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What do you wish you knew when you entered federal contracting that would have saved you time and money?
The issue for me would have been to better understand the importance of CPARS, which is the government’s way of evaluating contractors. The government has a formal system in place that generates contract evaluations, called CPARs. I didn’t understand the importance initially. My past performance was well-documented, but it wasn’t in the formal system. What I have found since then is when the government is going to issue a
contract they will look at past performance, and to validate that, they will go into their system and identify if the bidder has any CPAR evaluations and if so, what they say. Through the years I’ve had to learn the importance of this, and ask our customers to take the time to do a formal CPARs evaluation of our company. All the letters and kudos are nice, but what I have found over the years when trying to turn them back into a proposal, the government is more interested in the formal documentation.
This issue's theme is focused on preparing for the upcoming new buying season. What tips or best practices do you have for readers as they enter the FY15 federal marketplace?
The same three tips from above regarding being a successful federal contractor will always apply, but specific to the FY2015 marketplace, budgets are tight. What that says is price is going to trump a whole lot of things. Every company has to sharpen their pencils and look for efficiencies. The government isn’t asking you to not make money; the government is asking you to be as efficient as possible when submitting each bid. All companies who are hoping to do business with the government in the next cycle have to look at that and see how they can be as efficient as possible - maybe it is automating processes, working with cheaper resources, training with some additional skill – whatever it is you will have to offer some innovative solutions to get the price point down. While the first is more price-focused, the second point is a bit more strategic. How can you show your customer you are being innovative with the solutions you bring th em to help them accomplish their work? At the end of the day you want to minimize the dollar impact to that customer or any time delays. It is very important when companies bid on work they try to do some innovative cost savings-whether that is time or money to that customer so that it is a win-win for both. Both of those strategic things will be the differentiators of who wins contracts and who doesn’t.
"Every company has to sharpen their pencils and look for efficiencies. The government isn't asking you to not make money; the government is asking you to be as efficient as possible when submitting each bid."
Finally, communication is key. What often happens is a great deal of effort is used in trying to communicate and talk to the customer in pursuit of that first contract, but when the contract is awarded too many contractors disengage. The customer doesn’t see them. It’s not supposed to be that way. It should be a living, breathing process to be in front of that customer. People will often ask me if we will take on a small task. It may be a small amount, but if it’s in our skill set I will absolutely say yes. That one task gives us the opportunity to walk the halls. When we’re walking the halls we are communicating with the customer and looking for pain points from that customer. It allows us to come back and work with our team and think innovatively about how we can help the customer in pursuit of their mission. Communication is key from beginning to end.
Misty (2nd from the left) accepts her award for National Subcontractor of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration..