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    Is Government Contracting for Me?
    Is Government Contracting for Me?
    Is Government Contracting for Me?
    Ebook136 pages1 hour

    Is Government Contracting for Me?

    By Kevin Jans

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    About this ebook

    The United States Government is the world’s biggest buyer. However, this market is not right for every company.

    As a Contracting Officer, Kevin Jans was involved in awarding over $1 Billion worth of government contracts for a variety of products and services over his 16-year career. Since leaving his contracting officer position in 2011, his company has helped their clients win $470 Million in government contracts. In this book, he uses this unique perspective (as both buyer and seller) to help you decide, quickly, if this market is right for your company. He uses plenty of real-life examples to describe this complex in simple terms.

    This book will Save Your Time! You will learn how competition works in the federal market, along with the critical differences between public and private selling. By reading what is likely the world’s shortest book on government contracting, you will be able to quickly decide whether this market is for you.

    Before you invest the time and effort it takes to break into the government market, read this book!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKevin Jans
    Release dateMay 13, 2015
    ISBN9780996354004
    Is Government Contracting for Me?
    Author

    Kevin Jans

    Kevin Jans is the President and Founder of Skyway Acquisition Solutions (“Skyway”). After 16 years as a Department of Defense contracting officer, he founded Skyway to help companies navigate the increasingly complex process of competing for Federal contracts.Kevin built the company on the premise that no one knows the Federal acquisition system better than contracting officers who managed it from the inside. Following this idea, he built a team of experts with actual contracting officer experience. What separates this podcast is the insight that Kevin and Paul bring from having been Cos.Kevin has held contracting officer warrants with unlimited signing authority in multiple Department of Defense agencies. He has written and reviewed over 1,000 contracts valued from $7,700 to $882 Million. In addition, Kevin has personally led or managed 143 competitive government source selections.This experience has made him a veritable expert in a series of acquisition regulations including the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), the Defense FAR Supplement (DFARS), the Air Force FAR Supplement (AFFARS), and the Special Operations Command FAR Supplement (SOFARS). He has competed, awarded and administered contracts in a wide variety of industries, from aircraft and space systems to facilities and tactical vehicles. His collaborative style allowed him to communicate across a disparate customer base (Army Rangers, Navy SEALs, Air Force and Marine Corps SOF) to create rapid, effective acquisition strategies.In addition to his hands on experience, Kevin has extensive credentials in the contracting and source selection field. He is an active member of the National Contract Management Association (NCMA), Suncoast Chapter. Kevin also has elite training and development experience in the Federal contract market. He was competitively selected for both the US Air Force’s Copper Cap Training Program and the Career Broadener Programs. Both of these targeted Department of Defense training programs are designed to accelerate the experience and knowledge of high-performing professionals in the DOD contracting and acquisition field. He is a Certified Federal Contracts Manager (through NCMA), DOD-Certified in both Contracting and Program Management (through Defense Acquisition University) and he holds a Yellow Belt Certification in Six Sigma.He is also well respected in the contracting community for his presentation and training skills and his ability to break the complex competitive source selection process into a clear, actionable processes. He has presented and trained clients and acquisition professionals on source selections and negotiations for audiences of up to 2,000 people, including the Suncoast Chapter of NCMA, the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference, and the Tampa Bay Service-Disabled Veteran-owned Small Business Conferences. Kevin has co-authored a book with John Stenbeck titled Agile Government Contracting and he is publishing his second book, titled Save Your Time, How to Know Whether (or not) the Federal Market is for You.

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      Book preview

      Is Government Contracting for Me? - Kevin Jans

      Part 1: Risk vs. Reward in the Federal Market

      Is Government Contracting for Me?

      Time is a truly non-renewable resource. Once it is spent, it is gone. Whether you have invested your time or wasted your time, it is the key difference between success and failure in so many pursuits. As I write this, I am investing my time in this book to share my experiences as a Contracting Officer with you. Perhaps you’ve heard the arguments about how contracting officers are not real people and how our industry counterparts are only greedy, profit driven aristocrats. Both perspectives are hyperbole and simply untrue.

      Enough ink has been spent on how big the government market is. As the saying goes, if it is legal, and it is ethical, then the US government buys it. Regardless of whether you agree with what our tax dollars are spent on or not, you have to agree that the federal government is the biggest buyer in the world. The Federal Government will likely be the largest buyer in the world for the foreseeable future. Therein lies the problem. It’s so big that everyone wants to be in it…whether they really should be or not. The primary goal of this book is to save both government and contractors that most precious of resources (time) by helping people understand whether (or not) they should be in pursuing this market.

      Headlines reading: $1 Trillion in government contracts available, draw us in with their impressive numbers. However, the market is too big for most small companies to process the number of available opportunities. It is maddeningly difficult for many small businesses to create an effective, impactful and profitable strategy to enter or grow their federal sales if they do not understand how the market works, and what features make it considerably different from the commercial or private sector market.

      This book focuses on the tactical, execution-level understanding instead of the 50,000-foot strategic level where the opportunities are too broad to have specific value. Without a specific approach and a clear understanding of the specific tactics, companies get overwhelmed and begin to throw lots of darts hoping to win contracts. The mission of this book is to help small businesses to stop doing just that.

      The process and acquiring of everything from aircraft to power supplies to testing services to technical support services has become even more complicated, expensive, time-consuming and overwhelming for both sides over the last decade. Companies need help navigating this market – or knowing whether they should avoid it altogether. To that end, this book will give you some clear insights on whether you should pursue a given contract, attend a specific government conference, respond to a particular RFI, protest a specific RFP, and, yes, know whether (or not) you should be in the Federal government market at all.

      What or who is a Contracting Officer?

      Let me begin by giving you some explanation of the role of a Contracting Officer. In simple terms, a contracting officer is someone who is legally authorized to spend our tax dollars by signing contracts on behalf of the US government. While there are other processes by which our tax dollars are spent (i.e.: government travel cards, government purchase cards, micro purchases, and others), the vast majority of federal contracts are awarded by contracting officers. The shorthand for Contracting Officer is CO. However, you may also see the term KO used by certain military organizations. This is because the term CO is already taken: it means Commanding Officer in their circles. So, in some cases (in the US Army for example) you will see the term KO used as well. Throughout this book, I will primarily use CO. The official definition is found in FAR 2.101(b)¹, here is the short version:

      Contracting officer means a person with the authority to enter into, administer, and/or terminate contracts and make related determinations and findings. The term includes certain authorized representatives of the contracting officer acting within the limits of their authority as delegated by the contracting officer.

      "Administrative contracting officer (ACO)’’ refers to a contracting officer who is administering contracts.

      Termination contracting officer (TCO) refers to a contracting officer who is settling terminated contracts.

      A single contracting officer may be responsible for duties in any or all of these areas.

      The CO is essentially responsible for connecting the needs of the government customer with the capacities of industry. The contracting officer is responsible for some part (or all) or each step of the contracting process, from the development of the requirement through contract award and delivery. Some of their basic activities of COs are to:

      - work closely with the customer to clearly document the requirement

      - decide how to acquire the product or service (known as the ‘acquisition strategy’)

      - share the requirement with potential offerors (to create competition)

      - manage the competitive process

      - coordinate and obtain approval to award without competition (if needed)

      - manage the source selection process from receipt of proposals through award

      - choose the awardee and thoroughly document the decision (in most cases)²

      - Award and sign the contract to obligate government funds

      - administer the contract after award

      To gain some understanding on why contracting officers are leery of interacting with industry, are slow to award contracts through the source selection process, and tentative about agreeing to things on the spot: consider Part 1.602-1(b) of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) that specifies the expectation of a contracting officer.

      FAR Part 1.602-1(b) requires the CO "ensures that all requirements of law, executive orders, regulations, and all other applicable procedures, including clearances and approvals, have been met" before they sign any Government contract.

      Think about the far-reaching scope of this and you can see their trepidation at making quick decisions. However, the next paragraph of the FAR (FAR 1.602-2) attempts to offset this high bar:

      FAR 1.602-2 states, In order to perform these responsibilities, contracting officers should be allowed wide latitude to exercise business judgment.

      My request of you

      This book is designed for the small but sophisticated company so they can understand the competitive process, understand what they should or should not bid on, and realize what resources they should focus on to qualify opportunities and to research and understand the federal market before they throw resources at it. The goal of this book is to save you 100 times the amount of time it took you to read it in the first place. That's my targeted return on investment for you. If you feel that this book met that goal (or not), please email me at kevin@skywayacquisition.com and let me know.

      Chapter 1

      This book may not be for you if:

      #1: You do not like competition

      There are plenty of stories of companies getting sole source contracts based on relationships. Conventional wisdom is that the only way to get into this market is by knowing someone who hooks you up. That’s crap. I’ve awarded many contracts to companies whom I did not know – but they knew me. They knew my agency, they knew my customer, and they know my contracting office and our acquisition processes. They knew how the market worked and they knew how to win.

      While it’s true that many contracts are awarded outside competition (about one third), it’s also true that two out of three federal dollars are competed. That means, two thirds of the available work is competed. My advice is to go after the bigger piece and compete.

      #2: You would rather spend your time looking for short cuts based

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