Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Business Development in 2026 with Michelle Walker-Davis

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Business Development in 2026 with Michelle Walker-Davis · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  Three, two, one, zero.
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  Ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with the number one small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda'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 dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small biz chat podcast?
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  Well, it's time.
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  Every Wednesday, we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start and grow a successful
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  small business.
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  In just twenty minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel
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  your business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the Small Bitch Chat podcast today.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  Welcome to another edition of the Small Biz Chat podcast where we help small business
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  owners get real answers so they can succeed as their own boss.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small business lady, America's number one small business expert.
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  And it is my honor to host another episode of the Small Biz Chat podcast.
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  Let me introduce my guest, Doctor.
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  Michelle Walker Davis Thank to the you so much, Michelle, for being here.
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  Let me formally introduce you as my guest.
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  This is Michelle Walker Davis.
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  She's a serial entrepreneur, global speaker, author, and advocate for women in business
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  who's ready to access real money, not just motivation.
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  She's known as the $850,000,000,000 boss because she helps organizations tap into the
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  massive world of grants and government contracting, a world that too many
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  entrepreneurs never learn to navigate.
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  Michelle is the CEO and founder of the Empirical Management Group or IMG, the only AI
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  generative tech development firm focused on helping minority serving organizations and
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  communities identify, pursue and win funding opportunities.
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  She has a track record of securing over 50,000,000 in grants and government contracts.
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  And Michelle is changing the conversation around access, equity, and ownership at scale.
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  For more information, you can go to imgconsulting.info.
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  Michelle, welcome to the Small Bitch Chat podcast.
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  Thank you, Melinda.
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  Thank you for having me.
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  Oh my gosh.
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  I'm so happy to finally that our schedules finally worked well so we can get you on.
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  Alright.
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  So the first thing I gotta get into is where did this $850,000,000,000 boss thing come from?
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  What does this title really represent?
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  And tell me why do so many business owners underestimate the size of the funding
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  opportunities out here?
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  That is a great question.
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  And that title is doing exactly what it's supposed to do, draw you in so that you can
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  listen.
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  So during COVID, I became aware of all the disparities in funding that was out there, you
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  know, in education, in employment, in small businesses, and in grants and government
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  contracting.
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  And I had been in that space for over twenty years, I had no idea how much money was
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  available.
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  And so when I found out there was $850,000,000,000 in funding available every
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  year, I felt I was leaving money on the table.
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  So I got on my soapbox, anybody that would listen during COVID, that's all I talked about.
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  So people started calling me the $850,000,000,000 boss and you know, I brought
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  in like $50,000,000 during that time period but it still wasn't enough.
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  So for me, I like that title because it reminds me of how much more there still is, how much
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  more I need to do and how much more the village needs to get involved.
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  All right, so a lot of entrepreneurs, especially people of color, believe that grants
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  and government contracts are just out of their reach.
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  What do you think are some of the biggest myths that folks have around before they even try?
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  They just believe it's not for us, right?
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  Know, talk to me about that.
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  Exactly.
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  Well, you know, partly they're right because they're not designed for us, it's designed to
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  push us away and so it's working.
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  But I will tell you the biggest thing is our mindset.
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  If you don't believe that you will, you definitely cannot.
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  The people that I work with, they believe in their business.
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  They believe in their nonprofit organization.
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  They know that they're the best and no one else can do what they do.
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  So when you bring that type of energy, like the Melinda Emerson energy to the table, you have
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  to be recognized, right?
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  So part of it is your mindset.
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  I start there.
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  The second part of it is it's a lot of reading, writing and research and who has time for that?
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  It's very time consuming.
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  You should be running your business, right?
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  So it takes like on ramp time to get up to speed to compete and it's a competition.
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  Grants are free money.
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  Who doesn't want free money, right?
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  I want free money.
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  I'm sure you want free money too.
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  So you're competing with everybody.
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  And on the contracting side is based on your past performance, is based on your relationship
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  and prior contracts.
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  So if you haven't ever won a contract before then, you know, you might feel that, oh, I'm
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  not gonna win.
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  And it's highly competitive.
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  I kid you not, it is highly competitive.
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  But my job as a development firm is to prepare you to compete in that arena and to win.
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  Okay.
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  So what separates the weak from the chaff here?
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  Like what separates those who win
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  from those who don't?
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  And it's an investment.
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  They're investing in their business.
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  They're investing in themselves.
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  They have decided I'm going to take that leap of faith.
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  Nothing is guaranteed.
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  It's a competition, right?
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  But there's levels to this game.
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  If you're not at the federal level where there's millions of dollars available contract
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  and I would say even some get billions like certain top people that we know in this
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  country, then you don't need to compete at the federal level.
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  You might wanna compete at the state level because your business is known in your state
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  and you might have a better opportunity building those relationships, go into those
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  meetings and making them aware of what you can do in your state.
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  And then if you don't think you can compete at the state level, then there's the local,
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  there's the city, there's the county, there's the municipality.
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  You're already paying taxes, right?
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  Make some noise.
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  Yes, there's money out there.
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  Shake them trees and go after it.
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  And then if you don't win, you have the right to request a review, a scoring rubric so that
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  you can fix it.
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  And guess what Melinda, most of those opportunities roll back around.
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  Some quarterly, some every year.
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  Sometimes we don't win, but we reapply and then we do win.
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  But I can guarantee one thing, if you don't get in it, you can't win it, right?
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  Hey, listen, you can't get if you don't ASK, right?
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  So that's for sure.
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  All right.
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  So let's talk about government contracts as a business model, right?
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  Because if you're doing government contracts, that's what you're doing, right?
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  Like if you're trying to be a very small firm or a solo business, can you really pursue
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  commercial and government contracts effectively?
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  Absolutely.
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  Let me tell you Melinda, I work with a lot of people that don't have employees.
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  What they have is a lot of ten ninety nine subcontractors, right?
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  Just like I do.
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  And you build your team and you go after it.
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  You know, the winning is in collaboration.
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  I think you were talking about social currency.
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  It's really about who's on your team, who's in your network.
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  All they know is what they read on paper about you and what you can do, right?
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  And your certifications and documentation, right?
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  So the better prepared you are, big or small, you can get in that arena and you can win.
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  Look, I work with first timers and 95 of my first timers do win a contract or a grant.
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  And then there's those that don't, but we continue to work with them and then, you know,
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  build up speed, momentum, and then we go after it again.
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  All right, so let's get into how you guys do your thing.
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  So at your company, Imperial Management Group, you guys use AI and generative technology to
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  give your clients an edge in the funding contracts process.
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  Can you talk about that a little bit for us?
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  Absolutely.
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  Imperial Management Group, we are a self contained ecosystem.
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  Melinda, I'll tell you.
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  When I found out that $850,000,000,000 was available every year and I had brought in,
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  like, 50,000,000 for these companies I've worked with for the prior five or ten years, I
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  realized that the ones and twos are not gonna get me at the level that I need to be at,
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  right?
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  So I use the technology so I can go after multiple funding awards at the same time.
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  So right now I know that there's like 20,000 proposals that are available.
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  I own my own databases, right?
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  I have a research department.
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  Their job is to go into all of those databases and there are many, we're talking 20,000
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  proposals available.
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  It's a lot of time to find something that you believe your client would be competitive in
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  winning.
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  We don't just wanna throw you out there on a hope and a prayer.
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  Right?
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  We wanna put you in the best position so that you can shine and they can see that you're the
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  best and that they need what you have to offer.
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  So it's a process.
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  It starts with preparing you, getting your documentation together, and then we do it in
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  phases.
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  First phase is preparation.
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  Second phase is documentation.
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  Third phase is research.
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  Fourth phase is once we win, we go into compliance.
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  Because let's say you get a contract, I wrote that contract for you and I said goodbye to
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  you.
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  You might lose that contract because you haven't fulfilled all the post award
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  requirements.
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  So my team stays involved, the compliance team comes in, files all the reports, some of them
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  are monthly, some are quarterly, to make sure you stay in compliance.
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  So when you have a team that is researching, writing, and submitting, it's a lot of work.
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  It is a lot of work.
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  And I would not say if it's not your lane, don't get in that lane, you're gonna get run
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  over.
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  I know that's right.
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  So, all right.
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  So let's talk about if I wanna come to you and I say, okay, Doctor.
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  Walker Davis, I want to hire your company to work on pursuing, like I own an education and
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  training company, for example, let's just use me an example.
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  What documentation do I need to have together before I pick up the phone and even call you?
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  Like what do you like have a checklist if you will, stuff I gotta have before I even be
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  foolish enough to try to call you on the phone talking about, I need you to help me.
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  I mean, like, what do I need to have together?
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  Absolutely.
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  First of all, you're not gonna get me on the phone, so you're not gonna be able to call me
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  on the phone.
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  You are gonna go to that website.
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  You are gonna fill out a profile.
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  I am going to get a profile of your business.
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  You're gonna book a consultation and I'm gonna learn about your business.
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  That's the first step.
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  I need to know how long have you been in business Melinda?
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  Who have you partnered with?
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  Have you ever applied for funding before?
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  Are you familiar with funding?
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  Do you know what it takes to compete?
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  Because I need to educate you before we even get into signing anything because I need to
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  make sure you're ready to do this because it's gonna be a partnership between your team and my
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  team.
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  Right?
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  So I need to know what's your annual revenue?
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  What's it been like for the past two or three years?
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  Has it gone up?
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  Has it gone down?
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  Are you under water?
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  You know, all these things.
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  And then I wanna know what is your vision for your company?
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  What do you want to do?
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  Because that determines the type of funding we go after.
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  If we're going after sponsorship or if we're going after grants or if we're going after a
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  contract and workforce development or what teacher training, higher education, I need to
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  know what is your industry.
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  And then from there, I do my assessment of where I think you would be best placed either
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  at the federal level, the state level, or the local level.
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  And in addition to that, we do private corporations and foundations, right?
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  But the main thing is federal, state and local.
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  And then once I come up with that assessment, then we discuss whether or not it would be a
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  good working relationship for you and for me.
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  Because my team is gonna be so invested.
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  We need to make sure we have the right partner.
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  Because the last thing I wanna do is sign a contract with someone who's not gonna give me
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  the paperwork, who's gonna disappear, or who might be fraudulent.
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  You know, people tell you stuff all the time.
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  So getting to the documentation I'm gonna require, Melinda, some of this stuff is so
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  simple, you won't even believe it.
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  You gotta have a website.
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  Some people still don't have a website.
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  And if they have a website, they have pictures of themselves and not what they're doing, not
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  what their business is, not who their clientele is, not the youth that they're servicing, you
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  know?
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  So then there's I need you to find your EIN and your state registration.
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  Now you might have been in business for twenty years you might not know where that document
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  is.
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  Well you know what I need to make sure when I file your paperwork with the government or that
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  foundation that your EIN is your EIN and that your nonprofit records are still active and
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  that your registration within sam.gov is still active and that your nonprofit with the IRS has
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  not been revoked.
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  Do I need to keep going down?
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  That's Oh Lord.
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  You know what I'm talking about.
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  I do know what you're talking about.
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  I hope you got a, before you call us, I feel like you need one of these on your website
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  saying, look, you call us, these are the 10 things I need you to be able to check off
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  before you call us because we are not fooling with you.
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  You.
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  But I think what you're talking about is so important because I do think that people don't
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  have their records in order, people don't have their taxes in order, people don't have their
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  EIN or their SAM registration is one for real because that's a every year thing.
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  So you do need, and if you let it lapse, Lord, they're put you through some stuff to get it
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  back open, ask me how I know.
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  So what I will say is, do you have any financial readiness that people need to have?
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  Absolutely.
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  First of all, you need your nine ninety, you need your TAC records if you got them for at
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  least I would say two years, just in case.
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  Your budget, they always wanna know what your budget is.
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  And it's so important because some people come to me and they say they want me to bring in
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  $25,000,000 for them, but they might be a $50,000 business.
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  So now who's gonna give you $25,000,000 They're not.
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  You can't justify it.
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  You can't show you're a good steward of it or anything like that.
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  So the first thing we're gonna do, we're gonna come up with a financial plan for you to go
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  from A to B to C to D or whatever.
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  So let's say you're a $100,000 business.
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  I could probably go for 250,000.
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  The max would be 500,000.
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  Once you get to that level, then we can get into the millions.
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  Now, sometimes you might get to a million if they're giving you 225,000 a year for four
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  years, they can give that to you.
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  So you might get to a million that way.
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  Okay.
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  But it's all about you demonstrating that you have the capacity because why should they give
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  it to you when there's somebody else that's already doing the work, already has the
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  revenue, why would they wanna take a chance on you?
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  Let's be clear, they're taking a chance.
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  You look like risk to them.
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  And the person that signs your paperwork and gives you that money, their job is on the line.
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  So what we have to do is allay all their fears.
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  We have to check off all those things that we know that makes them seem uncomfortable and
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  make them comfortable.
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  Who's on your team?
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  Who have you partnered with?
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  Who have you worked with?
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  You might not have been the prime or the lead, but you were on the team.
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  So that matters.
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  Okay, okay.
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  So what unique challenges do you feel like women and people of color face, you know, when
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  trying to access these opportunities and funding and capital and things like that?
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  It's always about the money.
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  With us, it's never about the idea, it's never about the vision, the dream or the inspiration,
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  motivation or the work ethic.
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  It is about the money.
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  We don't have the same money as our counterparts and the gap is widening, right?
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  And so I can't work for free.
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  You don't work for free.
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  So people have to understand you have to invest in your business.
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  Melinda, I have poured so much money in my business because I want it to be the best.
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  I want it to have all the tools that I needed to be helpful and to win, right?
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  So you have to look at your business the same way.
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  And I say to my sisters, we don't need to get our hair done every week.
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  We don't need to get our nails done every four weeks.
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  No, I'm talking, can we be for real?
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  I mean, COVID, when we were all set back home, we couldn't go out.
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  I couldn't buy nothing.
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  I couldn't get anything done.
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  I started putting my money in a jar each week.
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  And by I was like, in two months, I had like $5,000 Then I knew I was on to something.
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  I realized I liked having money more than I liked having those other things.
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  I even learned how to beat my face.
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  I hope it's okay.
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  Because I used to have a MUA come over every time I had to do one of these webinars or
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  podcasts.
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  Now I'm like, I learned a little something.
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  Well, know, it's funny that you say that because I think I learned how to do that during
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  the pandemic too.
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  My makeup artist was like, who did your face?
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  I did it.
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  And she was like, I better be nicer to you.
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  Right?
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  Exactly.
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  Exactly.
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  And the hair too.
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  You know?
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  I still I still don't fool with my own hair now.
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  Guess.
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  Well, I let them do it, but we have to maintain
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  it.
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  Right.
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  All right, so let's just get back to this though.
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  It's about sacrifice.
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  Yeah, and that
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  was what I was really gonna ask you.
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  What is the common mistake that your first time folks typically make, you know, that ends up
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  costing them opportunities?
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  Like, there a common thing that you see people
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  Yeah, I think that for us we're spiritual minded and faith based people And sometimes we
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  try to run a business using those type of tools, if you will.
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  But that's not you need to have business acumen when you're writing and when you're putting
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  together your package, you need to talk about the data, your analytics, all those other
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  things.
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  So you can be faith based, but you need in your writing the content, you gotta deal with the
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  answer to the question is.
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  Your math better be math is what you're saying, right?
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  Absolutely, absolutely.
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  Down to the penny sometimes.
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  So you'll be eliminated.
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  It's basic stuff.
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  Proposals are written at a seventh grade level, but it's done in legalese terms.
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  They say the same thing over and over.
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  So it might be five pages of content, but they gonna give you a 100 pages because a team
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  worked on it, number one.
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  And number two, by law, they wanna make sure they've got all the protections in there.
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  And so when we see that, we're like, oh, I'm out of here.
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  I'm not doing that.
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  And you know, that's how we get out.
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  But other people they're like, they lean in.
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  They're like, okay, if this is the way the game is played, then we're gonna have to play the
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  game.
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  Okay, all right.
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  All right, well, you have dropped so many gems, but I want you to tell us what is the best
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  business advice that you've ever received?
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  Oh, I would say that would be from Doctor.
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  Frazier, Doctor.
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  George Frazier.
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  And he says, stay the course.
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  All right, well you heard that.
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  And the reason is because your win could be just on the other side, but you gave up.
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  You gave up on yourself and right next door, that next step was your was your deliverance.
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  So stay the course.
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  Alright.
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  Alright.
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  You heard it here from doctor Michelle Walker Davis.
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  She is the CEO of the Imperial Management Group.
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  Management Group.
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  Alright.
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  Thanks for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for
• 22:58
  more fantastic information and interviews.
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  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
• 23:06
  website, succeedasyourownboss.com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.