Transcript Contracting Tips… especially for very small businesses

Contracting Tips… especially for
very small businesses
Gene Stout – Gene Stout and
Associates
Most importantly…. you are not selling a
product. You are selling yourself.
My sole proprietorship is simple, makes
taxes a piece of cake, and has served me
well, but it has personal risks if you think
somebody is going to sue you.
Don’t buy services that other companies
offer in their unwanted emails. They can’t
find business for you, and the bureaucratic
services they offer are almost always things
you can do yourself.
Get liability insurance required by the bigger
companies and Defense. Mine cost $500 per
year.
If you have good employees, make sure they
don’t leave you for better working
conditions. Jeff, Jeff, and I had good times
together, and their salaries/benefits
packages were very competitive.
Don’t ever forget the real customer. You may be
working for another company, organization, or
governmental contracting agency (like the Army
Corps). They are not the customer. The customer
is always a person, in my case a natural, cultural,
or NEPA professional at an installation. That’s
who you have to satisfy. The others are often
just a required bureaucratic hassle.
Help your customers with their scopes of
work. You’re the expert on them for your
products. A tried and true scope will greatly
reduce misunderstandings on what’s
required of you and them. If you know
somebody’s considering a project, send
them a sample scope of work.
Make sure the SOW does not hold you to
delays in reviews by persons not in your
employ. Don’t EVER believe a customer’s
statement that the reviews will happen
expediently. THEY WON’T!!!
Try to get the customer to use value-based
contracting. It includes pricing and
experience… a great benefit to you and the
customer. There is not a single company in
the world that can beat me for a contract for
my specialty products on a value-based
basis.
Make the price right. If you occasionally
screw up and underbid a job, all it takes is
setting the alarm clock a little earlier to
make it right in most cases.
Don’t take all of the customer’s money. You
should know about how much is available.
Keep your bid under that amount. Give the
customer some money to spend on
something else.
If you are pressed for time and the customer
can’t wait, don’t take the project. On-time
delivery is a great reputation.
Installation people you are working with
may try to drag you into their job-related
personal issues. Try to be sympathetic.
However, virtually never should you try to
fix things like that. Risky, and not your job.
Don’t buy fancy shit. It’s your profit you are
spending. Get things you need to be
efficient, not fancy. Stay in decent, not
great, hotels and eat good food. Become an
expert on cheap flights and cars. Use the
money you save for fun stuff.
Tax write-offs for food and entertainment
are a joke. If I spend $100 for a night out
with a client (legally, of course), I save $15
on taxes.
There are easy to work with customers and
hard to work with customers. One makes
you slightly more money. The other also
makes you money. Have good times with
the former. Bear with the latter.
In general, the fewer people who you have
to deal with to accomplish the task, the
easier the job.
Good customers know what they want and
give you solid reviews and answers. Tough
customers are wishy-washy and don’t really
care about the project.
If you disagree with your customer on an
item in a management plan, present your
case. If things don’t go your way….
surrender. The customer has to live with the
plan, not you.
The amount of money has little to do with
the profit/hour. There is often more
profit/hour on an ammo depot project for
$25,000 than a major combat facility for
$150,000. HOWEVER, the big one makes you
feel better and offers better job security.
Big companies play the impersonal game for
big contracts. You can’t compete in that
game. But, they should not be able compete
with you on a personal contacts basis. Be a
person, not a company.
A good thing compared to installation
resources management…. You don’t lose
sleep over taking care of land and its
resources.
A bad thing compared to installation
resources management…. You don’t lose
sleep over taking care of land and its
resources.
It’s not the amount of the contract that
determines financial success. It’s the
amount you keep.
If you need help with stuff like this, give me
a call…. (970) 218-6888. I’ll help if I can.
Integrated Natural and Cultural
Resources Management
Plan/Environmental Assessment