I had a conversation with a client the other day where I yet again saw how a small business owner can dramatically restrict their own growth in the govcon space.
My client is the appointed business development person for growing the new federal contracts division of their small business. The business is already established in the commercial space, and so the owner and operations remain focused on its outside bread-and-butter activities.
It was an hour-long conversation with my client where I had to ask a lot of questions to figure out what really was going on. He started by claiming his problem initially was that he wasn’t finding the right opportunities for their business to go after, and so he was looking to expand the company’s existence on various govcon platforms and set-asides to open up more opportunities.
I discovered he was doing 97% of his searches on one GSA schedule only. Nothing on SAM.gov. Within the one GSA schedule, he shared there is also a large scope gap between the opportunities they are finding and what they feel comfortable performing. I found this out when I pressed my client on only searching on one GSA schedule, and the real answer came out as they are feeling paralyzed because the owner only wants him to go after one specific type of niche scope project. He even went as far to say as everyone in the office also knows this is holding them back.
Now, this is enough detail to explain the point. The owner is bringing a mindset that worked very well in the commercial space into the federal contracting space. That is, in the commercial space, the rules of the game are to stand out and be really good at one thing instead of being a jack of all trades and master of none. This is how you develop a competitive advantage. And as they say, “the riches are in the niches”. Government contracting, however, is a different game that plays by a different set of rules.
In government contracting, the single-biggest mistake that new or existing small business can make at the beginning of their journey, is to assume the government is buying their narrowly chosen goods and services they want to sell VS verifying a proof of concept first.
“I want to offer notary services” is an example that I like to pick on. Okay, well, how much of notary services is the federal government actually buying? Do they actually need it? It’s not enough to find a NAICS code and some keywords. That’s actually the opposite way to start. Instead, you can start by using SAM.gov as a list of problems the government needs solved, and then begin to back into your offer from there. This way, you will know that the government is buying what you have to offer, and you will now find yourself in alignment between your government customers and what your small business has to offer. Reaching alignment makes everything you do after this point so much smoother and more efficient.
In this example, the small business owner failed to realize that govcon is a new game with a new set of rules. There is very little alignment here. And as a result, my client is handcuffed to properly do his own job because the business is out of alignment with the customer’s needs.
Both new govcon startups and existing small businesses in the commercial space are vulnerable to misalignment at the beginning of their govcon journeys. To help get started on the right foot, seek proof of concept first when designing your core offer for the government.
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