Tag: 8a certification

Top 10 Agencies for 8a this 2021

Posted on by Eric Coffie

If you’re a business owner eligible for 8(a) certification, any challenge to participating in the program, such as its lengthy application process, will be overshadowed by the opportunities it can offer.

Getting your 8a certificate can reduce competition for government contracts, give you access to sole-source contracts, and offer entry into the All Small Mentor-Protégé program.

However, a reality that many business owners seeking the certification fail to consider is that there is also competition among 8a firms and it’s vicious. How do you surpass that?

There are so many contracting officers in the federal industry looking for small businesses to spend their money on. There are different types of customers within each agency and different marketing strategies needed to win but don’t worry, we are here to help you.

Allow us to narrow down your target market. With that in mind, here are the Top 10 Agencies for 8a that you should keep your eye on this 2021.

1. Department of the Army (DA)

The United States Department of the Army is the Military Department within the United States Department of Defense. They are the agency that is capable of defeating enemy ground forces and indefinitely seizing and controlling those things.

The Army awards billions of contracting dollars annually. They have five buying commands and each has specific major buying command purchases, from combat systems to medical research and health services to construction projects. The Army has a very large secondary market: subcontracting, which is why they also encourage small businesses to pursue subcontracting opportunities.

2. Department of the Air Force (USAF)

The Department of the Air Force defends the country through the control and exploitation of air and space. 

The Air Force has small business specialists around the country who can help your company identify and respond to every type of procurement opportunity they offer. Business opportunities, relating to expiring contracts, facility engineering, and space force procurement, is found on their website.

3. Department of the Navy (USN)

The U.S. Department of the Navy aims to protect the country from wars at sea. The contracting functions of this agency are decentralized which means your market research should extend beyond the geographical bounds of your city, state, and region. 

The first presentation of your company’s capabilities should be directly given to the Small Business Professionals at the Navy and Marine Corps activities that buy your products or services so that you get additional points of contact for marketing the customer.

The Department of the Navy wants quality solutions for its requirements in a timely and cost-effective manner thus outstanding “past performance” is considered one of the most valuable assets.

4. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services provide high-quality care at lower costs to more than 100 million people through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Health Insurance Marketplace.

To support its own programs, CMS needs to procure a wide range of supplies and services including (but not limited to) the following: Research Studies and Demonstrations, Consultant Services, Utilization of Health Services, Provider Fraud and Abuse, Health Quality and Standards, Professional Advisory Services, Computer Programming, Data Processing, Office Supplies, Computer Hardware, and Software

5. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is America’s civil space program and the global leader in space exploration.  They develop and fund space technologies that will enable future exploration and benefit life on Earth.

If you are interested in working with NASA, as a small business owner, you can go to their website and identify which NASA Center is your target market. Each center has listed out the NAICS codes of the product or service that they intend to acquire.

6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services. They protect America from health, safety, and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. 

This agency conducts critical science and provides health information that protects our nation against expensive and dangerous health threats, and responds when these arise. For small businesses engaged in scientific research and development (R&D), research funding is available.

7. Public Buildings Service (PBS)

Public Buildings Service acquires space on behalf of the federal government through new construction and leasing and acts as a caretaker for federal properties across the country. They are primarily funded through the Federal Buildings Fund, which is supported by the rent from federal customer agencies.

To get information on planned federal contracting opportunities, they have provided the GSA Forecast of Contracting Opportunities Tool, which assists vendors to learn about potential prime contracting opportunities early on in the process

8. United States Coast Guard (USCG)

The U.S. Coast Guard is the principal Federal agency responsible for maritime safety, security, and environmental stewardship in U.S. ports and inland waterways, throughout the 4.5 million square miles of U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and on the high seas.

The Coast Guard Acquisition Directorate manages a multibillion-dollar recapitalization investment portfolio of acquisition programs across three major product lines: surface; aviation; and command, control, communications, computers, cyber, and intelligence (C5I) systems.

9. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

The FAA issues and enforces regulations involving manufacturing, operating, and maintaining aircraft. They rely on equipment, systems, supplies, services, and construction provided by commercial, educational, and non-profit businesses to function as an agency.

The FAA’s contracting activities are managed by a headquarters office, two centers, and three service areas with eight regional offices. Among the many contracting methods, the FAA, like other agencies, has certain planned contracts reserved for small businesses that are 8a certified.

10. Department of State (DOS)

The Department of State works to fight terrorism, protect U.S. interests abroad, and implement foreign policy initiatives while building a more free, prosperous, and secure world

Available projections for contracting opportunities that small and small disadvantaged firms may participate in can be found on the agency’s website under its procurement forecast. 

RESOURCES

The list found in this article and their respective ranking was taken from usaspending.gov, wherein federal agencies were ranked from highest to lowest, according to their cumulative government spending in 2021 for 8a certified businesses.

Sonia Mundra (AK): Doing Business as an Alaskan Native Corporation (ANC)

Posted on by Eric Coffie

You have to be prepared for an administrative burden when you start to do business with the federal government. Sonia Mundra, President of Chenega Analytics Business Solutions has provided us insight on how taxing and expensive government contracting can actually be.

However, Mundra is dedicated in sharing her expertise and helping entrepreneurs and businesses effectively navigate the process. Her discussion also provides an insider’s look into the tools and forming the right mindset needed in order to be successful in federal contracting.

 

ABOUT SONIA MUNDRA AND CHENEGA ANALYTICS

Last 2017, Ms. Sonia Mundra became the President of Chenega Analytics Business Solutions (CABS), a subsidiary of Chenega Corporation. They have been doing business with the federal government contracting community since 1989. 

Ms. Mundra has over 15 years of combined experience as a Certified Public Accountant, Project Management Professional (PMP), and a certified Government Blockchain Consultant. 

She is the professional that you’d want to consult when you consider diving into federal contracting processes and blockchains. She has assists federal and commercial agencies to implement information solutions that include storage, digitization, data migration, cloud storage, and security.

CABS is also a small disadvantaged business (SDB) who received its 8(a) certification last September 2018. They are also an Alaska Native Corporation (ANC), that enables them to receive direct awards from all federal government agencies up to $22M without the need for justification and approval. 

Their current contracts and past performance have nearly included all DoD agencies, DHS and most Fed Civ agencies.  

 

NUMBERS AND CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

Ms. Mundra has always been a numbers oriented person. But she advises businesses to not replace communication and relationships by relying purely on SLA’s as she believes it is a very tone-deaf thing to do.

“Customers still need TLC (Tender Love and Care) at times. And you gotta reach out and touch them to make sure that relationship is good,” she says.

SLAs or Service Level Agreements defines the level of service expected by a customer from a supplier. It lays out specific metrics that customers can answer or leave as a feedback.

Although SLAs are a critical component for any outsourcing and technology vendor contract, SLA can SLA metrics will vary depending on the services being provided. But its approach should be kept as simple as possible to avoid confusion and excessive costs.

 

CALCULATING PROBABILITY OF WIN

Truthfully, you won’t be able to see your future without looking at your past performances. Your previous stats are actually a great source for insight to your PWIN. However, what is Probability of Win, exactly?

Probability of Win (PWIN) is by its name the probability of winning a particular opportunity. It is a tool that can help you assess where you stand at a given point in time.

Although Ms. Mondra says that PWIN can be quite subjective. But when used properly, it can help financially-oriented people to weigh in the financial value of a project and assist capture-oriented individuals to assess where they are on the opportunity. 

In federal contracts, PWIN is used in competitive bidding. 

Competitive Bidding is the process when companies will put together their best proposal and compete for a specific project. The bidding is actually beneficial because it makes the environment competitive which means that small agencies are able to keep up with larger companies since the costs will remain low. 

And the government issuing the project can simply wait to look for the most qualified companies to do the work.

 

TOOLS BEING USED BY BUSINESS ANALYTICS

In addition, knowledge has always been power. And so with tools like calculator for PWIN, we have Deltek GovWin IQ and beta.SAM.gov. 

These are critical resources in developing and refining a long term growth strategy especially with business developments that deal with selling to the federal or public sector.

In order to optimize your sales processes, government bids and contract awards, GovWin and BetaSam are tools that’ll assist you in planning in advance for Government Bids, Request for Proposals and Contract Vehicles that are to be released even before taking action.

They are vital for those companies who are looking to piece together a proactive business development strategies. These platforms cover opportunities that range from months to even years before contracts go out to bid.

These tools can also help your government sales team in developing a long-term actionable pipeline. And it is a foolproof strategy in getting ahead of the competition. 

Because, by arming yourself with more information than your competitors. Companies will use these tools to identify which agency contacts, spending trends and government purchasing history can help build a powerful proposal for the bids.

 

UNDERSTANDING BLOCKCHAINS

If you have been following banking, investments, or cryptocurrency, you may be familiar with “blockchain”, the record-keeping technology behind the Bitcoin network. 

“A blockchain is essentially a distributed ledger,” says Ms. Mundra. 

Blockchains or also referred to as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) has the potential to eliminate huge amounts of record-keeping. It can also save money, streamline supply chains and disrupt I.T. in ways that we haven’t seen since the internet arrived.

A blockchain in simple terms, is a time-stamped record of data. It is managed by a cluster of computers but isn’t owned by a single establishment. Each of these “blocks” of data are secured and are bound together using cryptographic principles or “chains”.

In Ms. Mundra’s words, “Blockchains ensure that what you are consuming is clean. This means that it is a fair trade that’s devoid of foreign corrupt practices such as child labor, human traficking and more.”

 

THE 4 BIRDS PERSONALITY TEST

Ms. Sonia Mundra also opened up that when advancing to being the top management in her field, she needed more than technical skills and willingness to work hard.

She also needed to improve her few soft skills that helped her to take her career as far as it could go. 

Whether it was to practice discipline, take on more projects, learn to develop situational awareness, and inspire others, she believes that being a leader means that you are part of a team. That you are inspiring collaboration with encouragement and guidance. 

And the best part of becoming a good leader is that it resolves conflicts instead of ignoring them or hoping they will go away. But each individual needs a unique approach. And one way to be an effective leader is to become a discerning listener.  

One can do this by learning a lot more about who you work with with a simple D.O.P.E. Bird personality test.

This test doesn’t need you to become a psychologist. Instead, it is a fun and useful tool that notes down an individual’s different characteristics, strengths, motivation and experiences. 

However, these bird types do not pin down who or what you really are in life. But it can be an interesting way to find out more about others and yourself. 

But why does it have birds in it? 

Each bird represents a trait. The Doves are peaceful and friendly, the Owls are wise and logical. The Peacocks are showy and optimistic, and the Eagles are bold and decisive.

A person will have a combination of these types. However, just keep in mind that they must not be used as a psychological assessment of your life. 

3H LEADERSHIP (HUNGRY, HUMBLE & HUSTLE)

Lastly, although one can prepare to be a leader. One shouldn’t forget that there are things that we can’t control. The H3 Leadership provides a practical outline for implementing and living out the transformational habits of a great leader.

However, will all the adversities you’ll face. One should always strive to remain hungry, humble and hustle. 

Because at the end of your journey, will you become someone who is willing to work hard and get things done? And can you make sure that it won’t be about others are treating. But how you treat yourself. 

And ultimately, how transformative you can be that you can influence others to do the right habits to succeed. 

 

RESOURCES

If you want to watch the full video with Sonia Mundra, be sure to click on the link below to redirect you to our YouTube channel where I share free content about the government contracting process as well as my interviews with other GovCon giants.

055: Doing Business as an Alaskan Native Corporation (ANC) with Sonia Mundra – Eric Coffie

The SBA 8a Program Transitional Years Explained

Posted on by Eric Coffie
The 8a program is a business development program meant to help people launch, grow and graduate into a successful small business firm. They provide you with the tools and knowledge that you need in order to compete for contracts in the open market.
In short terms, the 8a program will assist you in growing and succeeding as a small-business. They do this by including “transitional years.” Transitional years are the years where you must do work outside of the federal government.
These transitional years serve as steps to slowly push you to find work outside of the 8a sphere. Therefore, by the end of the program, a large chunk of your work must and will derive from elsewhere.
This is good news because when the program ends, you are still in business and can succeed on your own.
Beginning your fifth year, you must start demonstrating a mixture of federal government and non-federal work. The range starts at 15%. By your final year, 55% of your revenue must derive from business outside of the 8a sphere.
If the company fails to comply with these guidelines, they are subject to suspension from the program for up to 1 year. This poses a challenge for budding entrepreneurs who have no private or commercial contracts outside of the federal government.
However, if you follow the guidelines, you will be in a position to continue doing business without the 8a program.
Learn more about 8a certification requirements and how it works via this United States Army Corps of Engineer presentation.
To learn more about government contracting visit the GOVCON GIANTS YouTube Channel.