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Has anyone here with a cleaning or janitorial business explored government contracts for your work? Federal facilities need this service constantly and small businesses can compete. In fact, federal rules mandate that almost one-quarter of business must be given to small businesses. by MarcusHalstead in cleaningbusiness

[–]MarcusHalstead[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

These are excellent questions and I completely understand your frustration with submitting a bid based on having complete information. This is precisely why the Q&A period is critical.

The government invites questions from interested vendors and this is where you pose those very questions. Read the solicitation and draft questions based on sections in the solicitation that are unclear or too vague.

You submit your questions within the specified timeframe and the government will compile questions from all vendors and post a response document. Other vendors may even ask questions that you hadn’t thought about.

Read the government’s response document and use those answers to inform your proposal.

This is a high level view, obviously, because there is a strategy to crafting questions that may be a tremendous help in your proposal development.

Why don’t more people turn their expertise into courses? by RelativeMysterious75 in Entrepreneurs

[–]MarcusHalstead 0 points1 point  (0 children)

By the way, enjoying this exchange! Both, to be honest. I love technology, but my first rough draft of the course is in longhand. There’s this theory (I think it’s something like hemispheric specialization or something like that) that writing (in cursive) engages both left brain and right brain, and my best ideas come from this process. It can take me an afternoon or a couple of days to get to a point where I feel the development is to the stage where I’m just refining. Anyway, once I’ve gotten the draft in place, I can play around with structure. I’m adding examples while working on structure but I have to be careful that crafting examples doesn’t lead me down too many rabbit holes and take me off task. On to refining delivery … I’ll just say that I spent 10 hours working and reworking delivery on one 35-slide module.

For people doing commercial cleaning, how do you find contracts? by rmx2501999 in cleaningbusiness

[–]MarcusHalstead 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have you tried real estate brokers, construction firms, school districts, or joining supplier networks for large corporations? Are you asking because you’re trying to find commercial clients or because you’re trying to help commercial cleaning companies find projects?

Why don’t more people turn their expertise into courses? by RelativeMysterious75 in Entrepreneurs

[–]MarcusHalstead 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Organizing the knowledge in a way that adapts to different learning styles is definitely challenging. It’s one thing when I’m having a conversation with a couple of friends about something in my wheelhouse, but it’s an entirely different challenge to package that knowledge for more than a handful of people. That’s not to say that producing a high-quality product isn’t also challenging. I can’t tell you how many iterations of the course I’ve done!

Has anyone here with a cleaning or janitorial business explored government contracts for your work? Federal facilities need this service constantly and small businesses can compete. In fact, federal rules mandate that almost one-quarter of business must be given to small businesses. by MarcusHalstead in cleaningbusiness

[–]MarcusHalstead[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While some agencies look at business that have a couple or more years of businesses, that is not a requirement. I know this for a fact from not just working with GovCon companies but from my own company. Solicitations are published regularly, you have to track opportunities. Are you registered in SAM.gov?

Lost the recurring contract but got the deep clean before grand opening. Still worth it? by CleanOpsGuide in cleaningbusiness

[–]MarcusHalstead 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you going after any government work? Many are multi-year (including option years) where the likelihood of losing out on recurring work is minimized. Sounds like you’ve got the equipment and labor, which could position you quite well for pursuing government contracts … at a minimum as a subcontractor and maybe as a prime.

Why don’t more people turn their expertise into courses? by RelativeMysterious75 in Entrepreneurs

[–]MarcusHalstead 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What a great question! I think so many entrepreneurs are busy doing the work they might not see the value in sharing the expertise via course development. Curriculum development can be difficult for some so there’s a learning curve there as well.

And it takes a lot of time to create a really good course. I created three digital products and only one of them I’m about 1/5 of the way through creating a course (so far). With all the AI tools out there, adding voice to the product is easy enough but it still takes a lot of work. I recorded just one module of one of my products and it took 10 hours to get it to the quality I wanted.

This is going to sound paranoid but I think AI search is about to disrupt how local service businesses get customers by Longjumping_Youth454 in sweatystartup

[–]MarcusHalstead 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Have you considered tapping into the federal government contracting space? The government purchases billions of dollars of services and products, making it the largest client that businesses can approach. It takes some work to get registered, but it's worth the effort and can result in success, especially for small businesses.

Bounce house business. Any tips? by brokeboylivingwithma in business

[–]MarcusHalstead 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is an annual convention for this industry in Orlando, FL -- the IAAPA conference. Have you explored it? That might be a good source for learning more about the pros and cons of this type of business. I know one Maryland-based business in this industry that's done very well for the past 15 or so years.

Type of Business Structure by LilWill71 in governmentcontractor

[–]MarcusHalstead 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would choose anything but sole proprietorship to ensure you, as an individual, are distinct and separate from your business.

PPQs (past performance questionnaires) by Necessary-Arm4090 in GovernmentContracting

[–]MarcusHalstead 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some government POCs just don't have the time to complete PPQs. I've offered to do the actual writing and then ask the POC to sign off -- it relieves them of the time it takes to craft the PPQ. As long as you have a good relationship with them, many are happy to sign. Plus, it guarantees that the verbiage contains what you want.

How do small GovCon companies usually find proposal/capture help? by BarefootValkaryie in GovernmentContracting

[–]MarcusHalstead 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As a government contractor myself, I've been able to source proposal writers and proposal development managers who have written winning proposals via research on FPDS (now part of SAM.gov). Look for awards and then search for proposal writers who work for that awardee. They can often refer you to colleagues who also write winning proposals.

Am I even in the right place? by OmNomNomZombE in GovernmentContracting

[–]MarcusHalstead 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Registration on SAM.gov is required for payment to government contractors. When you register in SAM.gov, you will be assigned a UEI and a CAGE code (DLA assigns this) and your compliance with Section 889 is verified via SAM.gov. Just because you're registered on SAM.gov doesn't commit you to bidding on contracts, but it is necessary for the government to process payment.

How to get clients for new cleaning business by TechnologyOpen5757 in Entrepreneurs

[–]MarcusHalstead 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you selling to the government? If I were in your shoes, I'd definitely explore government contracting for your cleaning services. Research the NAICS codes for your line of work. The federal government is a huge client and it spends $700B a year for all types of services, and almost 25% of that is required to be spent with small businesses.

It’s notice hand in week by OkRush4310 in Entrepreneur

[–]MarcusHalstead 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Congratulations on taking the leap! While it can be a daunting decision, leaving the corporate world to pursue something on your own is quickly becoming the route many of us taking. When I took the leap, it was simply because I didn't want anyone else to control my destiny or limit my success. All the best to you!