“SMALLTOFEDS” By Ken Larson
“Service contracting to the federal government is a natural venue for small business. It does not require a product with a niche market or capital intensive manufacturing facilities.”
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“Service contracting does require skilled management and labor resources capable of performing a scope of work for which the government has identified a need and for which outsourcing to an industry contractor has been selected as the means to fulfill that need. The venue demands strong human resources management, industry teaming and an enhanced business system to price, account and bill on a job cost basis under government service contracts.
Small enterprises in the commercial services market are tempted to immediately begin bidding jobs in federal government contracting, approaching them like commercial efforts. They quickly find there are major differences in the way the government contracts are marketed, proposed, priced and performed. These differences are not “Rocket Science” but it is necessary to learn about them and plan for success.
Here are 8 insights for planning your success in small business federal government service contracting:
1. UNDERSTAND THE LENGTHY SALES CYCLE
What immediately becomes apparent to the commercial small business when entering the federal contracting service contracting market is that the sales cycle is a long one and the preliminary steps are often hidden from public view.Often misunderstood, is that much has occurred in the way of marketing activities by companies in advance of notices formally published by the government on The System for Award Management (SAM) .By the time the formal, solicitation is published it is too late to market for setting a procurement aside for a small business designation if it has not already been established as such.
In addition, formal solicitation publication closes the window on self-marketing by HUB Zone and 8(a) firms for set asides to them individually without competition. In short, businesses have been marketing for the requirement long before it became formally announced at SAM. For additional details please see:
Even if a company has had exposure to an agency, marketed on a program in advance of its announcement or become a member of an industry team to bid the job, the proposal and award process, to include negotiations and start up, can easily consume 90 to 120 days as a minimum. For major programs the process often exceeds 6 months in duration. Planning must occur for the expense associated with supporting such lengthy marketing efforts before any cash flow results.
2. APPRECIATE APPLICABLE DEFINITIONS, ROLES AND REGULATIONS
Participation in the government contacting market can involve participating as an individual, becoming a subcontractor as a company or seeking a prime contractor role. Those with product research and development support needs can participate in venues like Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and Mentor/Protege Programs. A GSA Schedule also provides opportunities for those in finished product sales. Please refer to the following articles for explanations of these roles and program definitions:
3. CONDUCT MARKET RESEARCH
If you are relying on SAM or like sites for new business you will be very disappointed. Pre-solicitation notices do have promise, but you have to get inside an agency to find out who has the funding, the need and the decision-making authority. It is rarely the contracting officer who posts the notice who has these responsibilities.
Pre-solicitations are alerts to industry, attempts to gauge industry interest or a way of “Kicking the Can Down the Road” until funding becomes available. These notices are an indirect way of saying, “Come Visit Me and tell me about your company”, or “Send Me your CAPE”. The full formal notification will come out at a time to be determined by when the agency gets the funding and how much interest there is in the contractor community. A schedule for when the formal bid notice will occur is rarely posted.
4. PROMOTE CAPABILITIES
Develop a capability statement (CAPE) to respond to government postings and mail directly to government agencies and to large corporations doing business with the government.
A capability statement is a necessity as a standalone marketing tool for dealing with government agencies and contractors. It should be short (no more than 2 pages) and hard hitting, containing all the information necessary for a government contracting officer or company buyer to place an order, as well as your registration information at local, state and federal web sites, your NAICS Codes and contact information.
Insert your CAPE in the tab at your web site where you discuss your background information and your government registrations.
.5. ACQUIRE PERSONNEL STRATEGICALLY
Start up service contractors face the dual problem of establishing the enterprise with the one-time, non-recurring activities necessary to get the operation underway and at the same time acquire the core management talent and subsequent help as the business grows.
Even established companies who enter government service contracting find they cannot sustain a work force for large scale agency programs until the contracts are in hand to finance them.A core team is an absolute necessity; it may be small and the business proposals may be few at first. But the core team product must be strategic in terms of high probability marketing to build the company base.
Supplementary help can be acquired by permanent ads at the company web site for generic skill sets, contingent hire agreements with prospective employees and similar techniques that position the resources on deck for business growth.
Small businesses commonly utilize contingent hire agreements to locate promising individuals who can bring projects or contacts with them when they join the firm. They are willing to negotiate a prospective wage and salary arrangement in advance of a proposal submission and commit to an offer of employment with benefits and commission should the program be won. They further offer to reimburse the participant for expenses and business related costs during the proposal period, if pre-approved.
The key to these arrangements is to identify target projects that both you and the candidate can go after, where the candidate is uniquely qualified to:
(1) Help win the job
(2) Contribute heavily to the proposal.
Just bringing someone on who has no ability to offer targets usually does not work.
6. MAKE ASTUTE BID/NO BID DECISIONS
Government contract proposal preparation is time consuming and can be costly. Meeting the agency Request for Proposal (RFP) requirements with a responsive proposal can be well worth the effort if a winning strategy can be formulated.When considering submitting a proposal to a given government solicitation, conduct a bid/no bid exercise.
By going through that process you will begin formulating your win strategy or you will discover that you should not bid this job for lack of such a strategy. The elements of the process are in the form of questions to ask yourself against topics for key consideration at the following link:
Affirmative or non-affirmative answers to the topical questions and ability to fill in the blanks will drive your decision to bid or not bid a solicitation.
7. PREPARE YOUR BUSINESS SYSTEM FOR PRICING, ACCOUNTING AND BILLING
To effectively market a federal government contract a small business must sell on the basis of having a business system as well as technical performance infrastructure ready to run the job when a contract proposal is submitted. This dual requirement is where many small businesses fall short in their federal government contract start up planning.
Parallel thinking is required to plan for government project technical effort against a template of necessary business process infrastructure, driven by introducing Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) into the company.
Key elements of the necessary business system infrastructure are discussed in the following articles:
8. PROPOSE TO WIN BY MEETING THE PAST PERFORMANCE CHALLENGE
As a small business begins the proposal submission process to federal government agencies or to prime contractors, the past performance challenge is major. By definition a start-up company in government contracting has no direct government agency past performance projects to site in meeting the requirement in requests for proposals (RFP’s) for historical references to similar projects in terms of size, duration and complexity.
So how can a new organization or one that is new to government contracting muster a response to the past performance challenge?The answer lies in historical projects that may be similar in the commercial arena and a high quality proposal that clearly demonstrates an understanding of the requirement at hand, a unique and cost effective project plan and high performing personnel and/or products tailored to the statement of work to offset an interim, light past performance record. For further details see the following article:
SUMMARY
This writing has conveyed insights for planning participation strategically in the small business federal government service contracting market. Consider the lengthy sales cycle and the roles your enterprise can best play in the venue. Conduct thorough market research, promote your capabilities endlessly and make astute bid/no bid decisions.You must acquire core and supplementary help as business growth permits by using methods to preposition human resources.
Prepare dynamic proposals with unique project plans to meet the past performance challenge, then execute your project plans to succeed.”
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