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He's the CEO of American AI Logistics. His website is: www.americanailogistics.com

Check my separate video, this one is the audio only podcast. link: th-cam.com/users/liveNtLC86uB3s0?feature=share

I was answering a user question when I mentioned that. The question asked about "isms" but what they were really referring to were things like favoritism, nepotism etc. I beleive the real intent was to ask how a business new to govcon can compete with companies already selling to the government or against companies with certifications like 8(a). Hope that helps!

@@govclose Perfect! Thanks Rick!

@@JasonDor_ I think it would make more sense to do a 1 hour consultation with Col O to discuss your contracts and get a 1v1 overview. If interested let me know. Best -Rick

@@govcloseI’m interested, I’d like to schedule a meeting after the holidays.

@@JasonDor_ When you're ready send me a note and we'll get you scheduled: rick@dodcontract.com - Have a great week!

@@espianmashias9565 depends, if you have consistent revenue and your prepared to dedicate either your time or a percentage of someone who works for you to consistently pursue Govcon. For 12 months, the yes.

@@seankivi thanks!

“Let me tell you why I think we won and what was important to the Army,” Matus said during the investor town hall meeting. “We were told a long time ago the winner would be based on technical requirements, manufacturability, system cost, and soldier feedback. But ultimately I think our success came from being a mission-driven company. Our goal from the beginning was to build an American made drone that helps warfighters win on the modern battlefield.” Matus added that Black Widow was “purpose built” and designed to meet the Army’s 100 technical requirements, but also incorporated soldier feedback from the very start. Teal

Well, the one thing we can agree on is that no one has a crystal ball. Time will truly tell, but I’ve been around for a while and have seen countless plans to reform contracting, the military, healthcare etc. the worst fears were never realized and in many cases we’ve seen positive results. Disruption, sure, expected, But frankly I’m expecting more blowback from the news and critics than actual negative results. Let’s hope I’m right about this!

Same here on the VA benefits. This would be extremely unpopular, I can’t imagine Trump would authorize anything that would do blatantly hurt vets.

Hi, and thanks for the comment. The certification program is broken down into 2 big picture sections. First, how to sell to the US government which includes niche development, finding pre-solcitation leads, building relationships with targeted gov offices, submitting bids and closing contracts. Also managing gov clients once they are on contract and upselling them. This includes extensive training on building a pipeline of gov leads and managing each lead through the closing process. Sales executives and company owners often go through the cert just for this training. Our last modules covers how to use this skillset to start a consulting business or land a full time position as a sales exec or Business developer. Hope that helps!

@@rebeccamiller8772 depends on what you mean by pricing? But if you enjoy or are good at proposal writing than it’s a great business doing freelance proposal writing jobs for companies

Thanks for the comment. You're right to highlight subcontracting requirements. Many contracts require the prime to complete a certain amount of the work as you pointed out. I advise people to build a commercially viable business before attempting gov contracting so they have commercial past performance and revenue as well as a proven and tested product or service. Gov contracting is hard and the timelines are much longer than commercial sales. There are certain areas of govcon where you act as a reseller (think commodities) but typically you will have high competition and thin margins, I avoid that type of work all together. Finally, if you do not have a business (or you just started an LLC) and are interested in gov contracting consulting is hands down your best option. When you charge a business to help them I recommend charging by the project or monthly fee. Rarely, although I have done it, I will include a commission. However, the FAR contains language that states you should never help a company sell to the government for just a commission. If interested, I go into great depth with our students in the GovClose certification program ( www.govclose.com/sales-certification ). Many of them close there first clients before even graduating. A big contrast between this and selling to the gov as a prime is you are getting paid up front and maintain much more control of your revenue stream. Hope that helps! Rick

Thank you for the comment and sorry for any confusion! First, I will say that I am very biased against the middleman strategy that is out in the social media world. There's no such thing as a middleman and government contracting, you are either a prime contractor or a subcontractor. The first question I have is do you currently have a business that is selling products or services commercially and successfully. If you do own a business, then government contracting could be for you. Just know that it's hard and the timeline for selling to the government is much longer than selling to a business or a consumer. However, there are lucrative government contracts out there, which is why companies sell to the government. If you do not have a business and you're looking at government contracting because you are interested in it or potentially want to get involved, I would say you have a couple of options. One is you could look at working for a company that is selling to the government already--as a sales executive, business developer, engineer, etc. Or if you understand, the government contracting process or have a specific niche within government contracting, you could start a consulting business. This is what I do and I sell to other businesses, meaning a business needs help selling to the government and they pay me a fee or a monthly fee to help them. I typically avoid commissions, but there are certainly people out there that work with companies for a fee plus commission --hope that helps!!

I would say that if you want to start a business and would like the US government to be one of the customers that buys your product or service, that you should first start a business and sell b2b or b2c for a few years. Once you have consistent revenue and proven track record starting a government contract pipeline will be much easier. Hope that helps!

For all 30 make sure the government office confirmed receipt. Once they confirm receipt, make sure you request a meeting to ask questions. For the two that met with you, this is great news and a good sign. The biggest reason for doing this is developing a relationship. Respond to the two you met with and ask when the solicitation is coming out and if it is still on track. Also, it's possible your responses or the proposed solution if off but with out seeing it I wouldn't know for sure. Just make sure your RFI responses are nor a general marketing document but a completely unique document written for that office and the problem they are solving.

Every response which I responded was specific to that RFI. I don’t respond to RFI with cookie cutter capability statements. I have followed up with some of them, but they didn’t bother to respond to my inquiries except one that interviewed me. I will follow up them

This is a clients capability statement with their info redacted. However, the guidance in this video is based on reviewing hundreds of these when I was a government procurement officer. Some of this is my opinion and I am admittedly biased so I advise taking in different informed opinions on the subject.

Apologies for the confusion. There are government certifications that you can get for a small business through the SBA. Primarily: WOSB, SDVOSB, 8(a) and HUBzone. These are un related to the GovClose program which is training that I personally provide for sales execs and consultants.

What’s so great

True

There's no way of sugar coating this. CMMC and FedRAMP are definitely a burden for small businesses. Even the big contractors will avoid things like FedRamp if they can...

Appreciate it! Any time

Thanks for the comment and for watching! My big picture advice is government contracting is for you if you have a successful business already generating revenue commercially (and consistently). If not or you are just starting a business, I would focus on commercial sales first OR approach government contracting as a consultant.

Keep watching. Addressed later in the video

Glad you liked it!