Skyway Wire
How to Use Your Lawyer
For the past 3 weeks I have been doing my other job, being a travel agent. I spent lots of time in the Caribbean learning about the properties we try to send people too who are looking for a...
Subcontracting Plans
When a company graduates to a large business, one area I have often observed as being overlooked is the small business subcontracting plan. The plan is required for contracts exceeding $700,000...
Past Performance ≠ Experience
The number one complaint I receive from small businesses is, “I can’t do business with the Government, because I have no past performance.” I am here to tell you - THAT is a huge misnomer! What...
STEPPING FROM CONTRACTING OFFICER TO CONSULTANT
When I was still working as a Contract Specialist for the government and retirement was approaching, I wondered what would be next after leaving the government. I knew I didn’t want to manage...
Win – Win Contract Negotiations Suffer from Corporate Profit/Loss Objectives
The Skyway team had a good discussion the other day that resulted from an observation I made about the different ethos and corporate cultures one finds in the arena of Government Contracting. By...
When I Grow Up, I Want to Be a Contracting Officer
A lot of our members are government contracting personnel who use our blogs and podcast to help them understand all the different areas contracting people have to know to do their jobs. Many aspire...
Post Award Debriefs for Awardees
After receiving notification that your proposal was selected for award, the last thing you are thinking about is to request a debrief. Some companies may even be of the mindset that it does not...
When the Government is the Supplier
This blog is really for the contracting people out there that buy hardware. The government is always looking to reduce cost when buying hardware systems. If there is a production contract for...
Combat Contracting- The Final Deployment
I can hardly believe it has been ten years since my combat service in Fallujah, Iraq. I was working at the Mujahedin-E Khalq Compound in support of over 27,000 Coalition forces operating within Al...
Targeting is easy…you just have to do it
I normally don’t answer my cell phone if I don’t know who it is (do you?) Anyway, one day last week I had a moment of weakness and I accidently answered the phone because I thought it was my wife....
We’re Late, but It’s Not Our Fault……
How often has a CO heard that! In some cases, it can be true and that is usually when the government itself has caused delays because of their failure to act in a timely manner. Government caused...
Contract Closeout
One of my first tasks as a newly-warranted Contracting Officer was to process DD Form 1594 – Contract Completion Statements for old, completed contracts that had not yet been officially closed. This...
Every Acquisition is Unique
After 16 years in federal contracting, I have never seen an acquisition proceed exactly as its predecessor. This statement applies to both one-off contracts and task orders competed under multiple...
Calculating Industrial Funding Fees (IFF)
GSA Schedule contracts require the contractor to remit an Industrial Funding Fee (IFF) to GSA on a quarterly basis. The current IFF is 0.75% of sales. This fee is the means by which the government...
Drink before You’re Thirsty
Believe it or not, despite putting out over 200 podcast episodes over the last 4 years, I still managed to find time to volunteer with my kids’ sports (it’s amazing how many things are transferrable...
CORs Must Know Their Contract!
This article addresses how critical it is for a Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) to know their contract. That statement sounds like a massive ‘Duh!” but you would be surprised at how many...