Written by Teresa Moon, Director of Market Strategy at Parabilis

With her understanding of and experience in government procurement, Teresa Moon brings unique insights into the financial challenges and opportunities facing government contractors. As the Director of Market Strategy at Parabilis, she helps contractors navigate the complex waters of government contracting while building sustainable growth strategies.

As an old wise man once told me…there’s no bridge from the way you do business in the private sector that connects directly to the way we do things in the public side. Oftentimes, business owners rightly choose to participate in government contracting because from the outside in, they can see the evergreen possibilities. But there is such a vast learning curve to the process that navigating without an understanding is like captaining a sailboat that has no sail. This is probably why the first recommendation I make to flustered GovCons is to look into programs like Ethical Stalking for Government Contractors® Bootcamp. The seas ahead are more navigable with a sail and a map, don’t you think?

In the interest of speaking directly to the discussion of “Zero Dollar Winning,” which was so eloquently laid out in a 3-part blog by my friend and very own “old wise man,” Go-To-Guy Timberlake, it begs to question so many issues that GovCons face while endeavoring to win spots on vehicles like the GSA Schedule, OASIS+, STARS III and the very popular NASA SEWP. One issue in particular relates to “affordability,” which is relative on all levels to your ability to be successful but often, at best, is an afterthought post-bid process. Every process in your business costs money, and only some of it produces revenue in return, so you should be very choosy with where you spend your time because it will cost you. 

Business development is not a free process. I used to provide this for small contractors in my former life, and I was quite good at it, and it was for a price. Whether I won the work or not, I was paid for my efforts. Part of that included a strategy of bid or no bid. Who will we need to hire to perform the work? What will we need to buy to perform the work? And how long will we need to support all of the above? My understanding of this process was through learning the hard way that developing a financial plan to perform post-award was the wrong time. 

Bottom line: your financial plan to perform at every level, in every stage of growth, should be established before your business development strategy is put into motion.

 

Things to consider: 

1.) If you win it, can you fund it? 

2.) Do you know where the money will come from or are you “banking” on, (pun intended) the award being your access point to the capital you need?

3.) Can you afford the BD process (wine, dine and shine)? How about the expense of building a technical team to craft the bid that wins? Or staffing the roles necessary to perform at the highest level? Oh wait. Let’s not forget being equipped to deliver on the promises you made in your proposal. 

Can your process and your bank account support all of the above? And if so, for how long? 

Not to mention that access to any of the vehicles referenced above will require ongoing marketing, relentless pursuit and endless competition for what sometimes amounts to very small wins in the overall game. 

I am not pointing all of this out to discourage you. I implore you to heed my advice as I learned it the hard way, and it wasn’t pretty. Let your financial plan lead your process, and you will find a different perspective. You won’t waste time on work you never had a chance to win. You will focus your efforts where you are most effective. This industry may be evergreen with opportunity but the wins are not going to fall in your lap.