Earnest Consulting Group

If everything needs your approval, nothing scales

June 30, 2026 | Business Development

If everything needs your approval, nothing scales Nothing leaves your kitchen until you taste the plate. So in the name of quality control, you create a traffic jam with your name on it. We have watched it for 20+ years. Every quote, every email, every proposal lands on the founder's desk for a final blessing. Work piles up behind one person. Then it sits. Cold. If nothing goes out until you approve it, you’re not building a business. You’re capping your business. Pick one decision this week that no longer needs you. Let it go out without your signature. Trusting…

The goal is to build a company that can win more contracts.

June 23, 2026 | Uncategorized

A contract win is a hit single. A company is #1 on the album charts. Everybody wants a hit single. We see it constantly. A team lands one award, throws a party, then spends the next two years trying to remember how they pulled it off. Here's the thing. The win was never the goal. The win was a symptom. A symptom of a company that finally did the research, built the strategy, and executed without tripping over its own feet. Take the system away, and you are a one-hit wonder. Great song. No second release. Still playing dive bars.…

So I’m going to share a little secret with you…..

June 15, 2026 | Business Development

So I'm going to share a little secret with you..... Not everyone who works with me wins contracts. Sometimes, nothing happens. Here are the top three scenarios when companies don't win contracts: 1. They don't do the work or stay engaged consistently with strategy sessions. 2. They choose to do it a different way from what we suggest. 3. They give up shortly after starting because they don't see quick results. Then there are the ones who are successful: 1. They devour the information like a ravenous dog who found a box of unopened treats. 2. They take action on…

New firms are like sprinters. Mature firms build like distance runners.

June 15, 2026 | Business Development

Young govcons chase the next contract. Any contract. It's a three-step process: They burn the team. They burn the process. Then they burn out. Mature firms are designed for the marathon. Intelligence capture systems are on repeat like that new song you couldn’t get enough of in high school. Pricing strategies that last. Teams that stay. That's the marathon training playbook. Not the 100-yard dash ran in a continuous loop. In government sales, endurance beats velocity every single time. Stay strategic.

FOX SELF-CERTIFIES INTO EVERY SET-ASIDE SAM OFFERS, QUALIFIES FOR NONE OF THEM

June 3, 2026 | The Less Formal Debriefing

One firm checks every eligibility box on every bid. It meets none of them. It feels very competitive. THE SET-ASIDE LANE. Finn found a lane with less traffic. He does not qualify for it. He is already in it. Finn the Fox does not break rules. He finds the door the rules forgot to lock. He calls himself whatever the door requires. Today he is running a small business. On the next bid he is a HUBZone firm. By Friday he is service-disabled, woman-owned, and 8(a). His headquarters is a rented mailbox in a strip mall. Box 14. He lists…

I ignored two of the three pieces of advice. Fear does that.

June 1, 2026 | Company News

A few years back I found myself in a room listening to a guy named Josh present on prospecting for government sales. He was good. Really good. So I did something I don't normally do. I asked if he'd take a call. He said yes. When I told him what I was struggling with, he gave me three things: Build your pipeline. Speak publicly. Write a book. I heard the first one. The other two I filed under "not for me." That wasn't wisdom. That was fear dressed up as humility. Since then I've coached many more businesses, spoken at…

VETS26

May 28, 2026 | Events

Most people prepare for a conference by charging their phone and hoping for the best. That is not a strategy. That is a coin flip with a lanyard. On Monday, June 1st, we are running a pre-conference workshop at NVSBC #VETS26. 7 Operational Tactics for Conference Success. Seven specific moves. Before, during, and after the event. The kind nobody puts on the agenda. Walk in with a plan, and a conference stops being a hallway full of small talk. It becomes a pipeline. While you are there, swing by @RSM Federal in Booth 703. Good people who know this game.…

WEASEL CHARGES SMALL BUSINESSES FOR FREE SAM REGISTRATION, CALLS IT A “MEMBERSHIP”

May 28, 2026 | The Less Formal Debriefing

One firm discovered the federal portal costs nothing. So it built a business on the fear that it doesn’t. THE REGISTRATION QUEUE. The registration is free. Grifter found a way to charge for it anyway. Grifter the Weasel does not consider this a scam. He considers it a service. The service is sending you an email that looks like SAM sent it. SAM did not send it. Grifter sent it. From a laptop. In a folding chair. He has built an entire business on the gap between what SAM costs and what people will pay out of fear. His…

How Smart Companies Win Government Contracts Reaches #1 on Amazon

May 21, 2026 | Company News

The book hit #1 in its category on Amazon in its first week. I wrote it because the book I needed 20 years ago did not exist. No shortcuts, no theory, just the strategy, positioning, and execution that actually wins federal contracts. Built on 20 years of real wins and real losses. Thank you to everyone who bought a copy, shared it, and told a friend. You made this happen. The announcement was picked up by EIN Presswire and syndicated nationally. You can read the full release here: https://www.einpresswire.com/article/914071452/earnest-s-how-smart-companies-win-government-contracts-reaches-no-1-in-its-category-on-amazon If you have not grabbed your copy yet, here is where…

LOCAL SQUIRREL REFRESHES SAM.GOV FOR EIGHTH HOUR AWAITING 8(a) PROGRAM HE IS NOT IN

May 21, 2026 | The Less Formal Debriefing

Dash Capital pursues seven set-asides it does not qualify for, ignores 200 it does THE SET-ASIDE LINE. Dash the Squirrel of Dash Capital was observed Tuesday at his desk, refreshing the SBA certification portal once every forty seconds, waiting for the 8(a) Business Development Program to start approving new applicants again. He has been doing this since August. He is not in the 8(a) program. He has never applied. Dash’s desk is buried under printed sources sought notices, sorted by no system anyone can identify, each one stickered with the phrase “HOT LEAD” and a date in 2024. “I just…