Game Changers for Government Contractors

The fastest way to grow your business is to do more of what works AND to do it faster. It's very easy in government contracting to be tempted to move at the pace of the government. And guess what? You don't have that kind of time to waste. Business is often built by capitalizing on momentum and you can't build momentum if you are constantly stopping to smell the roses. There are phases in your bus...

Projects have five main components. Tasks, tools, resources, processes, and people. If any of these five are not aligned with your project's designed outcomes, you risk being off schedule, over budget, or a failed project. In our podcast today, we sit down with Michelle Watkins from Global PMO Partners to talk about the best practices for optimizing these five components to create smoother project...

In this episode of Game Changers, I walk you through exactly how I got started in government contracting. I want to go back to the beginning and give you some context. Because I think it's really, really important for you to hear how a kid who had never, ever had any sales training, business training, government contractor training, or anything along those lines, got into the market and then becam...

If I were starting over in government contracting, these are the three industries I would consider the most. The government is spending billions of dollars each year in these categories and I don't see it slowing down anytime soon. There's a lot of room for competition and newcomers in these industries. If you have a plan in place, it's also fairly easy to recruit employees for these industries. -...

How do you get known as an expert in your field? The first part of it revolves around the work you do on the front end. You have to actually do the work and be successful. You can't go from; I was an accountant yesterday so now I'm a business coach. I can help you change your life because I've read a book by Tony Robbins. You have to help your clients achieve or exceed their desired results. The s...

When I think about what separates the best government contractors from the bottom of the pack, there are five things that come to mind. These are habits that each one of these contractors picks up either right out of the gate or along the way. But obviously the faster you pick these up, the better. These habits are all fairly simple and easy to learn. This podcast will give you an overview of each...

What do you do when you're having trouble reaching a contracting officer? The obvious answer is you just keep trying to reach them. The hard part is usually finding a creative way to say, "I'm going to keep calling and emailing you until you respond." This podcast will walk you through a creative way to setup an on-demand version of your capability brief. This isn't designed to replace meetings, b...

Having a strategic pricing strategy is one of the most important factors for winning government contracts. In this episode, I interview Marsha Lindquist about her book Strategic Pricing for Government Contractors. In her book, Marsha talks about 25 pricing secrets that every contractor should have in their toolbox. We discuss three of those in this podcast. You get a copy of her book on Amazon: ht...

A common mistake that most companies make when they enter the government is that they put all of their eggs in one agency or sub-agency basket. Having a singular agency focus is good when you enter this market; but once you learn the market, you need to diversify your GovCon revenue streams. If you don't and your primary agency decides to change its acquisition strategy, you may lose some or all o...

The start of a new fiscal year in government contracting is a great opportunity for you to connect with your prospects. Many government contractors use this as downtime. This is a mistake. Don't fall into this trap. Instead, use the seven strategies in this podcast to get a jump on your competition and kick-off the new year properly. ----- Federal Access is helping Government Contractors win more...

In this episode, we talk with Joshua Frank about the Buy America Act and the significant changes that have taken place over the last couple of years. We also discuss the Berry Amendment, the Trade Agreement Act (TAA), and the non-manufacturer rule (NMR). This is a basic overview of each of these as well as some nuanced discussion about how they apply to government contractors. ----- Federal Access...

In this special episode of Game Changers, you go 1-on-1 with Michael LeJeune to talk about the SBA's Proposed Changes to the 8(a) Business Development Program. First off, I need to mention that this doesn't just impact 8(a) companies. There's language in these proposed rule changes that will affect almost every certification program. The two mentioned the most are 8(a) and WOSB. This podcast is a...

In this special episode of Game Changers, you go 1-on-1 with Michael LeJeune to talk about how to Stop Micromanaging Top Performers. One of the reasons that I love top performers is that they can self-manage. This means that any time you invest in them is usually spent optimizing what they are already doing well. And those tweaks typically wind up having an immediate impact on their performance an...

In this special episode of Game Changers, you go 1-on-1 with Michael LeJeune to talk about Your First Year as a Government Contractor. Did you know that it takes the average company three to five years to win their first government contract? If you are still new in your government contracting journey (first 3 to 5 years), this podcast will help you refocus your priorities so that you don't become...

In this episode, we talk with Rich Earnest about How to Leverage Your GSA Schedule. Did you know that roughly 50% of GSA Schedule holders never get a single sale/contract award via their schedule? One of the most common reasons for this is that most schedule holders pursue a schedule without doing any research on their buyers. Regardless of where you are on your GSA Schedule journey, this podcast...

In this special episode of Game Changers, you go 1-on-1 with Michael LeJeune to talk about Creating an Employee Database. Did you know that the second biggest challenge for government contractors is finding people to work on contracts? This has been a problem for several years. Based on the trends we are watching; this is only going to get harder. So what's the solution? Always be recruiting! This...

In this episode, we talk with Grant Elam about SCA Rates. This is a high level discussion about the Service Contract Act (SCA) and the obligations that government contractors have under SCA. A large percentage of government contracts require the contractor to be compliant with SCA. What does this mean? As a contractor, you have to know what the rates are per labor category and your company has to...

In this special episode of Game Changers, you go 1-on-1 with Michael LeJeune to talk about Your Biggest Enemy. In a nutshell, your biggest enemy is often you. One of my biggest soapboxes is that most business owners don't really know how to run a business. Business owners are typically experts at their craft/trade, but running a business is a foreign language to them. And when their business strug...

In this episode, we talk with Kevin Jans about Government Contracting Breakpoints and the process-to-relationship ratio at each of the levels. The concept here is that there are four distinct contracting breakpoints. Within each breakpoint, there is a different process to relationship ratio that the contractor needs to learn in order to be successful. Those breakpoints are small (up to 250 K), med...

In this special episode of Game Changers, you go 1-on-1 with Michael LeJeune to talk about Recession Proofing Your Government Contracting Business. The global economy has been on a bit of a roller coaster since 2020. The last year has been especially brutal with the cost of everything going up and major staffing shortages. Mix in lingering COVID issues, a war, record inflation, and an election cyc...

In this episode, we talk with Michelle Burnett about the HUBZone Contractors National Council. The HUBZone Contractors National Council is a non-profit trade association that advocates for policies that ultimately help bring opportunities to historically underutilized business zones. These opportunities help HUBZone companies grow and thrive and create much-needed jobs. This helps strengthen thous...

In this special episode of Game Changers, you go 1-on-1 with Michael LeJeune to talk about Historic Government Q4 Spending. It seems like every year we talk about historic government spending. The fiscal year 2022 has seen a few unique twists and turns. There was the usual budget crisis in late 2021 that ultimately led to a spring delay of the budget. We saw the signing of the infrastructure bill...

In this episode, we talk with Sean Jones from Revolution Payments about Level Three Credit Card Processing. Did you know that there is a special credit card processing rate for government contracts? This is called level three processing. This credit card processing method can save your company approximately 50% on credit card charges. This podcast will give you an overview of how level three proce...

In this special episode of Game Changers, you go 1-on-1 with Michael LeJeune to talk about 3 Rules of Engagement. Making the jump from employee to employer/business owner requires a mindset shift. When you are an employee, the rules are set by your employer. When you are the boss, you set the rules. That freedom often causes a lot of questions. If you are new to government contracting, you may be...

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Russ Barnes about Product Development that Solves a Problem. Some of the most successful companies in the world built their brands by identifying a problem in the market and then building a product or service to solve that problem. One of the reasons this model is extremely effective is because the buyer already understands and acknowledges the problem. When a sol...