where to find the bids

Once you're registered and certified, opportunities show up in a few places:

• The California State Contracts Register (CSCR), searchable inside Cal eProcure. This is the official list of open solicitations above the formal bidding threshold.
• The commodity-code notifications the system emails you when a matching bid posts. This is why those codes matter.
• Individual department procurement pages. Big buyers like Caltrans, CalPERS, and the CSU and UC systems run their own pages and often their own SB/DVBE outreach. The UC and CSU systems honor state SB and DVBE certifications for their sheltered bidding.

Don't wait passively for an email. Search the register directly, and reach out to the small business advocate that every state department is required to designate. Those advocates exist to help certified firms find work, and a direct introduction often beats a cold bid.

A realistic first 60 days

1. Week 1. Register as a supplier on Cal eProcure and pick precise commodity and service codes.
2. Weeks 1 to 2. Pull together your tax returns, formation documents, and ownership proof.
3. Weeks 2 to 4. File your SB or DVBE application through Cal eProcure and respond fast to any document requests.
4. Weeks 4 to 6. Once certified, search the CSCR, identify two or three target departments, and contact their small business advocates.
5. Ongoing. Watch for SB/DVBE Option opportunities under $249,999, where your certification carries the most weight.

California rewards the businesses that get fully set up before they bid. A registered, uncertified vendor competes on price alone. A certified one competes with a 5% head start and access to a fast-track contracting lane built specifically for them.

If you want your business listed where corporate and government buyers are searching for diverse suppliers, create a supplier profile once you're certified. And if filing state and federal certifications one portal at a time sounds like the 40-hour slog it usually is, CertifyAll handles the paperwork across agencies so your California SB or DVBE application moves alongside any federal certifications you qualify for.