Skyway Wire
“What we have here is a failure to communicate!” – Cool Hand Luke, 1967
Establishing good communications right from the start of a relationship, whether between a husband and wife or a Contracting Officer (CO) and contractor, is essential for the health and the success...
Painful First Person Account of the New VOSB Verification
New programs, systems, and/or requirements required of small businesses to sell goods and services to the government pop up frequently and randomly. The onus of discovering each new requirement can...
Marketing to your Target Customer
Marketing and advertising can be expensive, and their ROI is usually maddeningly illusive. As the old marketing adage goes, “Half the money we spend on advertising is wasted. The problem is, we...
Do you know your customer’s customer?
I write a lot about the importance of targeting ruthlessly. Most Skyway Community members do effective targeting thanks in part to podcast, tools, webinars, RFP Score, and so on. So for this...
Who are my Potential Teammates? Should I Partner with Them?
Part of “targeting your federal market” includes choosing opportunities that are in your weight class. This mean opportunities for which you clearly have the experience, expertise, and resources to...
Do you know what NOT to do?
Do you have a to do list? I have a huge one. I use an app called Wunderlist to track all the tasks that I must do, should do, would like to do, and wish I could do. Thankfully the app has features...
Limitation of Funds (FAR 52.232-22)
Incrementally funded cost reimbursable and time & material contracts will normally contain some version of FAR 52.232-22, which requires the contractor to notify the contracting officer when...
What’s In Your Contract?
At Skyway, we run our operations side with a simple adage: “Make sure we know how it works so we can fix it if it breaks.” I adopted this concept from a podcast episode by Andy Stanley. The concept...
What I Wish I Had Known as a Young Contracting Officer
Kevin and Paul have hosted a few episodes of the Contracting Officer Podcast that feature current and former government contracting professionals explaining what they wish they had known when they...
Affirmative Action Plans
One of the requirements that growing small businesses in the federal contracting arena may overlook is the requirement to have a written Affirmative Action Plan (AAP). The requirement for various...
In the Sea Of Opportunities, How Do I Find the Ones I Can Win?
Unless you’ve somehow got a sole source in hand, no one can guarantee that you will win any particular opportunity. There are, however, ways to increase your probability of winning by choosing the...
SBA Issues Final Limitations on Subcontracting Rule and More
The Small Business Administration (SBA) has issued the final rule, which is effective June 30, 2016, to implement provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013, which pertain to...
Contractor Purchasing System Review (CPSR) 101
Most large government contracts now require that the bidder have an approved purchasing system. An approved system is one that has “passed” a Contractor Purchasing System Review (CPSR) conducted by...
Goats
One of my favorite aspects of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) is that if the FAR does not specifically prohibit an action, then it is deemed to be permissible, up to the limit of authority...
Three of the Biggest Mistakes in Government Contracting – From Both Sides of the Desk! (Part 2)
During my nearly 40 years as a Contracting Officer, then government proposal consultant, I have seen some systemic problems on both sides of the contracting desk that continue to plague the federal...
Three of the Biggest Mistakes in Government Contracting – From Both Sides of the Desk! (Part 1)
During my nearly 40 years as a Contracting Officer and government proposal consultant, I have seen some systemic problems on both sides of the contracting desk that continue to plague the federal...