Recently I had the good fortune to spend some quality time with my grandson watching the Boob Tube….television. It was a segment of SpongeBob SquarePants. An odd name for sure. But then I had a minor secular epiphany (sorry Mark). It was the “sponge” that made me think of the many lessons I’ve hopefully learned over the years and how I am continually introduced to new ones every day.
Oftentimes we don’t realize we’ve picked up a new trick, idea, or thought from our networking until much later. And sometimes we dismiss ideas right away, particularly if we believe we are at a point well beyond learning or the source of the idea is not a trusted colleague. Well don’t through away any idea or tip until you’ve tested it.
One of the most common questions I’ve heard is “how do I find opportunities on Fed Biz Opps (FBO)?” My usual answer is “you don’t.” By the time an opportunity is posted on FBO you are ten steps and usually one or two relationships behind your competition.. However, I then remembered a lament from a trusted colleague who related a story of how he passed along the same advice to a client who subsequently found a bluebird opportunity in FBO and won it. The points being, leverage all of your resources, listen to all of the stories and experiences of your business colleagues, and test them. FBO is a great information resource, as are many other government websites, periodicals and conferences. They can give you insight to your competition, incumbents, customer trends, and teaming potential just to name a few.
The moral of this tip – be more like SpongeBob and absorb as much as you can from those around you. You never know what you’ll come away with of potential value.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Is the Business of your Business interfering with your Business?
So you have a small business – congratulations! You are, as you’ve often been told, the backbone of our economy and the premise for our nation’s free enterprise. But in this day and age of timeliness or “drive through” mentality you may often wonder why you aren’t at the Bill Gates level of success; a stretch of the imagination for sure but you get my drift. You want it yesterday and with as little trouble as possible. It just ain’t gonna happen bud!
Seriously, one of the hurdles that small business owners get overwhelmed with is the management of their business; i.e. financials, personnel issues, attitudes, beatitudes, and financials. Did I mention finances? Worries over making payroll, market costs, business development costs, overhead costs, and a slew of others will drive us to an early and involuntary retirement. In a recent radio commercial a business owner was greeted by a colleague and when asked what the owner did, the owner rambled on about his daily management tasks until the colleague clarified the question from what the business of the owner’s business was to what type of business the owner had? Confused? Me too.
In the beginning the small business owner is focused, clear on the definition of the business and probably at least one market. However, shortly afterwards the other pitfalls become the focus. At this point the owner seriously needs a third or fourth eye on the business focus and the business of the business. Therein lays the financial concerns. The owner has to make the financial commitment to acquire that third or fourth eye, outside assistance consultant if you will, to ensure success of the business in its market.
If you’re lucky to have employees who can weigh in to assist, great; if not, make the decision to bring on a consultant – at the least a temporary cost and usually affordable, to help refine, filter, and analyze all of the information, as well as provide several options that the owner may focus on.
Business development consultants and business development organizations, like the ASBC, will give the small business owner guidance, support, and options to focus on the company’s growth and not the inevitable quagmire of managing the business of the business.
Seriously, one of the hurdles that small business owners get overwhelmed with is the management of their business; i.e. financials, personnel issues, attitudes, beatitudes, and financials. Did I mention finances? Worries over making payroll, market costs, business development costs, overhead costs, and a slew of others will drive us to an early and involuntary retirement. In a recent radio commercial a business owner was greeted by a colleague and when asked what the owner did, the owner rambled on about his daily management tasks until the colleague clarified the question from what the business of the owner’s business was to what type of business the owner had? Confused? Me too.
In the beginning the small business owner is focused, clear on the definition of the business and probably at least one market. However, shortly afterwards the other pitfalls become the focus. At this point the owner seriously needs a third or fourth eye on the business focus and the business of the business. Therein lays the financial concerns. The owner has to make the financial commitment to acquire that third or fourth eye, outside assistance consultant if you will, to ensure success of the business in its market.
If you’re lucky to have employees who can weigh in to assist, great; if not, make the decision to bring on a consultant – at the least a temporary cost and usually affordable, to help refine, filter, and analyze all of the information, as well as provide several options that the owner may focus on.
Business development consultants and business development organizations, like the ASBC, will give the small business owner guidance, support, and options to focus on the company’s growth and not the inevitable quagmire of managing the business of the business.
The Synergy of Marketing Information
Now I understand why our government customers become frustrated when researching the qualifications of small businesses. Recently I had the opportunity to seek out colleague companies to form a small business team in response to a new RFP. Well I thought I had the company analysis process nailed. I went to my favorite small business association, The American Small Business Coalition, to search for vetted companies possessing the right capabilities and past performance. And then the other foot hit the ground. After I entered my search criteria and read the results - far less than I expected considering I knew so many of my business colleagues supposedly possessed the capabilities I was seeking - I began to verify the specific company profiles in the associations database against their company's website, the CCR and the FPDS-NG databases. Oh....my....gosh! Talk about disparity.
A very serious lesson learned yet so trivial to many. In our zeal to establish our name-branding and marketing fronts, we often forget that as time marches on we need to keep these various and prolific postings up to date. How many companies do you know started out as software developers and morphed into system engineering, network engineering, or complete system development entities? I know and have seen many do this as the market trends and customer requirements changed. However, did those companies remember to update their CCR records? What about 8A graduates? Information lurking about the internet should be groomed and maintained. We never know who is checking out these data items and we never know what grand opportunities we may miss for lack of simple data management.
And don't forget about what our customers unwittingly do to us through their zeal to process our precious contracts. Often the data entry person, contracting officer, COTR, or other well intentioned individual will haphazardly label our contract performance with the wrong NAICS or SIN identifiers. We don't pay much attention to this information until, at some future time when the "light bulb" is turned on, an opportunity passes us by because a search through the federal databases reveal that our web site statements of expertise, marketing materials, CCR entries, are belied by the contract details posted in the Federal Procurement Database System-Next Generation. Do yourself a favor, check out these databases and compare them to your website and marketing materials. You'll be glad you did!
A very serious lesson learned yet so trivial to many. In our zeal to establish our name-branding and marketing fronts, we often forget that as time marches on we need to keep these various and prolific postings up to date. How many companies do you know started out as software developers and morphed into system engineering, network engineering, or complete system development entities? I know and have seen many do this as the market trends and customer requirements changed. However, did those companies remember to update their CCR records? What about 8A graduates? Information lurking about the internet should be groomed and maintained. We never know who is checking out these data items and we never know what grand opportunities we may miss for lack of simple data management.
And don't forget about what our customers unwittingly do to us through their zeal to process our precious contracts. Often the data entry person, contracting officer, COTR, or other well intentioned individual will haphazardly label our contract performance with the wrong NAICS or SIN identifiers. We don't pay much attention to this information until, at some future time when the "light bulb" is turned on, an opportunity passes us by because a search through the federal databases reveal that our web site statements of expertise, marketing materials, CCR entries, are belied by the contract details posted in the Federal Procurement Database System-Next Generation. Do yourself a favor, check out these databases and compare them to your website and marketing materials. You'll be glad you did!
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