Growing Your Small Business with Government Contracts

I have a professional consultancy where I help businesses acquire government contracts. And I'll share with you that prior to getting my first government contract as a consultant, my business was largely kind of chasing, looking for clients.

I was working with individual firms, charging a certain amount of money, but it was challenging. It was challenging for a number of reasons. Number one, I could only take on a certain amount of clients at a particular time, and number two, there's only a certain amount of hours in the day. So when I initially started this business in 2007, I did it with the intent of becoming a government contractor. Over the past several years, and again, in 2007, I basically started with zero clients. I've successfully grown the business into a six-figure firm. I'm really excited about telling you all how I grew my business. This year, we actually grew 100%. So I'm just gonna share a little bit before we jump right in about what I'm doing right now.

In doing so, when I started my first government contract, one of the things that changed immediately was the revenue. Because I had, in the past, had been working with a number of smaller clients ranging from professional services firms, construction firms, and now I have the opportunity to work with pretty much the same types of companies, but through multiple government contracts. And today, life is very different. Government contracting provided me with an opportunity in my consulting business to hire new employees and to grow my business again almost 100% on the consulting side. Prior to having this consulting business, I had a professional services firm. I provided security guard services, and I started that business with my parents back in the 1980s. And I remember back then, the same thing happened. We were really struggling going from one different type of business to another, trying to bring on new clients, struggling to find good employees. And when we took on our first government contract, and that was actually with the Ministry of Justice, we hired 100 employees and our lives changed forever. We were able to acquire new office space, hire staff. So, government contracting is one of the ways for me that I think is instrumental in helping small businesses grow.

That said, the process itself, it can be somewhat overwhelming and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to provide people with some clarity as to what are some of the steps that you can take to acquire government contracts and you can have the same experience that I've had. The government is buying everything from the most obvious things such as office supplies to artwork. I was on the phone with somebody a couple days ago where they're now looking to buy wellness services. So, it's really a great space for anyone. If you think of the government, they are the largest procurer of goods and supplies throughout the world. They buy anything and everything. So I'm going to just go ahead and again tell you a little bit about some of the programs that I've created. I do training and coaching. I have a wellness business. And all of these companies now are somehow involved with government contracting. So let's just jump right in.

Today, one of the things that I'm going to talk about is how you can successfully do business with government agencies and corporations, give you some tips on how to get started, and tell you exactly what does it take to succeed. I'm going to use the FCT as an example just to kind of give you an idea of what the landscape might look like. So the FCT has programs that are specifically designed and allocated to help small businesses grow. And these are contracts that are very small purchases. So, they're called micro-purchases, and they range from a couple of hundred thousands up to N2,000,000. And again, this is a great way for a very small business to get started. Because there's no significant outlay of capital for you to get involved in projects like this, and it ranges from... life coaching, executive training, office supplies, canteen, grass-cutting, you name it, there's an opportunity within the government space, particular price range from, again, from N500,000. And they just raised the threshold from N500, 000 all the way up to N3,500,000.

And I have to share, that's kind of the way that I'm building my consultancy working with government agencies having small contracts of N100,000 each. At the end of the day those contracts help me to leverage my business and its a great space to be in as a consultant.

The FCT has something that's called discretionary spending so that means that they can actually purchase directly for opportunities up to N2,000,000 and again there's no complicated bid process for acquiring these types of contracts.

 The other thing I should mention, if you are someone that's trying to figure out what your next step is, the other opportunity that's out there is something called sub-contracting. And this is where you can actually work with people who are already doing business with the government. People like myself and others who have contracts that have requirements for participation with others, so that's another great resource. And sub-contracting gives you an opportunity to learn the government. Learn how to do business with the government before kind of jumping in full speed ahead. And just to backtrack a little bit, when I started my consultancy in 2007 that is exactly what I did. Even though I had experience working with the government I did not have experience working with the government as a consultant. So I chose to partner with another company that was already doing business with the government so that I could really build my experience and my past performance. So that I started to become known in a particular market space, so that was really important to me. So, how do you get started? What are some of the things that you're going to need to know? If you're interested in doing business with the government I wanted to share that they have a particular way of doing business. So I crafted something called a readiness assessment.

The first thing that government agencies look at when you are considering doing business with them is your financial capacity, so that's really important. If you're thinking that you wanted to go after contracts worth N100,000 or if you want to go for a contract worth a million naira, one of the things you're gonna be called upon to do is prove that you can handle that capacity. That's really important to know. So again, when I first started out and I had zero revenue as a consultant I really focused on smaller contracts with N500,000 and quickly built up say. So you don't have to stay in that space, but you have to be strategic about how you present your company to government agencies. So the first thing is really having all of your corporate documents. Meaning, if you're an LLC or a sole proprietor making certain that your financial bookkeeping is in order. Because you're often asked for proof of your CAC status, proof of your tax returns. So you want to make sure that your housekeeping is in order.

The other important thing that I tell potential clients is that their business image and branding is absolutely essential. You want to make certain that you have some type of a web presence or a LinkedIn presence, that you're using a professional domain name. I see a lot of people trying to get started that are using gmail and yahoo and those types of things. And if you think about how you evaluate potential partners you definitely want to work with somebody that has a professional business image. The other thing that's essential is a communication and follow-up strategy because communicating with the government takes time. Because a lot of the people that are buying, if somebody is buying pencils they might also be buying security and buying a whole bunch of other different things. So you want to have a strategy where you can consistently communicate and follow up with buyers. I found that a lot of people trying to break in get frustrated because they could be making calls or they're trying to reach out to officials and the officials are not getting back to them so they lose steam.

And I'm here to tell you that there're so many opportunities, I'm asked constantly for referrals for other businesses, that is important that you have some type of a strategy to follow up and make sure that you can keep your commitments. Capacity is really important because, again, we are evaluated as small businesses by the largest contract or the largest experience that we've had before. So again using my example, is going into consulting world knowing that I had no quantifiable experience that I could say to a government agency. I've done this before, I pursued certain certifications, and again partnered with another company so that my capacity starting out was N10,000,000, because of additional resources that I brought into the business. Additional resources sometimes can be something as simple as you partnering with someone else.

Someone that has experience or someone that has a strong back office. I often tell my clients that the work is never about the work, right? If you are a trainer, it's never about the training. It's about everything that happens between, bringing your training to a government agency, and getting your first call. So it's about scheduling the training. It's about the invoicing. It's about the customer service. All those little things that happen. So I wanted to share with you that kinda the way I've been doing it, I have a pretty robust virtual team that helps with some of those functions because many of those functions are not full-time functions. So I just wanted to share that with you kind of thinking outside of the box. You don't need to staff up, but you need to think about how you can handle some of the day-to-day administrator functions when you're looking to break into the government space.

The next thing I would strongly urge you to consider is, government agencies are everywhere. A lot of times, people start thinking, "Oh I want to do business with Lagos State. I want to do business with the Federal Government." And the first thing I would encourage you to think about is, where is there a local government agency where you either work or live? Because libraries are government agencies, Chambers of Commerce get funding from government agencies, nonprofit organizations get funding, and they are often looking to meet their goals, and they all have goals to work with small businesses.. So again that's one of the little things that I did when I first started out.

I went to my local chamber of commerce, I partnered with many nonprofit organizations, kind of just saying to them 'here is my training platform, this is something I'd like to introduce, and is it something that you're interested in?' And many of them took me on for low-cost fee and many of them eventually partnered with them. Most of them are my clients now, I want to say, because, along the lines it took a little while to get my foot in the door, but the nonprofit organization's library, schools, and chamber of commerces typically are all working somehow with the government, or getting funding from government so it's a really great place to start. Consider your schools, your business service organizations as a place where you can start on a smaller scale before going full speed ahead, Okay?

The next thing that's really important is having somebody to help because I find that breaking into the government is a process and you might find yourself working alone. You might find yourself being, having so many different demands that it becomes difficult to kind of make this a focus priority. So one of the things that I advocate in and have done myself is, hire an experienced mentor or coach. And mentors and coaches are available. It doesn't have to be a paid mentor or coach, but someone who has already broken in. If you can partner or connect with someone who is already doing business with the government, the lessons that they will teach you are invaluable. I always tell people, 'You just don't know what you don't know.' So if you can find someone, they might be a colleague, or an organization that provides mentorship, around government contracting, or you know someone that's already doing it, and ask them to mentor or coach you, that would be... I can't tell you how invaluable that will be.

I think it's also important to set goals, if you're thinking about going into the government arena, for example, you might want to say "I'm looking to increase my revenue by a million or 10,000,000  whatever/wherever you are right now. And start thinking about how you would go about doing that. What are some of the action steps that you would need to take?  I think it's important to share your information with the mentor and create some type of a system of accountability. So the goals could be as simple as, I've never thought of this before, I'm going to look into seeing if there are opportunities available at my local library, the local Chamber of Commerce, and kind of setting an end-game for 2018. How much you like or what would you like to do in the government contracting space. And then ensuring that whoever you decide to work with as an accountability partner, whether it's a coach or a mentor, that you have some system of accountability so that you can get feedback as to how you're doing and what are your next steps. I found that every time I try to do this by myself, even though this is exactly what I do for a living, it's the results have always been exponentially greater when I work with a coach or an accountability partner, someone that could share my vision and someone that could partner with me for the success.

I advocate offering a taste. Sometimes, when you're going, when you're breaking into a new market, there's something called a pilot program, like you can give the government an example. And that's some of the things that I have done in both my security business and my training and coaching business. Giving the government an example of what a potential program would look like. And again, without giving the entire store away. But, when I first started in the coaching business, I did a lot of free-speaking engagements. Targeting professional organizations that I wanted to work with or professional organizations that were in alliance with some of the private entities that I wanted to work with. Sharing your expertise is another great way to start kind of building momentum. And the way that many companies do that now is through social media, blogging, speaking, offering complimentary training and coaching, workshops, speaking engagements, panel discussions, case studies. And again, these are all great tools that start kind of building up your credibility as you're breaking into a new market.

I want to also share with you that the government uses something that's called a Procurement Forecast. So, for example, if you were targeting let's say the FCT and you wanted to know what the Department of  Social Welfare was doing or what the Department of Consumer Protection was doing, what do they have planned, you should literally go on to their offices and see what type of contracts that they have, how much they're worth and when they're planning on advertising those opportunities. And that's a great way to really be strategic about doing business with the government. I'll share with you when I first started, I just had no idea. I thought the landscape was just broad and my job was to go out and hunt. And I have to say, it was just years of time wasted. Once I realized that the government had these forecast available, I made it a priority to identify opportunities in advance that I wanted to go after. And in the city, state, federal and in some private businesses, this information is available online, so that you can look ahead.

Like this year, I'm looking ahead and I see opportunities for leadership and training and coaching so that I can focus on those things as opposed to not knowing when the next opportunity's going to come in. So, that's a really valuable tool. The other thing that Procurement Forecast can help you do is it helps you connect with government agencies. So, if I know for example, I think I found out yesterday the Department of Corrections has opportunities for leadership training and coaching. Since the opportunity has not come out, yet, I can connect with the Department of Corrections and talk to them about what they're looking for, which is also invaluable.

So, how do you get started? You want to basically go back to what I was talking about the beginning of our presentation. If you're just starting out, you want to really consider those smaller opportunities, those opportunities that are under N1,000,000, under N2,000,000 and connect with the buyers who have those opportunities. It's a great way to establish relationships, it's a great way to build up what's called past performance, so that you can go and aspire to bigger contracts. And again, I can't emphasize that it's exactly how I started, a small contract here for N500,000, a small contract for N200,000 and within less than a year, I was able to bring on a contract worth over N1,000,000. So, the outlay in terms of cash flow is not a big strain on your business. That's something that you have to really think about when you're doing business with the government. And you know, just developing a plan that allows you to consistently follow up and market to these buyers, because they're out there looking for us.

So, what does it take to succeed? We’ll look into this in part 2.

Our contributor is a government contractor who has provided security guard services to government and is now a consultant on government contracts.