 All right, we are live. Happy Thursday to everyone out there. And yes, this is an unplanned live today. And share some actual news that happened recently. So a couple of days ago, the Biden administration made this huge announcement. How many people have had a chance to see this announcement? And as we wait for folks to join in on the chat, let us know who you are, who's out there in the room today, because we did decide to come on last minute. So again, thank you so much for coming on. All right, who's out there? How are you? What's going on? Tell me some good news that's happened to you lately. I can't find my chat. So today, we are discussing the administration's plans, what they have going on, and how this is going to affect small businesses. So this announcement came out recently. Biden seeks to use procurement power to close the racial gap. And in this particular article, by the way, if you're just joining us, let us know who you are. Let us know the organization and what is it that you do. Let me make sure that the chat is turned on. I'm not seeing the chat. Can someone type in a chat, please? Just so I can make sure it's turned on. Because I don't see. It's not giving me an option to write in the actual chat. So let me know who's out here. OK, there you go. All right, I found the chat. All right, Aweb, digital, perfect. OK, good stuff. All right, I've got the chat. So now I see it. All right, welcome, welcome, welcome all. Thank you so much. Yeah, I decided to come on and make this content. Like I said, it is my hope, my intention to come on more often on YouTube Live as news is released. And so today I want to come on and share this with folks out there because I thought this was really important to discuss. What does this mean for us and small businesses out there? How does this affect us? What they're talking about and how do we become part of the conversation? I think that's so important for many of us out there is we don't even know how to become part of this conversation. So again, I want to come on today and discuss how can we become part of the conversation. So Biden, this article came out and maybe you've seen it in the Washington Post, maybe you've seen it on LinkedIn. But one of the administration's goals that was announced recently was their intention to double the share of federal contracts going to small, disadvantaged businesses over the next few years as part of the administration's goal to narrow the racial wealth gap. And so what does that mean for us? What does that mean for you? What does that mean for me? I'm a small business. Small businesses. By the way, don't forget to tell me who you are, what it is that you do, where you're located at. And so they did reference in here the role of the Sloop Actions aimed at increasing wealth and communities of color in conjunction with this commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the massacre on Black Wall Street. And so this is wonderful news. I'm sure we're all really excited to hear about it. And what's interesting is the fact that they are using federal procurement to do that. And so I want to talk about that today with some folks out there. And let's discuss how federal procurement can help us. What does that look like? And again, like I said, how can we take advantage of this? So if you're out there and give me a high five, let me know you're out there and give us a thumbs up. Let us know that you are here and joining us today while I am trying to figure this thing out still. There's some good, there's some bad. There's a lot of confusion. So let's see if I can help clear up some of the confusion, some of the good, some of the bad. I'm trying to, while we're discussing this, welcome, welcome, welcome all, well, give me one second. As it is when you do things. All right, perfect. All right, Andrew, thank you for joining us. I'm at Andrew's here. All right, perfect. All right, Andrew says, yeah, I saw this on set aside. Good stuff. Sierra, good job. John Harding, welcome. Jonathan Houston, welcome. Again, let us know what your plans are and what is it that you do. Good, so I'm glad you guys saw this. Some of you folks out there might have already heard this news. So let's discuss this because I was chatting with some folks about this and I thought it was interesting. So let's talk about it because why does this matter? Interesting enough, when you think about, the government said that roughly 10% of federal agencies told us we're contracting dollars, typically go to small disadvantaged businesses, a category under federal law for which black owned, Latino, other minority owned businesses are presumed to qualify. We all, if you're not familiar with that, they're referencing the Small Business 8A program where you have both a social economic classification and so they are presumed categories of disadvantages. The article continues to go on and state, the goal is to increase 50% of the share of contracts to go to small disadvantaged businesses, hence 8A, by 2026, which will lead to an additional $100 billion for small disadvantaged businesses over that period. Great news. And like most of you, I'm very excited. So let's dig in further. AACs will assess every available tool to a little embarrassing increase entry and opportunities for small businesses and underserved entrepreneurs. And then it goes on to talk about small businesses are essential to the benefit, blah, blah, blah, blah. But then here, within the article, this person mentions that the subcontracting category, which includes black owned small businesses has actually dropped 3.4% to three from 2017 to 2020. Under the memo, they want to boost set of size that are directed to 8A companies to about $40 billion. So again, when we look at the different categories, we're saying, all right, we're going to boost the dollars going to 8A companies. That's going to increase by about $40 billion. And then the other six or so billion, I guess, will be distributed out to very small business programs, right? Good stuff. Exciting, sure. However, the issue that I see, all right, and so of course, as you can imagine, I'm coming on here because while this is wonderful news and exciting news, let's talk about the issues that we're facing. And part of the issue, and again, here's some fact sheets for folks that want to read it. Just want to pull this up on the screen and talk about what the government's plans are. The issues that I see while the government has been, and maybe, again, if you're tuning in and you've heard me speak before, you've probably heard me mention this. While the government continues to set records and goals for doing awarding contracts to small businesses, that is what they're hanging their hat on and touting as their success stories, the issue is that the number of small businesses participating in these programs continues to decline. That's correct. So while the government is touting that they're spending more and more money with small businesses, in fact, the number of small businesses, the actual number of companies, continues to go steadily decline. So while this is a wonderful thing and they're going to be putting more money into these programs, what's happening is the money continues to go to the companies that have already continually that are doing the contracts and not new small businesses. And so this is where I find an issue. And yes, AirWeb Digital, if anyone else is having an audio issue, please let me know. I definitely want to check that out. So if you have any audible issues, let me know. It says my stream health is excellent connection. So I don't see anything on my end. But if you do, let me know. So let's talk about this and what is it that I'm referring to? Well, does anyone have any idea of how the government currently is meeting all their small business goals? Anybody out there is aware of how the government right now is meeting their small business goals? Anybody want to take a guess? All right, hold on. How's this? Okay, how's this? I turn the audio up. Is the audible good? How are we doing on the mic? Mic's good. Thumbs up. Mic's good. Now, how about now? Kumba. Is it low still? Jonathan. Andrew. How are we doing? Better? Okay. Okay. Hold on. Let me see. All right. Perfect. Okay. All right. Good stuff. Thank you. Thank you for that because that will help me. All right. Better. Better. Good. Okay. Thanks guys. All right. So let's let's dive into this back over here to the screen. So what what what's happening? What we're discussing is an area where the government has now decided to and we're going to pull this up on the screen for everybody to see. Has anyone out there familiar with best in class solutions? Anyone out there familiar with category management? Yes. Anybody out there familiar with category management? Category management is the best in class solutions is the preferred method today for the way the government buys goods and services. So when an agency is deciding upon how to buy goods and services, this is the method that has been touted as efficient and effective for procuring goods and services. And so this is the preferred method that the government is using to procure goods and services. However, right? Anybody familiar with it? Anybody out there familiar with category management? You've heard of it before? Yes. No. Okay. All right. You've heard of it, but you're not familiar with it. Yep. Never heard of it. Never heard of it. Good. Okay. Excellent. Category management, best in class solutions. So then we're going to learn something today. You're in class. What it is, is essentially is where the government, most of us are understanding IDIQs. And so with category management, best in class, ultimately these are multi-year contracts with really, really large dollar amounts. And they picked a select group of contractors. So depending upon which one of these particular vehicles the government uses, let's say Oasis, there could be 20 to 100 contractors. But the ceilings of which they spend are in the billions of dollars. So for example, there could be $5 billion or $10 billion over the next 10 years that gets split up between these 30, 40, 50 contractors. And it doesn't get split up evenly. You still have to bid the projects. But ultimately what happens is you as a small business have to pre-qualify to be on one of these particular projects. So for Oasis, waste of small business, Army, NASA suit, things like that. So 8A stars align. All of these programs require pre-qualification. Well, the challenge with that is because they are in the billions of dollars. The pre-qualification for most of us out here is really, really, really, really high. The threshold is really high. So some of these, the pre-qualifications mean you have to have done millions of dollars in revenue or have hundreds of employees to just pre-qualify to get on this list. So that creates an additional barrier for most of us out here, right? 90 plus percent of us out here who don't have the ability to get on any of these particular programs. Now, why does that matter? Because if we go back over here to where the government is spending the money and they want to go in and close the racial gap, the preferred method for spending is category management. Then what do you think is going to happen and how is that going to help the regular guy? It's not. But don't just let me tell you that. Let me show you something here. All right. And so this was a report that was issued May of 2021. Okay. May of 2021 category management, best in class procurement, driving small business suppliers out of the federal marketplace. This report was put out. By the way, let me change. Let me get you guys on a better view so you can see the whole report. This particular report was issued by the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce, Margot Doffman, who again, we love Margot. She was on our podcast, the Gopkan Giants podcast where she wrote that here and their organization said that between 2017 and 2020, America lost 24 percent of all of our small business federal suppliers and they attribute that to category management. The same program, the same vehicle that the government intends to issue these awards, right? Because that's their preferred methodology. So the same vehicle that they're intending on issuing all of these awards to us is the same problem that's driving most of us out of the marketplace. Huh? Yeah. Not cool. So let's talk about that. Let's go in and let's just take a look at what this article says. I'm going to zoom in so we can get a better view of it. And again, anyone feel free to have this. In fact, I'm going to cut them faces, drop it in the chat for those who are curious to read it. But what it says is ultimately between 2017 and 2020, America lost 24 percent of all of our small business federal suppliers across agencies, totaling 21,000 small businesses. And this one business interests in the marketplace have also dropped significantly. They talk about best in class interior procurement category management has delivered devastating blows to women owned and veteran owned small businesses. While the number of our businesses have lost 24 percent women owned suppliers have dropped 22 percent veterans by 17 percent states Margo Dorkman. Okay. And so. We don't want to be all doom and gloom here. So Margo actually in this particular release offers up some solutions here and it says the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce and its members calling President Biden to write this run by signing presidential executive order to specifically do one of these things or both categorize all small business set aside procurements or contract awards to small business as or equivalent to tier three spending as defined regards to contract vehicle method used for procuring goods and services. So all she's essentially saying is, hey, let's make it equal to all of us out here. We're going to use best in class category management with all of these really, really large small businesses because again, there is the small business guy girl like, you know, most of us listening to who do less than a million dollars in revenue probably have less than 10 employees. And then there's those behemoth companies that have hundreds of employees do tens of millions of revenue, maybe even 50 plus million in revenue, 100 million in revenue. And then Margot also mentioned pursuant to characterize small business set aside to tier three spending small business set aside to enter a person from small business and all policy that direct procurement to best in class vehicles. So that would allow us to be treated equally. Another person out of respect here, which is the hub zone National Council, all right, goes on to put it this way. So 2021 policy priorities and here ensure small businesses are participating in category management initiative. The council effort to bring small business community and government stakeholders together to work to minimize negative impacts by government-wide category management initiative on small businesses. These efforts result in the inclusion of a provision in the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act that requires and reporting all small business participation on best in class vehicles. So that's what we've met. It's 3% hub zone goal. The council remains dedicated to finding opportunities to ensure maximum participation of hub zone businesses. So Eric, what are you saying all this for? Well it seems to me that all right it seems to me that the U.S. Senate committee on small business participation in fact in 2019 here Senator Cardin okay he expressed concerns and they had a meeting here where this issue was put at the forefront and it talks about the steep decline in small business receiving federal contracts. What's interesting about this that I like is that several of our podcast guests actually testified on this particular meeting. If you look here Lori Sales was on our podcast Delali was on our podcast Rob Wong was on our podcast and they were all testified on this particular meeting regarding this issue. So what the what I'd like to say is for all of us out here that are listening to this when we talk about the spending at this particular $100 billion it's not enough to just get excited about the overall sheer number of the dollar amount and the volume. Let's look at how can we help shape where these monies where these dollars where they're going and so as some of you may know GovCon Giants recently became a 501 C3 nonprofit organization so we're going to be working more organizations like the Help Zone Council and U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce. We're going to be working more organization like that to help advocate on behalf of small businesses. If we were to just look at the spending of the top ten NAX Codes for A to A because A to A is where the majority of this dollar is going to be spent. These are the it's a recent article that we actually issued June the 1st that shows the NAX Codes for the top spending in 2021 for A to A which is small business development. I mean, sorry, small disadvantage business. So small disadvantage business which interchangeably can be used as A to A. Here are the top NAX Codes for spending and you'll see computer, computer, you get down to construction, some more computer related services, engineering services, security guards and patrol services, research and development, and then potential scientific. So that's where the dollar amount would flow seemingly if they were to continue along this pathway. So I just thought that I would add some more insight to this and some clarity and then allow folks to ask questions. So right now I'm going to shut my big mouth, going to turn to you guys and see what questions you have so we can talk about this issue a little bit further. Questions, comments, concerns, let's, you know, we're looking for solutions. I definitely want to encourage more people to become active in helping to have this conversation. Again, the more that we can talk about this, the more that we can share this information with policymakers, the more that we can share this information with people open legislation, the more that we're going to get a chance and I really think that I love this particular idea from the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce, right, about exempting small businesses here, pursuant to characterizing small business set-asides as tier three, spending small business set-aside and direct purchase from small businesses shall be exempt from any and all policies that direct procurement to best in class vehicles. Make us equal contracts awarded to us as or equivalent to tier three spending. So listen, questions, comments, concerns, let's open it up for the audience out there. By the way, if you like what we're talking about, please give me a thumbs up, because it's not easy putting all this content together. It's not easy grabbing this information and being able to come on and share this with folks. But I think that it is really necessary that we not only do entertainment, but we provide education and I'm hoping that we can educate folks on some other topics and ideas so that we can expand the conversation beyond where we're at today. So questions, comments, drop it in. Let me know what you think about all this stuff. Let me know if you have any ideas, if you've seen anything, what you've heard. Let's have a conversation about them. Eric, I'm a 19-year-old business student from Sweden. It's a possible for me to make money from government contracts. We actually have people internationally doing contracts. So yes, we do have that. One great route for you to be is to learn US government contract system that can sell businesses in one contract. Good suggestion. Andrew, I love it. By the way, we have folks on here watching but I don't see a lot of people telling us what industry you're in and what city you're from. So for all the new folks that have never been on my live sessions, always, always, always use us as an opportunity to talk about your business, use us as an opportunity to say who you are and what that you do. Elevation, a la, peace coffee. Thank you for making the videos about low-hanging fruit. I'm currently going after cities with 100,000 more people. There are a lot of opportunities. Yes. Eric, you've helped a lot of people, including myself, become more comfortable with the idea of bidding with city school systems. Excellent. Eric, you've been in the preacher of saving lives. Good stuff. Thank you. And I appreciate all of that. I'm looking for any questions anyone has. Anything anybody wants to talk about? Questions, comments, concerns? 37 people watching. I don't see a lot of industry. I don't see what your city you're calling from. Let us know what industry and what city you're calling from. And by the way, if you're just joining us now, we're talking about the procurement, how Biden's administration is seeking to use federal procurement as a way to close the gaps. And by the way, I love that. We all love that. In fact, one of the things that Margo mentioned here that I really, really love small businesses have been reporting for decades the difficulties they have in accessing government contracts. Small business ownership is often the only pathway to achieving the American dream, especially for minorities, veterans and women who have been historically marginalized and deny equal footing to achieve success. I believe in that statement so much that this is a pathway for all of us. This is a pathway for achieving the American dream. So, yes. Am I going to come on and share this information with you? Yes. Am I going to help you to become better? Yes. Am I going to help you to become more educated so that when you're out there and you're speaking to folks, and if someone says to you they're going to double the amount of money that you're spending, right? So let's talk about this. You jump on with an agency and they say to you, we're going to increase the number of spending because we're going to give out more contracts to small businesses. We need to find out where are they going to be spending those dollars? How are they going to be spending those dollars? Because if they're just going to be dumping this stuff over here in the category management that doesn't do us, that doesn't us no good. So if they're just dumping this stuff right back over here to category management best in class so if you hear people say that you let them know, hey, I'm a small business I don't qualify for best in class I don't qualify for category management or tier three how does someone like me participate? This is the question I want all of you out there asking when you're knocking on doors and you're talking to agencies and you're talking to copying officers and you're talking to people at the federal level this applies for federal level. I want you to ask them if I don't qualify for NASA SUP or ASUS Small Business how am I supposed to participate in all of this so-called double in terms of increase of spending with small businesses out there how do I participate a little guy like me if I don't qualify if I only have 10 employees if I only do 500,000 revenue 200,000 revenue how am I supposed to participate in this particular Biden's plan or the administration's plan to close the racial wealth gap so how do I participate all right let's see what we have out there I've been in technology for 20 years just getting started government contracting congratulations Ross we actually we have on my blog you can look up we actually just posted an article about IT companies and ways to get started using your IT experience technologies is huge we can't say how much we need more people in that particular industry even though it may seem like a crowded space really there's a there's always room for good quality contractors so I want to again I don't want this to be a sad video I want this to be an uplifting video because I want to encourage you I want to support you and I want you just to be aware of what's happening so that you can ask intelligent questions so you can be more informed as a consumer this is not political this is doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on this has to do with you and I receiving our equitable amount of contracts and again it's not just me saying it here this particular where's that center's article he wrote in here and this particular article that this decline means that while contracts are getting bigger and bigger we're creating an insular club where fewer and fewer businesses successfully compete for government contracting creating a less competitive marketplace and reducing opportunities in the process and again this was in 2019 this isn't this is nothing that this is this is new so again I love the administration's plan I love what they're doing I love the idea the concept but I think that they've got to go down one or two levels within it to discuss with people and organizations and associations who've been at the forefront of this for the last decade or so and ask them how can when we're creating this program let's consult with these folks out here of how we can ensure that the monies that are coming down go into the hands of the right people so I think that's what the conversation should be alright let's see hello first of my live here in Dallas Texas getting ready to complete my Sam's registration looking to get incurred transportation Sheena congratulations on that Whit Gray disabled veterans dealing on fuel transport laundry installations at Atlanta good job love it AirWeb basing Gainesville Georgia we do know Gainesville Georgia well NQB says a small business owner to leverage ourselves with this new spending good question so Kumba says what NQB says a small business owner to leverage this new spending well the first thing that we to do in order to leverage the spending is we have to get involved at the federal level so again state and local is not going to help you with this spending because it's being passed now through federal agencies and federal brewers first thing that we can do Kumba to help ourselves get involved right is to become in the process so we need to first all of us need to be registered first and foremost right so that's the first thing we do is get registered the second thing that you can do to get involved is start having conversations with people in your industry so for example we mentioned fuel transportation laundry services after you've done your market research and you figure out what offices are buying your services what agencies are buying your services have conversations with them about this topic this is a great reason to call someone at a federal agency who's buying your goods and services and to have a conversation this is front page news this was on a Washington post this is a great dialogue to have a conversation I had the privilege of sitting in the background of a conversation today where this was brought up that their agency is expecting to receive all this influx of monies to be able to do more projects so you're coming in at the right time so the first thing is to get registered that's the easiest thing to do the second thing is to in order to participate in conversation is to identify through your market research the offices and agencies who are buying your goods and services and then the third thing is to reach out and talk to them about this new plan and program and how it impacts us all and their particular agency what do they see happening and make sure to talk about this best in class so let's talk to them about hey are you going to be directing all that money or are there going to be some opportunities for the little guys like me right so what I'm interested in is where are the opportunities for the little guys and girls like me that's what I'm looking for I'm not interested in the $10 billion $20 billion money going to the same people I'm not interested in that I want to know where are the simplified acquisition dollars where is that money who's going to be in charge of that that's the person I need to talk to does that make sense kumba alright Houston as well have you seen the procurement office bids I like to procure all sorts of items from government, food, clothing, office supplies and more one of the things that I recommend is when you're starting out folks I know it seems very easy and lucrative to go after a whole bunch of angles but really I always encourage people to start with one particular area where you think you're the strongest or you may have some great relationships with suppliers or vendors start off with that one area first and then from there then you can move into other areas but become an expert become a master in one particular area and then from there I would expand my search and reach into other areas that I saw opportunities so don't go in with a you know white stroke of I want everything because it's going to be hard for you to get anything and for me I really really really encourage all of the folks out there listening is to go after a specific market a niche become the best at that understand how they buy that understand the competitors understand the landscape deliver some product deliver some services get some past performance get some awards have some success build some capital right experience dealing with suppliers and creditors and then once you've done that really well and efficiently and you feel confident then go off into a second third or fourth area but until you've done some contracts until you've got some experience in your belt I would not be so proud to say I'm going to have to hold this market because really what it makes gives the impression to people like myself that you really don't have you're really not an expert at anything and so it's hard for me to even refer you to friends of mine or organizations that I work with because what I'm going to say gibbert's good the best at so and that happens to a lot of folks so don't feel bad this happens to people all the time so I just want to let folks know this is nothing to feel bad about I appreciate you even putting it out there and expressing your honesty because this is how we learn this is look it's something I tell my group this is a great setting for us to feel comfortable and talk amongst each other right so I look at it this way 90% of people are not watching our channel 90% of people are not doing these activities so this is great this is a safe space where we can talk and have conversations and improve and get better better to practice with me than to practice with the government fair alright let's keep going how can I update my next codes anytime you want let's see John Robert Freeman whether LLC or C you should have a consultant with CPA Eric hey Eric MTP, Secret Clarence, Current Army, Reservist, Base Facilities and Atlanta, Georgia, Gulf Congress D.O.D. Train Logistics so jury says I've been trucking by rarely see opportunities I like that that's a great question so what happens is Julie this is the jury this is what's happening with a lot of people out there I get this all the time Eric I'm in this particular industry but I don't see any opportunities for my industry the reason why you don't see opportunities is because you are looking on Sam.gov or Beta Sam.gov or the combine whatever it is you are looking for bids to come out and that's why you don't see opportunities because as I stated before and I will continue to state this with folks out there we negotiate projects I don't bid projects my projects are never publicly posted why? because what we do is we start off with researching the organizations the agencies, the office, the bureaus who spend money on my services we then look at the forecasters of upcoming opportunities and then we sit down and we have a conversation about with them about how is it that we can participate on this opportunity we're doing this months before and it never hits the street now what happens? during that time frame other people are doing the same thing and then we help the government shape the requirements write the requirements, put the requirements together so that it doesn't have to go publicly big believe it or not the government does not always want full and open competition it is encouraged to put things out full and open competition however using the rule of two there are two more small businesses that can perform this work they then can set the project aside or they can negotiate directly with those companies there's a plethora of things that they can do other than putting it out on beta.sam and so jewelry when you're saying that you barely see opportunities that's because what I suspect you're doing is you're going on beta.sam and you're looking for bids bids, bids, bids, bids, bids and so you're saying I don't see any bids because that's what I'm hearing you should be doing the opposite you should not be looking for bids on beta.sam like the person said sources of thoughts, RFIs market research, forecast lists procurement spending the history of where it's been expiring contracts IDIQs all of these things that are not bids so all of these other 30, 40, 50 things out here that are anything except bids is what the majority of people who make the same comments and statements is what they're not doing and those are the things that we encourage people to do and those things that we teach people to do and our courses and all of our lessons so there's so much out there and it's a shame because I receive that so often from folks because it's so easy to sit behind a computer and just look on thing and say oh nothing came out today that's a very reactive approach that's not proactive we teach people how to be proactive and go directly to the source trucking logistics if I'm not mistaken let me go back over here if I'm not mistaken that was one of the top areas where they were spending money at okay this is the 8A list I'm sorry I have some other lists where they're spending money at but I'm gonna pull something else up for you let me help you out because I'll show you something on my channel and so funny because my girl Erica is talking about the same thing on my channel on our channel we have a video by Chris Facy where he wanted a $21 million transportation readiness contract and let's go to the playlist so what the government did here alright so right here at the very top Chris and our group want a $21 million transportation readiness IDIQ what does that mean? that means that this particular $21 million worth of transportation logistics money is not bidding anymore you're never gonna see this stuff because they bundle all the transportation contracts into an IDIQ and so that's what they do is that they take it and they bundle this stuff into IDIQ in fact there it is we have a category here so this construction management category here's some more data by the way and if anyone needs this article I can definitely send it to you I just want to say that because again I know that so many people out here this is what they're doing and they're wondering why they're having a hard time alright let's go in does it matter which state you follow LLC? no it doesn't matter because again we're doing fellow contracts fellow contracts is all over the world John Freeman I didn't see your question S-Corps worked for me okay gotcha I just see my minority disadvantage certification how can I use that to my advantage even though I'm in trucking so minority and disadvantage certifications those sound like state and local certifications so they don't apply to the federal arena so none of that would apply here in the federal contracting world they apply it to state and local levels and so we actually made a video discussing that last week so take a look at that video last week that we made discussing all of the state and federal contracting so take a look at that video where we discuss state and federal contracting and the government is also throwing a whole bunch of money in that arena and that's where we discuss these pool contracts and in the pool contracts that's where you can take advantage of the minority and disadvantage certifications but however I'll be honest with you even still we're not actually needed because as a pool contractor they're similar to IDIQs I know I'm probably confusing it a pool contract is essentially where the government takes and they're going to buy logistic services or trucking services and they put it into one large pool and so they'll say we're going to buy we know that each year we spend 30 million on trucking contracts and so what the government does is they put it in turn around and they say we're going to do a $130 million logistics contract and then we're going to have pre-qualify three or four companies to participate and then so now because they know every year they're spending 30 million average on logistics trucking they put it into one $30 million vehicle and then the three people and four people that qualify those are the ones that get all the contracts so you will never see bids out for this stuff because it's only for the people that are in the pool does that make sense? that's the same thing with Chris Facy Chris Facy's $21 million IDIQ you will never see that on BetaSAM bids because it's only for the people who already are on that vehicle that get those opportunities and unfortunately that's the way that the government is starting to buy all of this stuff now and so what we have to do with small businesses is get really smart and learn how all of this works so that we can ourselves take advantage of it Elevation Allah you guys are talking about taxes A Corp, Double Tax, Single Corp, C Corp I mean a lot of folks get so caught up on all of these things in the very beginning which I think is just really it's just a waste of energy I think that for a lot of us out here in Oxford CPA that's working with someone the best advice that someone ever gave me was when you're choosing who you want to be your lawyer or your accountant or your bookkeepers work with people who are working with folks that are in your industry that are at the levels that you want to be so if I was Jury and more importantly than my Minority Certification Disadvantaged Certifications I would look at my books, who's my legal representation and who's my CPA I would find CPAs and bookkeepers who service people in the trucking industry so I would want my CPA my bookkeeper to have a logistics company or a trucking company who did 10, 15, 20 million dollars a year that's what I would do I would go to an industry meeting Jury and I know she didn't ask this question but the question that what I think people could have asked me because a lot of people like to say Eric how do I use my certifications no one ever asked me how do I just get more contracts so the first part I answered her question of how to use her certifications the question I think that everyone out here should be asking how do I get more contracts isn't that a better question so sometimes we ask them wrong questions so I answered her question but in talking further on ideas and concepts what I say if I were her forget the certifications because that's a trap the certifications are a trap truthfully a lot of people just want to sell people folks on certifications they trap you they create these really really tiny pools and say you got to be in this area and now you only got these contracts and even my best students fall into that same trap of if they get a certification women, disadvantaged, minorities, CBE SBE blah blah blah blah looking at contracts in those particular blocks well that's a very very tiny pool folks we keep we're asking for crumbs when they're like the guy said you're taking a teaspoon to the ocean that's 5% it's not a lot yes it's a big number but 5% out of compared to 95% it doesn't make a lot of sense so let's go back let me step it back what I would do to read if I were you is I would choose an accountant a lawyer and a bookkeeper who works with companies that are already at the level that I want to be at I did that I chose my accountant because he works with construction companies that did 20 30 40 million dollars a year so I chose an accountant that was already worked with companies that was at the level that I was striving to be at why because one is a great power of network because your accountant is the same accountant that you got to pay an accountant anyways so yeah you might pay a little bit extra for this accountant but he can introduce you to the opportunities that they have he can tell you about the events that they attend the places they go the people they talk to that is almost free networking free inside information to a 40 50 million dollar company that you didn't have to pay for that accountant tells me all kind of gossip about some of the people when they get in trouble when I got in trouble I knew how to get out of it because someone else that was much larger had already done the things that I'm doing so for me I was like oh okay well how did he fix the problem oh this is what he did oh when he got in trouble he paid this is how he got out of it did you know you can file a claim for this these are all intangibles that I could not have paid for there's no cost there's no price to that save me tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees because they told me what the bigger companies did because they represented them they did their books they look at their expenses so they know where they wrote their checks why did you know they spent X amount of dollars to hire this kind of professional this kind of consultant this kind of expert to resolve this matter over here these are things that are more important than certifications these are things that they should be teaching all small businesses but unfortunately the educators and professionals don't know this to teach it to you because they never did it so how can they teach you something they don't know they never done so again those are the things that for me all of us out here have the ability to within our control to do to choose to elect how do I find these how do I find these lawyers and these CPAs I found my accountant through my bonding agent so if anyone out here is in construction you could go to a bonding agent to get a bond and even if you don't get a bond and you could have the bonding agent suggest to you accountants a list and my bonding agent gave me a list of accountants I wanted to ask them which accountant works with high dollar clients I was straight up which account works with high dollar clients he says oh this guy this guy this person those are the three people that I interviewed that's it he gave me a little list of people I was only concerned about which ones work with high dollar clients and then you can specify a dollar amount done where your accountant can refer you to an attorney that works with high dollar clients why? they all work with the same people ask your client hey your accountant you know I know you work with so and so company they do 30 million a year I know you work with this company do 45 million a year what law firm do they use who did their books who did their legal filings it cost you nothing it cost you nothing to have the accountant it cost you nothing to have a lawyer because you don't pay until you use their services so literally it cost you nothing to have these people until you use their services but we don't think like that because we're not trained like that new society says I have my ADA certification new society what are the benefits of joining a group great question several benefits of joining my group first of all I specialize in ADA certifications not selling them teaching people how to win with them big difference a lot of people specialize in selling you ADA certifications I specialize in helping people win with ADA certifications there's probably very few people far in between that have done what we've done in the program that are actually actively giving you information so for example in the ADA in our particular group we have an entire coursework on ADA and how to best use it I guarantee you I could probably in a two minute phone call tell you a whole lot of things about the ADA that you neither you know nor you're at BOS knows nor anybody in your organization knows we have worked with people at the highest levels of the SBA a lot of the BOS which is the people who are supposed to be supporting you in your ADA they're probably not doing their job they're probably not doing anything for you because if you have not requested or sent them a document or notice as to what they should be doing for you then they're not doing all that they can so again I teach you how to do that, I tell you how to do it I show you the information that I've sent out I show you how I maximize the ADA program we probably did I probably did about 12 million ADA work in the last two years and I have a huge ADA tribal partner that did about $260 million and so again by joining our group you get access to those wonderful people and you can expand your network of small business federal contractors that can actually help leverage it so for example we've had several ADAs in our group where we actually gave them contracts because some of the agency we're working with we're looking for ADA companies and we had already used one of the two companies before so they wanted different ADA companies so right off the bat probably there are some contracts that people in our group and organization would need an ADA for it that alone would pay for your cost of the course Canyon Prize I was offered a sole source and talked to the governor about providing him with a quality service over time you can watch his videos on his website okay good job Gilbert that's right, Jai Hawaiian I don't teach actually bidding on contracts but negotiating contracts we don't maximize search right Andrew, maximize relationship with agency, Austaboo see all of these people that are responding are my students these are people that are already that are learning how this works and they're actually sharing in bidding products is a losing game if we have a bid no bid checklist if you're not using a bid no bid checklist you're really just bidding your will and all you're going to find is a lot of heartache and hardship and you'll be back on here a year from now wondering why you haven't had any success relationships as a possible get a contract as a one person operation absolutely yes we get contracts as one person operation all the time the listen there are a ton of opportunities out there for folks that again Maria is the best example that I can tell folk people out here where Maria was a one person company who was winning contracts because she built relationships there is I think that a lot of the questions that people are asking are because of self doubt but go back to the videos where we showed Maria she's a one person company we saw Rafa was a one person company Ash so go back to some of those videos of making the giant and we have people out here who are all one person companies what they did though is they built the relationship up they understood the requirements they understood what the government needed they understood that what the problem was and how to solve it and it doesn't matter if you could figure out the government's problem and how to solve it that need it doesn't matter how many people have any company because they allow us to subcontract out team and other folks allow us to do teaming agreements with bigger organizations so really if you're looking at as that you are the one guy or girl yeah I'm one person but I have a big team so think of yourself as a team where you are working collectively with the efforts of other people that are smarter wiser more experienced but what your job to do is is to understand AM what the requirements are what the needs are you take that back to your team and then you put together a as a unified front you put together the proposal or the write up as to how you're going to solve that problem for the government and that's what we do so again don't look at yourself you don't have to have them on your payroll you don't have to pay for this team you just need to have access to people or find them as you go along who can help you in that manner I hope that helps Gilbert thank you for the I appreciate it brother no problem I appreciate it listen every dollar helps so thank you for that Gilbert I have a hub zone certification a minority owned certification I don't know how to make profit from them again the hub zone certification and hub zone is federal minority owned is state two different markets so when you're talking about case in two different clients which requires double the effort double the team and a lot more learning so I think the first thing that you've got to do is make up your mind do you want to pursue hub zone do you want to pursue minority owned that to me is the first thing which avenue do you want to pursue hub zone minority owned personally again I like federal contracting so me I'm sticking with federal contracting the other thing is like I said earlier I don't focus on certifications so while you know having a hub zone certification is wonderful it's great there's a lot of contract opportunities that you can participate in that has nothing to do with hub zone and so I don't want you to limit yourself to only hub zone opportunities because they're far few in between again go back to what we said here alright the hub zone program as per hub zone this is the hub zone contract national council and it states here the government has never met a 3% hub zone goal 3% this is a 2021 policy part this isn't an old document this isn't this is not no old newsletter so again one of the things what I'm trying to say in so many words is that I think a lot of us are just doing things and getting certs because people told us to do it not because we saw the value in it not because we understood how the government was going to spend their money because someone else said to do that unless it's a government official who's going to give me a contract I'm not doing nothing I don't care what you know free throw john or any of this kind of stuff I am only doing things that the government agency who's buying my services tells me to do so it sounds like to me what you did was you went backwards and someone taught you to get a cert to have that cert and again I even hear government people say I was in a call they say Eric not to me but to the folks do you have A&A, do you have some women on that's just what they teach you to say my response would be do you have contracts for A&A do you have contracts for women on do you have contracts for veterans on so lets talk about that if someone asks you do you have the cert you turn around and ask him do you have contracts with the cert that cert that serve so, if they ask you to get the cert then ask them do they have contracts for the cert if they say yes come to me and say yeah we can figure that out show me the contracts that you have for the cert That's how I handle it, but I don't go in with a narrow focus of only focusing on opportunities with certs. I go in on opportunities for my business. So if you're in the IT field, for example, you're in telecom, all right. If you're in telecom field, what do you do in telecom? I have a company right now that does about 30 million in fiber, 30 million, all I do is lay fiber. I work with people that do the install telecom on the poles. So what is it that you do in the telecom field? The government, and let me pull this up over here for you. All right. We have a lot of, I know people probably, if you've never visited our website, okay, gulfcongeins.com, if you've never visited our blog, take a look at it because we have a lot of stuff on here that can help people, all right. So IT, telecom, source of thought. Opportunities, let me go to the blog. Let me switch screen so you can see it. All right. All right, acute, source of thought, hold on. IT telecommunications, this is you, right, R? IT telecommunications, five ways IT companies can start winning federal contracts. OTAs, CSO, BALAs, agency incubators, best in class. Now, best in class, you just said best in class is not good. Best in class, if you're trying to be a prime, it's not possible, but if you wanna work as a subcontractor, it makes a lot of sense. So take a look at this, and we actually have a video on OTA, CSOs, how to respond, and telecom, how to respond to some of the low-hanging fruits needs because the government has increased their OTA and CSO spending by hundreds of billions of dollars, tens of billions, let's say. And so they've increased that spending tens of billions of dollars, and so that is a great way. If I was in telecom, forget the search, guys, forget the search. People keep asking me, how do you do with the search? That's, if I'm in a telecom space, this is what I would be chasing right now. Mark, in some way, I'm opening a training program for minorities with Ericsson, and I'll be building the whole site myself with crews that we train. Okay. Don't waste time at 8am if you're not ready. Correct, Marcus, thank you for that. Yes, Andrew, tell them. Take this week and go back and binge watch the videos. All right, listen, I think, like I said, I hope that I was able to set some light on this matter. I definitely want to talk to folks about it. I know a lot of people are gonna be out here promoting and touting how wonderful this is, and it's great, and I'm very thankful that the administration is doing some things. I just would like for them to dig a little bit deeper, talk to some people, some organizations out here who have been advocating small businesses and really wanting to help push the needle for us for years because it truly is a way for us to achieve general issue wealth and a pathway for achieving American dreams. So again, I definitely wanted to say that. All right, thank you so much for watching. Give us a thumbs up, share the video with all your friends, family, and fools. All right, thanks guys so much. I enjoy coming on today. We will talk to you next time. See ya.