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How to Hire and Retain Rockstar Employees for your Government Contract: Dealing with Low Performers
February 22, 2023 | Business Development, Government
If I were to challenge you to classify your employees as high, middle and low achievers, I’m willing to bet you can identify them pretty quickly. You’d likely come up with some truly high performers, a larger contingent of middle performers who serve as the backbone of your company, and a few low performers. This raises an important question: Why do we tolerate low performance? After all, what you permit, you promote. Think about what that phrase means and the effect low performers have on you. If you have a low performing team member, how do you deal with the…
How to Hire and Retain Rockstar Employees for your Government Contract: Keys to Retention Success
February 15, 2023 | Business Development, Government
If you ever watched Seinfeld, you may be familiar with this scene at a car rental dealership: Jerry is told the car he rented is unavailable, and he says to the agent, “you know how to take the reservation. You just don't know how to hold the reservation.And that's REALLY the most important part of the reservation, the holding.” The same is true when it comes to your employees. Hiring them is important, but keeping them is perhaps even more important. This is easier said than done, of course, so in this third of a five-part series on employee recruitment…
Rockstar Employees – Increase the Excitement and Lessen the Anxiety that Comes With Employee Onboarding
February 8, 2023 | Business Development, Government
Photo by Mabel Amber: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-standing-near-brown-welcome-on-board-printed-floor-map-128299/ This is the second in a five-part series about employee recruitment and retention. I’d like to thank my former co-worker and good friend, Don Barger, for being a major contributor to these articles. He provides years of expertise--and some great stories. When you bring a new team member on board, the bar is set pretty high. Unless it’s their first job, they likely just had a farewell party and were told by their former employer how great they are and that they will be sorely missed. As a result, it’s important to ensure their…
How to Hire and Retain Rockstar Employees for your Government Contract: Standardizing the Interview Process
February 1, 2023 | Business Development, Government
Photo by Sora Shimazaki: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-filling-job-application-form-in-office-with-boss-5668858/ Imagine the following scenario: you land your first few government contracts. They’re for multiple years, and you need to provide “butts in seats” to the Veterans Administration, which just happens to be the federal agency that obligated the most to NAICS Code 561320--Temporary Help Services--in 2022. You have doubled in size over a year and want to grow more. However, there’s a problem: you’re spending all your time backfilling positions because of turnover. This isn’t far removed from reality. Our company ran into the same issue in 2007. We were cruising along with one contract…
Reach Your Goals with a 90-Day Blitz
January 11, 2023 | Business Development, Government
Photo by Ronnie Overgoor on Unsplash How many times, whether in your career, business, or domestic situation, have you asked yourself, “What the hell do I do next?” Let’s use your small business as an example. Each of your team members has ideas about what priorities you should focus on. Operations wants to initiate new processes and look at new software systems to increase efficiencies. HR wants to overhaul its interviewing and onboarding process and address the most recent employee opinion survey. Each person or group has their own pet project and isn’t interested in their coworkers' ideas. And you,…
Starting Your Own Business in the New Year? Here’s What to Consider.
January 5, 2023 | Business Development, Government
Photo by Christina Morillo: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-wearing-blue-dress-shirt-facing-whiteboard-1181343/ It’s the New Year—and that might have you thinking of big goals, like starting your own business. As someone who has made that leap, I’ve learned what to do – and what not to do. Here are a few things to consider. Start by doing your homework and getting established, as follows: Conduct market research. I tell my government sales clients the first step to a successful strategy is to find out who buys what you sell. However, this first step is not only for government business. It is actually industry agnostic. Even McDonalds knows…
Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail–and What To Do About It
December 28, 2022 | Leadership
Photo by Engin Akyurt: https://www.pexels.com/photo/writing-2023-on-sand-beach-13088176/ If you’re like most people, you’re thinking ahead to the new year. And if those thoughts include new year’s resolutions, you likely know that the majority of people--at least 80 percent, according to even the most conservative estimates--fail at turning those goals into reality. The key to making your resolutions stick is to learn from those who buck the trend and finish what they start--those, to put it another way, who don’t do what most people do. Here are three keys to success. 1. Start small. Trying to do too much too soon is a…
Video: Another Year Without a Fed’ral Contract
December 21, 2022 | Business Development, Government
Apologies to Elmo and Patsy [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://earnestconsultinggroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Another-Year-Complete.mp4"][/video]
Bid-Winning Price Strategies
December 14, 2022 | Business Development, Government
Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/advertising-business-calculator-commercial-262470/ There are three primary ways to position yourself to win bids with the federal government. Here’s an overview of each. 1. Do Your Research. Before finalizing your bid, benchmark your offer against publicly-available pricing data. A few of these sites include: GSAAdvantage: This site allows you to compare your pricing against those who sell similar products. In my experience, the best strategy is to apply further discounting to your competitors’ pricing. GSA eLibrary: When you can’t find information on GSAAdvantage, GSA eLibrary is a good alternative--especially when you want to compare pricing for multiple products to…
How To Find Out About Industry Days
December 7, 2022 | Business Development, Government
Photo by Jose Vazquez on Unsplash One tactic to meet government buyers and learn about the agency they serve is to attend industry days. Industry days are organized by government agencies, and they often include discussion about business opportunities and more information about the agency as a whole. Agencies also use industry days to solicit feedback from experts in the areas in which they are looking for products or services. It takes some searching to find when these events are being held and it’s rare that your company would receive a personal invitation to an industry day. Therefore, it is imperative for government…
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