Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Landing Government Contracts with Carroll Bernard

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Landing Government Contracts with Carroll Bernard · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  3, 10, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff,
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
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  Bolinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you've dream of.
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  Now here's the small biz lady herself, Melinda Everson.
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  We are talking about all kinds of things that can help you take your business to the next
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  level.
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  And with that, I want to introduce my next guest Listen, if your business has been
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  adversely affected by the pandemic, government contracting really could be a way to go.
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  My next guest, Carol Bernard, is a government marketing coach and trainer, and he's the co
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  founder of govology.com.
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  It's an online platform dedicated to teaching small business owners how to win business in
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  the government marketplace.
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  Carroll draws from a decade of experience as a government buyer, and he's been successful at
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  winning government contracts himself.
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  So Carol, thank you so much for joining me tonight on small miss chat live.
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  Hey.
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  Thank you.
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  Just have the pleasure to be here.
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  Awesome.
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  Awesome.
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  Alright.
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  Let's jump into it.
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  The government buys everything.
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  So can any business at any size do business with the government?
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  Well, the answer to that question is, yes, there's not really any size standards that the
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  government will exclude you.
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  Although there's some scenarios where you might run across that you need to have 2 years behind
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  you, maybe to get into certain contract vehicles or maybe certain certification
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  programs, but it's really open for all businesses, and I've seen all kinds of
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  businesses from people who started out on unemployment, launching a business within a
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  couple of years have multi $1,000,000 in business from government contracts.
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  And so really it can be a business where anybody can get involved with it.
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  So why would you say that now is a good time to go after doing business with government
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  agencies?
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  Well, you know, I've been preaching this for a long time, and we can we're probably gonna talk
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  a little bit about what happened 10 years ago in the last great recession.
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  But at that time, I was working as a buyer with the VA and also then shifted over to the small
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  business administration.
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  And what I saw during the last recession was that the government was still spending money.
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  And I see the government marketplace as 2 opportunities.
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  1, of course, for growth, which is what everybody sees, but the other one that a lot of
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  people don't think about is for diverse and when you have these times of recessionary
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  periods and the market starts to contract, the government is still spending money And in fact,
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  they spend even more money through stimulus packages, and we're getting ready to actually
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  see another stimulus package this month, hit the house floor, called the Invest in America
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  Act where they're talking about injecting $500,000,000,000 into infrastructure projects
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  and that money trickles down to other state and local agencies.
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  It trickles down to prime contractors and all the sub elements of subcontractors who support
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  those primes So it's like this big flood of money that, you know, that analogy like the the
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  the water lift off ships, you know, the rising tide lifts off ships.
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  And so I really think this now is a really good time to get started.
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  Don't wait until that flow of money rushes by you and you see it and you're like, oh, let me
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  go put my sieve in the water because it does take a little bit set up and to build some
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  relationships and to do the things that you need to do out there to get involved.
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  Got it.
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  Got it.
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  So once you decide you wanna pursue government contacts, what should you do first?
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  You know, I really believe the first thing that you should do is explore the government
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  marketplace.
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  In fact, we have a a monthly webinar that we do call exploring the government marketplace for
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  your small business and the purpose behind that webinar so that people that are not involved
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  yet can really come into this session and number 1, see if the government marketplace is
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  right for them because it's not right for everybody and and it might be right for you
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  down the road, but just not right for you right now.
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  And I don't want anybody to get involved.
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  This is not ready to go, or are there going to be spending a lot of time and effort there when
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  they're not ready.
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  And so this one training that we do is really crucial to give you some of the ins and outs,
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  some of the good, the bad, and the ugly, some of the misconceptions that are out there
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  because there's a lot of misconceptions out there.
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  And so Once you get to the end of that, you can look at it and say, okay.
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  Do we wanna move forward?
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  And if we do, let's go.
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  The second piece to that once you get in is to validate the market before you really start
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  running out there, do some validation, do some homework, check-in with the agencies because
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  you wanna validate your business model.
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  When people say they wanna sell to the government or they they can sell to the
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  government it's kind of like a theory that you can, but you gotta validate that theory and
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  prove that you can have this successful model within the government marketplace.
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  And then once you've got that, then you can really start to gain some momentum.
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  So when you're just getting started, is it best to focus on, like, just one agency or a couple
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  at a time?
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  Like, what's the best kind of, like, strategy?
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  That's a great question.
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  You know, and, on a lot of the webinars that I do, I talk about the market research.
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  And one of the cool things is that with the federal government in particular, you can go
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  back and look at some of the historical spin data and where the money has gone because a lot
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  of times where it's gonna go again in the future.
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  And so, you know, as you look at that whole perspective there, I think it's just so
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  important for businesses to understand that that big picture of the government marketplace
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  so they can know exactly where they need to go first and they might find an agency out there
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  that's doing a lot of business in the type of products or service that they sell.
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  So you definitely wanna do your homework on these top agencies, and that's one of the cool
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  things that some of the market research can get to you in some of these websites like
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  usaspending.gov, are available for free to anybody to go in there and find that out.
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  So what I recommend is you definitely do some homework start with the top agencies that are
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  buying what you sell, but then also think about yourself as a prospect or you're going out into
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  you know, the old days and where when they were looking for gold, I mean, the government has
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  got this mountain of gold.
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  And just because an agency might be buying a lot of what you sell, it may be hard to access
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  that because you might have to get on a specific contract vehicle that might not be
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  readily available to you right now.
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  So then you go out and you start to prospect into other agencies to see if there's some
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  opportunity there.
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  And then once you start to win some small opportunities here and there, then you can
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  expand that model and and build that proven sales process for yourself.
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  Alright.
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  So let's talk about these contract vehicles since you just brought it up.
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  Let's talk about what some of the contract vehicles you might need to really be effective
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  with your sales efforts.
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  You know, it really all depends on the industry and the products and service that you're
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  selling.
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  A lot of times, government agencies buys in, like, I call it the acquisition pyramid.
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  So the first place that a contracting officer is going to go and look is they're gonna say,
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  do we have an existing contract on this, or do we have it somewhere?
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  In our warehouse.
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  And so there's a lot of contracts that exist like that where either the agency has a
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  contract, maybe it's a 5 year contract vehicle.
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  And so sometimes to get positioned on that.
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  You just have to wait until that opportunity comes open again, but there's also a lot of
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  good opportunities for small businesses to know who those contractors are the prime contractors
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  that hold those contracts so they can actually build relationships and position with them
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  because there's a lot of opportunity that can flow down to those businesses.
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  So sometimes it it may be that there's no contract vehicle in place and the government
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  goes through the open market.
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  And that's where when you register at sam.gov and you start watching the the opportunities at
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  beta.sam.gov and the contracting portal that starts flowing through, you'll see things
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  coming through.
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  But then there's a whole other segment that of things that are not even published because
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  under $25,000, the government doesn't have publish it.
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  So depending upon what you sell, the size of your offering, everybody has a little bit of a
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  different strategy.
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  And so there's not really one blueprint that fits all businesses.
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  Each business has to understand and create their own road map and then drive down that
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  road.
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  Alright.
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  So let's talk about Ptech Centers.
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  Like, a lot of people have heard of small business development centers, which are are,
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  you know, run by the government agencies.
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  They're funded through the SBA.
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  But can you talk a little bit about PTech Centers?
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  Because I don't think most people know what they are.
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  Absolutely.
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  I love the PTech Centers, and we have partnerships with actually most of the p tax
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  out there.
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  There's 94 centers around the country.
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  We have partnerships with over 70.
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  Where small businesses can come in and actually access Kovology training at no cost to them.
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  And so PTAX Center stands for Kermit Technical Assistance Center, This was a program that was
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  launched by the Department of Defense in the mid eighties because they were like, hey, why
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  are we paying so much money for everything?
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  And the answer to that was that they just didn't have that robust supply chain.
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  And so they started funding these p tax centers across the country, Right now, there's 94 of
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  them, and small businesses can go to this grant funded resource and get free counseling.
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  They can get some free training from people that are gonna sit there and help them get set
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  up, help them do some of the homework that I mentioned.
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  And then as they go along through their journey, kind of be a support agent for them.
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  What I would recommend if is if a small business is does not know about the PTAC
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  program, go to the association of procurement technical assistance center's website at
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  abtechdashus.orgaptac dashus.org.
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  And from there, if they click on the map, they can find the PTech Center that's located
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  nearest to them, and I would encourage them to start there.
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  And I would also say, you know, reach out to the Small Business Development Center in your
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  area.
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  They absolutely can point you to the local center as well because they're sort of like
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  sister agency.
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  Now how important is past performance?
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  I know you mentioned earlier that you know, in some cases, you need to be in business at least
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  2 years.
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  But, I mean, if you don't have proper past performance, it doesn't matter.
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  Right?
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  I mean, that's what I've always learned, known a government contracting myself.
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  True.
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  That's that's another one of those questions where I think we could answer it with.
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  It depends.
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  You know, for example, if we're talking about, like, state and local procurement and
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  construction bids where they do a lot of just, hey.
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  We're gonna put this out on a low bid.
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  If you're the responsive and the responsible contractor, you're pretty much gonna get it and
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  past performance doesn't play a big role.
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  If there's a small commercial item that the government is buying, A lot of times they're
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  just looking at the price, but the the higher the dollar volume and the and the more
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  technically complex the acquisition becomes, the government is very risk averse.
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  So they don't want to basically have you on as their first, you know, they don't want you to
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  to have this as your first rodeo.
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  They would like to see that you've done it for somebody else before.
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  And so that's where depending upon the acquisition, things like past experience and
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  past performance, become very important to the government.
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  And so you wanna ensure that you're able to show that as you are going out there and and
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  really when you read the solicitations, you're gonna see and you're what they're asking you
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  for.
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  And they try to make it very clear on they're just looking at price or they're going to look
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  at all of these other subjective factors like past performance and past experience.
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  What about your financial status.
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  Like, I've definitely seen in the past.
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  And just so you know, my company graduated from the 8 a program in 1987.
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  So I know, well, excuse me, 2007, I know a lot about this, but what about hapke?
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  How you have to be set up financially to do business with the government?
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  Like, do they don't they go and check whether or not you have the financial wherewithal to do
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  business with them?
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  Yeah.
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  I think that it depends on the acquisition.
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  Again, I know that when I was a contract officer at the SBA and and talking about
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  business credit, you know, we used to go and look at a Dun and Bradstreet supplier qualifier
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  report and it would show like a risk level of the contractor in terms of just paying their
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  bills and paying their subs.
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  And so we did look at some of those reports in terms of risk some of the other, acquisition
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  teams didn't use that report as much, but I definitely think that you do wanna have a good
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  credit, you know, back to James there.
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  And, also, you won't also have the ability to fulfill your first contract because, you know,
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  if you don't fulfill your first contract, that first contract might be your last.
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  And so you need to be able to fund the mobilization of whatever you're doing or or
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  with when you send product into the government, you need to be able to have some type of
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  capital to get that material you know, from your suppliers into the government, and then
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  typically there's payment terms which, you know, we can talk about you know, how quickly
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  do you get paid, but that's what you need to really be prepared for financially.
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  Okay.
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  Well, I think that is what is the best business book you've ever read?
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  I really enjoy thinking grow rich by Napoleon Hill.
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  Great book.
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  Great book.
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  Carol, what is your favorite old school marketing tips?
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  Market research, you know, and I preach this all the time in the government marketplace, but
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  really if you're not starting with market research, you're gonna be seeing a lot of time
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  and money out there in your marketing efforts.
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  Thank you for listening to the small biz chat podcast.
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  With Melinda Emerson.
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  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss dot
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  com.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.