Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How to Get a Government Contract without Writing a Proposal with Sirena Thomas

Transcript

How to Get a Government Contract without Writing a Proposal with Sirena Thomas · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  They're looking to redirect $1,800,000,000 that they already spend on purchase cards.
• 0:07
  To small businesses that are located right outside of their gates.
• 0:10
  And so if you go and if you can Google this Air Force Base is near me, first look program, But
• 0:17
  if you go to their OSBOO map, their office of small disadvantaged business utilization, you
• 0:23
  can actually find the purchase cardholders, you can search and it'll bring up a map, and it'll
• 0:27
  show you the purchase card holders in your region, their phone numbers, their names.
• 0:32
  Remember, we're talking tax payer dollars.
• 0:34
  I get to know who can spend my taxpayer dollars.
• 0:43
  Recognition, liftoff.
• 0:47
  Ending small business failure.
• 0:49
  Welcome to the small biz chat podcast with a number one small business expert, Melinda
• 0:55
  Emerson.
• 0:56
  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the you need to
• 1:01
  succeed and live the life you dream of.
• 1:04
  Now here's the small biz lady herself.
• 1:08
  Melinda Emerson.
• 1:10
  Hi, everybody.
• 1:11
  I'm Melinda Emerson's small biz lady.
• 1:13
  America's number one small business expert And I am proud to welcome you tonight to small biz
• 1:20
  chat podcasts, and I am so excited to be here with you tonight.
• 1:25
  We have an amazing show in store.
• 1:28
  Now here on the small fish tab podcast, we talk about how to start and grow successful small
• 1:33
  businesses.
• 1:34
  And my guests have amazing insight to share.
• 1:37
  And you're gonna get sage advice from multiple perspectives is a peer to peer interview show.
• 1:43
  That gives small business owners a way to get invaluable business advice.
• 1:46
  And our mission is to end small business failure.
• 1:50
  So now let me introduce my guest.
• 1:53
  Her name is Serena Moore Thomas.
• 1:55
  She is the CEO of the Highmark Group.
• 1:57
  She is an accomplished mompreneur author speaker and strategist, affectionately known as
• 2:03
  the destroyer of comfort zone.
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  Despite being a teen mom of twins with no college degree.
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  She has led several multimillion dollar businesses and 100 of federal contract and
• 2:15
  continues to empower business leaders around the world.
• 2:19
  So Mia's entrepreneurial accomplishments have been featured the New York Times, NBC Night
• 2:23
  News, Black Enterprise, Essence, Upscale, and on BT for more information, go to Serena Thomas
• 2:30
  dotcom.
• 2:31
  Serena, welcome to the small fish at Park Ave.
• 2:33
  Hey, Melissa.
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  How are you?
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  Thank you for having me.
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  Oh, gosh.
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  I'm so excited to be here.
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  Now I know I've known you for a long time, but my audience may not be familiar with you.
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  So tell me your origin story.
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  How did you get from, you know, teenage mom, which wins to where you are today.
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  So the the very short version is this.
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  While my friends were preparing to go to college and have an epic summer that senior
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  year of high school, I was definitely preparing for single parenthood I had an opportunity
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  about 2 months later after graduation to work with my father on a construction site.
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  It was on that site.
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  We found out contractor was awarded a 6 figure contract to do what he already knew how to do.
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  And he told me if I can figure out how to start a business, he would do the service, and we
• 3:23
  have our own business.
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  And that was the birth of my, entrepreneurial journey.
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  So we started this business in my brother's old bedroom, We paid my first employee with my
• 3:34
  father's unemployment check, and we grew this business from 0 to over about a a couple
• 3:41
  million in sales in about 6 years.
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  And I had no idea that was even a big accomplishment, but during that time, you know,
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  there was no Google.
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  There was no, there was no FaceTime and then no Facebook and no Instagram and no LinkedIn.
• 3:54
  It was, you know, AOL dial up, right, figure it out.
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  And so that's what I did.
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  How did you get into federal contracting that first contract you heard about, was that a
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  federal contract, or did you get into federal contracting later?
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  So got into federal contracting later.
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  So, like, most small businesses I went after the alphabet suit, you know, what I'm talking
• 4:15
  about, all these certifications.
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  So I was mbe, wbedbe, a h I j k, elemental and double a CP, like, every single certification
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  that existed, I went after.
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  And it was the 8 a, the the number 8, the letter a, certification through the small
• 4:33
  business administration that pushed me into federal contracting.
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  It's it's a business development certification.
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  The only one of its kind And so once I entered that program, few a few years into it, I was
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  able to discover how powerful it is to do business with the federal government.
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  So is there a difference between, like, federal contracting and state and local government
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  contracting?
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  For sure.
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  For sure.
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  There's definitely a difference between the federal and the the state and local.
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  So, I I call it going to where the money resides.
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  You know, the money resides at federal level.
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  Right?
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  And that budget is passed down, then state, and then local and municipal.
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  And so, I decided that it was just harder for me personally to do business in the city and in
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  the state.
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  It was just it was more difficult.
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  The market was it was smaller.
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  It it was a little bit of work and a lot of people fighting for it.
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  And so at the federal level, I found a bigger pool to swim in, and so that's what I decided
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  to do.
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  But there's a huge difference, definitely.
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  So speaking of that, if someone's thinking about a business model or expanding their
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  business model right now, Do you think that looking in the federal contracting space makes
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  sense?
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  So federal, yes, makes a whole lot of sense for multiple reasons.
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  1, they never run out of money.
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  Contrary to popular belief.
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  They can print their own legally.
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  Okay?
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  They are spending $500,000,000,000 a year in contracting and about, let's see, a
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  197,200,000,000,000 is set aside for small businesses.
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  So you have a huge market.
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  They're the largest customer in the world.
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  There are so many initiatives right now, specifically for small disadvantaged
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  businesses.
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  There are initiatives from the White House.
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  There's an initiative right now to spin, to increase the contracts going to small
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  disadvantaged businesses by 50% over the next 4 years.
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  That equates to $100,000,000,000 to small businesses.
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  It's it's it's a great opportunity.
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  So tell me about if I wanna get started with federal contracting.
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  You gotta get registered.
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  Right?
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  So tell me about SAM, and what is that?
• 6:50
  Yeah.
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  So you do you do have to register in sam.gov.
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  I mean, it's if you've if you've applied to any other certification or any other program, it's
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  about same.
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  I mean, people make a big deal about it, and there are people who charge you to do that for
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  you.
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  And, and, you know, if you don't wanna do it, then you should do it.
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  Go that route.
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  But you can do it yourself.
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  You do need to commit some time.
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  I I suggest you connect with somebody that knows what they're doing, but you have free
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  resources to do so.
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  But the only thing you need to do really is Sam dot gov.
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  There's no longer a Dun's number necessary, so they have the unique identifier now, and you
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  can get all of that on sam.gov.
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  And I think every small business should be registered at least registered in sam.gov,
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  whether you know you're gonna do business with the government or not, you should at least go
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  through the process of registering to do business.
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  Okay.
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  Alright.
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  So your claim to fame is that you help people win contracts without writing proposals.
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  And I I am my ears perked up when you said this is the topic that you wanted to talk about.
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  I was like, okay.
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  Write that down for me because part, I mean, I almost feel like working on a federal proposal
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  is, like, a hazing process.
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  Like, literally, it's, like, one of the most painful things I I have ever done in my life,
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  and my business graduate from the 80 program, gosh, mid 2000.
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  But I will tell you that doing business with the federal government is is nobody's joke, but
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  but I want you to break it down for us When you say get contract without proposals, what are
• 8:26
  you talking about?
• 8:27
  So here's the deal, Melinda.
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  I sat in the front row of a PTAC conference Right?
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  And a Ptech procurement technical assistance center.
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  They are free.
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  They offer services to help you do business with the government.
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  Okay?
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  So that's somewhere you should go.
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  But they pulled up a slide that had, like, 22 points on it.
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  Like, this is how you do business with the government.
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  And I sat there looking like, what you're talking about, Willis.
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  There has to be.
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  Like, there has to be easier way to do this.
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  And so there was.
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  There there's a few ways to win the federal government also buys by well, one they buy
• 9:02
  various ways.
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  The purchase card is a powerful way to do business with the federal government without
• 9:09
  writing proposals.
• 9:10
  What am I talking about?
• 9:11
  Well, you you the the federal government buys everything from chicken to dog food, to yoga
• 9:17
  instructors, to aircraft parts.
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  Right?
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  So they're they buy everything, caring services janitorial IT.
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  You name it.
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  They buy it.
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  But there are these government purchase cardholders that exist all over the country in
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  every single agency, and they can spend on their government credit card up to $10,000.
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  These are not opportunities that you're gonna find on Sam.
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  These are opportunities you develop relationships for.
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  My very 1st janitorial contract was done with a purchase card.
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  It wasn't something that went out to for solicitation because legally the government
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  doesn't have to to, publicize if it's under $25,000.
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  And so if you read on sam.gov or yes, sam.gov, which used to be FBL, whatever, it'll say these
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  are contracting opportunities.
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  Most of these are 25,000 and above.
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  So what about what happens 25,000 and below?
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  So imagine if you can win 10,000 at a time, what would that do for your business?
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  So that's only one way, though.
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  We got time for another?
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  Oh, please.
• 10:25
  I mean Okay.
• 10:26
  So the purchase cards.
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  You have your purchase cards, and I did a janitorial services one for with a purchase
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  card, right?
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  The simplified acquisition procedure is really what I'm talking about.
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  So that's far part 13.
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  Far is the federal acquisition regulation.
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  Okay?
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  Far Part 13 talks about simplified acquisitions.
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  The threshed hold for simplified acquisitions is $250,000.
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  Okay?
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  So $250,000 and below the government can use a simplified procedure.
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  So there's purchase cards.
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  There are purchase orders, right, where they can just place an order for your service.
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  There are RFQs that request for quote.
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  I work in a specific system called Dibs, supplying items to the defense logistics
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  agency.
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  Indives, there's no paper.
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  It's a web based platform.
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  You enter your price on one form, and it's an RFQ.
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  And so there's never a proposal necessary.
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  It's based on price and, delivery.
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  And so those are options.
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  You have sole source contracts.
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  Right?
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  If you're in the aiding program, all of the contracts I won were sole source primarily.
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  And and and, you know, I have strategies for that, and and you can find out about that on
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  the screen at tomlist.com, but So I I think I gave you 4 ways just now.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  No.
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  I I get it.
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  So so it's it's about going after that small money.
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  Right?
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  I think everyone thinks about the federal government, and they think about 5,000,000
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  dollars, 10,000,000, $50,000,000 contracts, and they forget about these these small money
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  contracts that that you can get just, you know, on a whisper almost, it sounds like.
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  So how do you go about finding who's the card holders?
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  Like, I I mean, because I'm assuming there's some kind of directory or something.
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  How do I find out If I wanna sell something to the SBA, how do I find out who the cardholders
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  are?
• 12:25
  Yeah.
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  So and every agency is gonna work So, right, the the very first thing you wanna do is you
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  wanna know who buys what you sell.
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  Right?
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  That's part of what you want want to know.
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  Who buys what you sell?
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  There are so many agencies and so many offices located within the agencies.
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  It's so much more than, you know, navy, marines, the air force.
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  There are the office of the interior.
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  The office was the blue cow and the red Dove and the the office was I mean, they they have
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  offices.
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  I believe they make up.
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  I'm so serious.
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  Some of them The names are hilarious, but there are purchased cardholders there.
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  The federal government has this thing called, like, freedom of information, which is another
• 13:02
  reason why I love them, you can find purchase card holders online.
• 13:07
  Specifically, I'll talk about the Air Force.
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  Okay?
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  Air Force, they have a program called FirstLook Program.
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  They're looking to redirect $1,800,000,000 that they already spend on purchase cards to small
• 13:21
  businesses that are located right outside of their gates.
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  And so if you go and if you can Google this Air Force Base is near me first look program.
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  But if you go to their OSBOO map, their office of small disadvantaged business utilization,
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  you can actually find the purchase card holders you can search, and it'll bring up a map.
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  And it'll show you the purchase card holders in your region.
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  Their phone numbers their names.
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  Remember, we're talking taxpayer dollars.
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  I get to know who can spend my taxpayer dollars.
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  And if you think about it that way, you go searching that way.
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  Right?
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  So so it's really about narrowing down on the agency and then drilling and then, like, kind
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  of drilling down from there Yeah.
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  The hospital office and kinda getting some direction there.
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  And your eyes label can be the first stop.
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  That's, like, one of the first places you should always And then they can even direct you
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  to the program office and then to the purchase card holders.
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  Okay.
• 14:18
  So what about federal contract vehicles like GSA schedule and things like that.
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  Are those necessary?
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  Are those helpful?
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  They are absolutely not necessary.
• 14:31
  Helpful depending on what you do.
• 14:34
  It it just it depends on what you're selling to the government.
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  There's more money spent on purchase cards than there is GSA.
• 14:42
  Really?
• 14:43
  Really?
• 14:44
  I actually
• 14:45
  I actually did not know that.
• 14:46
  And so, yeah, you could you could do the numbers.
• 14:49
  I mean, there's the the GSA, the GSA schedule is is great to have.
• 14:55
  It's a great contracting vehicle, but it's often promoted and sold by people that do GSA.
• 15:01
  It's sold as a guaranteed contract.
• 15:03
  There are no guaranteed contracts.
• 15:05
  It's not a guaranteed contract.
• 15:07
  You get this vehicle.
• 15:08
  You still have to market yourself.
• 15:10
  You still has to find who's buying what you're selling.
• 15:12
  You still have to like, there's things you have to do.
• 15:16
  So it's not a guaranteed vehicle.
• 15:19
  So if I decided, okay, tomorrow, I'm gonna start pursuing government contract.
• 15:24
  What is a reasonable sales cycle or timeline.
• 15:28
  Like, you know, you that somebody with a pea card is not gonna meet me and then drop it on
• 15:33
  me, you know, 2 weeks later.
• 15:35
  What is a realistic timeline for my listeners to really kinda understand how long this
• 15:41
  process actually takes?
• 15:43
  Got it.
• 15:43
  So strategy is gonna be everything.
• 15:46
  Right?
• 15:47
  The first thing I have you do is look in your house.
• 15:50
  Who do you know?
• 15:51
  What relationships can we leverage?
• 15:53
  Let's talk about agencies.
• 15:55
  Have you done business with the government for?
• 15:57
  Have you not, like, there are a lot of factors that go into play here.
• 16:01
  Right?
• 16:02
  So have you done any with any business at all?
• 16:04
  Do you have an agency that's located near you?
• 16:07
  You can call a purchase card holder tomorrow and say, and and I'll just give y'all this for
• 16:13
  free because I teach my students this.
• 16:15
  I have my students call as students because most people are afraid to make phone calls.
• 16:19
  It's a it's a unfortunate, but it's small business stuff.
• 16:21
  Right?
• 16:22
  And they call purchase card holders, and guess what they say, miss Melinda?
• 16:25
  They say, hi.
• 16:26
  My name is Serena, and I'm a student.
• 16:28
  I'm learning all about simplified acquisitions and purchase cardholders.
• 16:32
  Are there any purchase card holders in your office?
• 16:36
  Can I speak with 1?
• 16:37
  What kind of things do you guys buy on your purchase card?
• 16:41
  How do you find small bit?
• 16:42
  Do you see what I'm saying?
• 16:43
  So I but this is this is all available at Mission 500 k.
• 16:48
  I teach you how to get to it.
• 16:50
  Okay.
• 16:50
  Mission500k.com.
• 16:53
  How to have the the the the hard frightening phone calls.
• 16:57
  That's what I call it with my students, how to make the frightening phone calls.
• 17:01
  And and no one can see you over the phone going like this you know, rubbing your hands.
• 17:06
  So you can do that tomorrow.
• 17:09
  That's available to you.
• 17:11
  Interesting.
• 17:11
  Interesting.
• 17:12
  Well, I'm gonna have you put a pin in that.
• 17:14
  We're gonna go to break.
• 17:15
  And when we come back, Serena Moore Thomas is gonna break down even more for us about how to
• 17:21
  get, like, a recontract without writing a proposal on Belinda Emerson, the small business
• 17:26
  lady, you're watching the small Bishop podcast, and we will be right back.
• 17:31
  Hi.
• 17:32
  I'm Melinda Emerson's small biz lady, and I wanna welcome you to small biz lady university.
• 17:37
  Our mission here is to end small business failure.
• 17:40
  So all of the courses here are about 2 things, how to become your own boss, or how to make
• 17:47
  money online.
• 17:48
  So that's we do here.
• 17:49
  So whether you wanna learn about email marketing and sales funnels, or you're ready to
• 17:55
  get started with social media selling, Or if you're really just getting started with e
• 17:59
  Commerce, you might want to jump into our how to sell and market online course.
• 18:03
  Either way, if you want to learn how to become your own boss, and do it well.
• 18:09
  I have everything you need here at smallbizlatinguniversity.com.
• 18:13
  If you have any questions or have any technical homes getting signed up, just email us at
• 18:18
  support@malindamerson.com.
• 18:22
  Take care.
• 18:25
  Hi, everybody.
• 18:25
  Welcome to the small business chat podcast.
• 18:28
  Alright, Serena.
• 18:30
  Are there certain government agencies that are better to go out after?
• 18:33
  Like, is it all about DOD?
• 18:35
  Like, you know, or do do I need to be is it better to be more niche?
• 18:39
  You know, is it better to, like, pick 1 or 2 agencies in focus on them and which ones are
• 18:44
  are good for the pickings?
• 18:46
  There there are a lot.
• 18:48
  And because I have experienced winning both product and service.
• 18:52
  So after the government, after the cleaning contracting company, where we won multiple, you
• 18:57
  know, contracts, 5 year contracts, I went on to run another company supplying Boeing aircraft
• 19:02
  parts to the federal government through DLA, to DLA, the defense logistics agency.
• 19:08
  And so my experience is both in product and in service.
• 19:11
  If you're going product, DLA is the place to be.
• 19:15
  They provide the product for 11 combatant commands, all the different branches of the
• 19:20
  government.
• 19:21
  So products you might wanna consider DLA and then the Dibs system, which is the DLA Internet
• 19:28
  big board system.
• 19:29
  It's an acronym Dibs, right, I teach on that system.
• 19:32
  Not many people teach about that system.
• 19:34
  I've won hundreds of purchase orders without writing a proposal on the Dib system.
• 19:40
  Right?
• 19:40
  So if product, I'm gonna I'm gonna point you toward dips a little more than other
• 19:45
  placements.
• 19:46
  If service, it depends.
• 19:48
  IT services, for example, Treasury department buys tons.
• 19:52
  I was actually just on a call earlier today, and I wrote her on the sticky.
• 19:55
  They spent 145,000,000,000 spent with small businesses.
• 20:01
  Yeah.
• 20:02
  So Department of Treasury that that might be an opportunity, Department of Education.
• 20:07
  Like, there there are opportunities there.
• 20:09
  Training and IT also it really depends on where you are, but USA spending back up.
• 20:15
  Like, you can get the information on who's spending on what you you sell.
• 20:20
  So that's where I would that's what I would say to do.
• 20:23
  Alright.
• 20:24
  So if you had to recap, like, the top 3 things you need to do to get rolling with government
• 20:30
  contracting.
• 20:30
  What is it?
• 20:31
  So the first thing is to go to mission 500k.com and connect with Serena.
• 20:36
  So she can teach you so that you don't bump your head.
• 20:39
  Okay?
• 20:39
  Because I'm straight, you know, no chaser.
• 20:42
  This is this is it.
• 20:43
  This is what you see is what you get.
• 20:44
  So if you're okay with this style, then I'm your girl, then sam.gov.
• 20:48
  Right?
• 20:49
  Sam.gov, you just need to get registered.
• 20:51
  That's first.
• 20:52
  The next thing that I would say is I I would say go to your PTAK.
• 20:56
  You have all of these free services, right, but the free services are only as good as the
• 21:03
  instructions you have on using them.
• 21:06
  Right?
• 21:06
  So there is PTAC.
• 21:08
  Right?
• 21:08
  There is SBA.
• 21:09
  There is SCOR.
• 21:11
  There is SBDC.
• 21:12
  There is MBDA.
• 21:14
  But if you don't know what role they should play in this monster, it's gonna be
• 21:20
  overwhelming and confusing.
• 21:22
  So after you register for my class, I'll show you how to do all that, and then you'll go to
• 21:26
  Sam, and then you'll go to Pete's Okay.
• 21:29
  That's pretty much what I would say.
• 21:31
  Alright.
• 21:31
  Well, what's the best business advice you've ever gotten?
• 21:34
  You do not to accomplish your whole life's mission this year, Serena?
• 21:41
  Slow down.
• 21:42
  Okay.
• 21:43
  I think that's really, really fair and good invite.
• 21:46
  Thank you so much, Serena, for all of your information.
• 21:50
  Alright, Serena.
• 21:51
  What's your favorite podcast?
• 21:54
  I think I would be wrong if I don't choose my own now because I was gonna say Melinda's.
• 21:58
  So now I get a chance to save the BMW Life, boss mom wife life, which Serena Moore Thomas.
• 22:04
  It's totally transparent and amazing, I think.
• 22:07
  Well, I'm gonna have to check that out.
• 22:09
  What is your favorite business app, miss Rena?
• 22:12
  My favorite one is Ithoughts.
• 22:14
  Definitely, Ithoughts.
• 22:16
  It is a mind map app, and I'm a brain dumper and a mind mapper.
• 22:21
  So I thoughts.
• 22:22
  Alright.
• 22:23
  Good stuff.
• 22:24
  Favorite old school, Markington.
• 22:27
  So I was thinking about, like, how much I miss just having to show up in the room like you
• 22:32
  were meant to be there, right, and really providing value and not being the you know,
• 22:39
  what can you do for me, but showing up in the room, introducing yourself, but looking for
• 22:44
  ways to provide value and showing up like you were meant to be there.
• 22:48
  I like it.
• 22:49
  I like it.
• 22:49
  I call that being more interested than interesting, right, and definitely you wanna
• 22:54
  look for ways that you can serve always.
• 22:57
  My favorite old school marketing tip is actually writing handwritten up.
• 23:00
  That's what I still do that.
• 23:02
  I love that.
• 23:02
  Treasure them.
• 23:03
  And even when people buy, like, one of my autograph books off my site.
• 23:07
  I always write something personal in it.
• 23:09
  I can't tell you how many times.
• 23:11
  I'll see you know, social media.
• 23:12
  Somebody took a picture of the little note I put in the book because it meant so much to
• 23:17
  them.
• 23:17
  Alright.
• 23:18
  Last question.
• 23:19
  What is the best business book you've ever read?
• 23:23
  Best business book you've ever read.
• 23:25
  Who?
• 23:26
  Not how?
• 23:27
  With, like, transformational.
• 23:30
  Especially when it comes to, like, leading a team and just, like, it's not so much about
• 23:34
  focusing on the how to, how do I do this?
• 23:36
  How do I do this?
• 23:37
  It's about identifying the who not the how.
• 23:40
  And I can't remember the name of the author because I'm John Blake.
• 23:43
  And so I was trying to look it up.
• 23:45
  I'm familiar with the book, though.
• 23:46
  Some most most business people are, the the who's not the house.
• 23:49
  Dan Sullivan.
• 23:50
  Yeah.
• 23:51
  Yes.
• 23:51
  Very fun.
• 23:52
  Thank you all for joining me for this episode of the Small Bridge Tap podcast.
• 23:56
  If you're still working on your digital pivot, please take advantage of small bizlating
• 24:02
  university.
• 24:03
  We have 4 courses available for you to take your business to the next level, and I wanna
• 24:08
  invite you to check them out because everyone deserves to make the money that they work so
• 24:13
  hard forth.
• 24:15
  So listen, a mission of small fish chat is to end small business failure.
• 24:21
  I'm Melinda Emerson's small business lady, your host, and I will leave you with this.
• 24:25
  You never lose in business, either you win or you won't.
• 24:29
  Tonight, every time.
• 24:32
  Thank you for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
• 24:37
  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
• 24:44
  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.