Are you ready for your million dollar year? It ain't for the weak.
Which is why, in this video, I'm sharing how you can begin to prepare for the transition
in your business on your way to your million dollar year.
Hey, welcome back to the channel. I'm Felicia Streeter, your Government Contracting Strategist.
I help woman-owned small businesses, service disabled veteran-owned small businesses, and even
large companies get into government contracting. I help you go from not knowing where to start,
that information overload, and even those bidding nightmares. I get you on your way
to your first contract, your million dollar year as a government contractor, and then onto those
million dollar contracts. If you're looking to diversify into the government marketplace, this
is the place to be. I'm talking about your biggest spender in the world with small businesses.
Now, if this is your first time here, or if you're a returning visitor,
and you have not make sure you subscribe to the channel. Turn on the notification bell so
you don't miss any of the trainings here on this channel. Today, we're going to be talking about
things you need to have in place as you're beginning to prepare for your million dollar
year as a government contractor. We're going to talk about resources, capacity, your approach,
and up-leveling your performance. Down in the description, I'll put a link to my programs,
if you'd like to get help on your way to building your million dollar
government contracting business. A million dollars a year in revenue? Yeah, that's
a goal that most businesses set when they're starting out as a new business. I'm going to give
you some stats and some numbers, just to solidify the possibility that's before you as a government
contractor, and getting to a million dollars a year. Self-employed small businesses made a
median income of $50,347 in 2016. Unemployment firms are making anywhere between 1 million
to 2.49 million in revenue, and that's about 36,000 small businesses. In 2018, only 9% of small
businesses made a million dollars that year. So getting to a million dollars a year in your
business is not something you should take lightly, nor that you should leave to chance. One of my
clients used what I'm getting ready to share with you guys in this video today to not only
hit $1 million, but surpassed the $1 million mark and went on to 50 million-straight out the gate.
All right, let's get into your million dollar year with government contracts. Let's talk about
the first contract because, in order to get to a million dollars a year, you first have to get that
first contract. No matter the amount, that's where you're going to start-that first contract.
Now, what that contract looks like will depend on your capacity. Of course, yes, you could hit
a million dollars with your first contract, just depending on some variations of how long you've
been in business, what your current capacity is, what resources you have, and what your experience
looks like. Now, you can also do this inside of a mentor protege program, as well. Having those
relationships are so important. That's one of the things I actually teach inside all my programs,
actually. Inside my bootcamp is Phase 5, where we talk about business development and marketing,
because it's something you should be doing in your business consistently, all the time.
The second thing you want to look at, as you're building out your business to get to the million
dollars a year, is your resources. You should always, always be looking at ways to build,
increase your resources, and increase your capacity. When we say resources,
we're talking about people, subcontractors, employees, equipment if you have to use equipment,
whatever supplies you may need. You want to make sure you have the resources available, financially
as well, to get the resources if that's what you're going to have to do. If you have equipment
already on hand, that's cool. If you're going to have to rent equipment or buy equipment,
you want to make sure you have all the resources you need to deliver on your promise.
As you're building out to a million dollars a year, you have to figure out what that looks like
for your business, and what resources you'll need, and start working on that. Three is the prime
position. But before we get to that, I want to ask you a question. Are you currently positioned
for a million dollars a year in your business? Let me know in the comments.
Yes or no. No or yes. Now, if you've heard my story, you may have heard this. Yes, I went
from $23,000 to over 7 million in 18 months. Let me tell you, I could not have done that
without increasing all areas in my business, and getting a mentor.
As I said before, it is not for the weak, which is why I recommend developing new
business as a strategic part of growing your business. Now, inside my programs, I have an
entire section carved out just where we talk about business development and the activities,
along with timelines of what you need to be doing to consistently develop new business. All right,
three-prime position. Here's the thing, when you step into the prime position-game
changer, number one. But also, there's going to be a little bit more work involved.
You're working directly with the customer. You're working directly with the client. You're working
directly with the contracting officer, with that specific agency that you've contracted with. With
that, it's going to be more paperwork. You have to be able to manage the paper flow.
You're going to have to be able to invoice the government, and know how to do that.
You're going to have to get into the government payment system and learn how to work around within
that. All agencies are not created equal, and they don't all use the same way of submitting
for payments, so you'll just have to learn that just based on who's your customer or client.
You'll want to get good at project closeout. You want to close out projects successfully,
on schedule, and within budget. You're also going to have to learn about progress payments,
and how to calculate it. But also, how to submit for your progress payments. On longer contracts,
we're talking about if you have a year long contract or multiple year contract,
a lot of times just depending on what it is you're going to get paid monthly based on the progress of
the work that you've completed thus far, so you're going to have to know how to do those calculations
to submit for those progress payments. Then also, what is your communication channels
with your customer, your client, the contracting officers? You need to know what that is,
and also have those lines of communications open at all times. I'm not saying at 8:00-10:00 at
night, but you get what I'm saying. Lines of communication need to be open and effective.
You're going to have to get used to managing other people. I know it can be a headache,
but as you move into your million dollar year and onto those million dollar contracts,
you're not going to be able to perform alone, so you're going to have other people. I don't
care if it's a product or a service, but it's other people you're going to depend on,
so you're going to have to learn to manage them, their schedules within your schedule. As well,
making sure you can get to your customer what they need, or providing the service as scheduled.
That leads me to project schedules. You're going to have to know how to map out
the project schedule, also making sure you adhere to that schedule. Again, we always want to be on
schedule and within budget. Now, if things happen and we have to change the schedule,
maybe we have delays because of material delays or delays because of weather, then you'll have
to adjust the schedule accordingly and, of course, get with your customer and let them know as well.
The fourth thing is multiple projects. You may not hit a million dollars with just one contract,
it may take multiple contracts. Even when you get into the million dollar contracts and you're doing
multiples a year, you're going to have to learn how to manage multiple projects at one time.
The reality is, when you're just starting out and getting to that million dollars a year,
it's probably going to be more than one project, so you might as well set up the systems, and have
the resources that you need to manage multiple projects at one time. Now, when you're doing this,
you have to think about it multiple projects at one time. We're talking about managing
people on various job sites, locations, at the same time, having the financial available,
in addition to the financial resources to float multiple projects until they can float themself,
and any equipment you may need from one site to the other, as well as managing multiple
schedules-because you only have so many people, where are you going to put them, and when, to make
sure you adhere to the project schedule. All right, the fifth thing is finances. We're
talking about the money. You have to have your financial house in order. You can't be
all over the place with your bookkeeping and your accounting. You want to always be looking at ways
to increase your cash that you have. Cash is king. We need cash. Credit is great too, but you need to
have some cash as well in your business. Then you can look into lines of credit, as well. So if you
need to tap into those, you can. Now, we have this money flowing, we're getting to a million dollars
a year as a government contractor. Now you're making more money,
which means Uncle Sam is looking at you and they want more money. You have to pay taxes,
so you want to make sure you have a good CPA, and your CPA may do your taxes for you. If not,
you're going to need a tax person, as well. Definitely remember, you're making more money,
and you want to protect as much of your assets as you can. You want to make sure you have a
financial advisor. Let me tell you right now, if your goal is to get into government contracting,
if your goal is to get to a million dollars a year as a government contractor and onto those million
dollar contracts, now is the time for you to put things in place to start protecting your assets
as they come in, because it can change really quickly.
$23,000 to over 7 million in 18 months. Yes, it was a game changer. But, guess what? The IRS was
knocking at the door too, so you want to make sure you have that in place. I didn't, don't do what I
did. Don't learn the hard way. Have your financial house in order. Make sure you're protecting those
assets as they're coming in. There you have it, what things you need to start working on
for your million dollar year as a government contractor. Let me tell you, it can happen,
and faster than you anticipate. If it's a goal of yours, start preparing now. Let me tell you it's
a different type of accomplishment for sure. Now, in order to get to a million dollars a year,
we need those leads coming in which is why I created a free resource for you guys on generating
leads. I'm going to put the link down in the description where you can get this free resource
to learn and start actually generating leads in your business. Now, if you've been hanging
out with me here on this channel for a while, and you haven't subscribed to this channel, why not?
Don't you think it's time for us to partner as you transition into government contracting? Go ahead,
subscribe to the channel. Turn on the notification bell, so you don't miss any of the trainings.
You’ve watched this video? Give it a thumbs up. Then I also want to ask you to share this
video out with three people you know, three other businesses that you know.
I'm sure you're not the only one that wants to get to a million dollars as a government contractor.
If they don't know about it, now they'll learn something new. Just know, it's enough to go
around. So you sharing this out, it's not going to take anything out your pocket. So go ahead,
subscribe, notification bell, like this video, share it out to three people, and then I'll see
you guys right back here real soon. Remember you are just one contract away. Bye, for now.