Last-Minute Budget Prep Before the Fiscal New Year

It’s the last 30 days of the government’s fiscal year. What are you doing to capitalize on the contract dollars that need to be spent before September 30th? Are your efforts solely focused on getting that next award, or are you planning for what you will do if you actually win it?

“It’s better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.”

– Les Brown

Business or Procurement Ready

There’s a definite difference between being “business ready” and being “procurement ready” and during this time of year, filled with fast-paced award distribution, being “completely ready” is tantamount to both. So again, what are you doing to set yourself up for success now and in the new year to come?

Some items to consider when creating your business development plans:

• Are you prepared to win?
• If you win it, can you fund it?
• Are there compliance standards with regard to your contracts or industry that you have ignored that may impede your ability to continue to compete? i.e. CMMC, NIST 800-171
• Are you pricing your work to turn a profit or to win?
• Will you need to hire new FTEs in the next 3-6 months?
• Can your current lending partner fund you through contract delays, contract loss, government shutdowns, or any other impediment all too “real” in GovCon?

Planning Ahead

Tracking opportunities that fit your proficiencies is important. Knowing what you can win versus what you could win is important, too. But knowing ahead of time whether or not you will have the ability to financially meet the obligations of winning one or all of the opportunities you seek is key.

All too often, we see business leaders scrambling to put the financial piece in place post-award. It’s not impossible, but it can be stressful, pricey, and in your whirlwind of work, it can lead to making decisions that are not in your best interest. Making the funding piece part of your initial business development strategy allows you to engage the executive decision makers of your company early on to know whether or not they understand the cost incurred by the execution of your capture plan. The sooner those discussions are had, the more power the business development team has in putting together a plan that is consistent with the financial capability of the company.

Fill out the form below to download our Parabilis Top 10 tips. They can help mitigate your risk of missing an opportunity because you weren’t prepared.