Re: Government Contracting

[Jim <alarminex@xxxxxxx>]

On Aug 21, 12:26=A0pm, nick markowitz <nmarkow...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Aug 20, 12:22=A0pm, "ABLE1" <royboynos...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > "Bob La Londe" <onebike...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in messagenews:j2ojmq$gue$1=
@dont-email.me...
>
> > > I've done a few government jobs and sold a few parts to government
> > > agencies over the years. =A0For some of the bigger ones they asked me=
 to get
> > > on the government contractor list. =A0Except for the jobs I was asked=
 to get
> > > on the list so I could bid I never got anything from being on the
> > > government bid list. =A0What I did get was SPAMMED. =A0On the email a=
ddress I
> > > used on my government information form I still received about 20
> > > solicitations a day from companies wanting to sell me their services =
to
> > > help be a government contractor. =A0At one time I used to get close t=
o 100 a
> > > day. =A0I also used to get 5-10 calls a day from these same types of
> > > companies, although that is finally down to 1 or 2 a month. =A0I have=
 not
> > > had an active listing in years.
>
> > > I have to be honest I am not sure why the list exists.
>
> > ??????????????? =A0Job Creation =A0???????????????
>
> > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0=
:-)
>
> Getting on the approved GSA vendors list does not mean work just your
> another resource and since so many are on it =A0trying to compete for
> work you need a full time person just to pursue it. rewards can be
> great if your willing to stick it out and put time into it but it
> takes considerable effort. your better off doing small community work
> like i do once or twice a year for small money =A0then you =A0do not need
> to do competitive bidding etc .
> I have done very well this way with little jobs because they know iam
> available to handle small stuff.-

Absolutely correct.
There are some companies who have the resources to finance the time it
takes to be GSA approved. It's sort of a chicken and egg thing. If you
are of a mind to work in the mire of paper work necessary to be
approved, a company can make the up front effort to get into the
system. Once you're in the system and being utilized, the rewards are
usually pretty good, which allows you to invest more money into doing
the paper works ..... and so on.

I've got one customer in particular who started out in the HVAC
business and was having trouble even paying his alarm monitoring bill
for a few years. He somehow got involved with removal of contaminents
at construction sites. He's since become GSA approved and now has a
multimillion dollar company that has crews that travel across the
country doing decontamination of  buildings for federal, city and
state governments. He did a few smaller local jobs at first but one
big contract was enough to finance the setup of an office suite with
lots of employees to do the paper work to bid for more of the bigger
contracts.
Sounds good and I'm sure it is good for him. Not something I'd be
willing to get involved with. Now he sits at a desk and takes trips to
negotiate or spec jobs.

I like what I do because that's what I started my business wanting to
do.Prior to that I wanted to be the executive type but after having to
deal with the people who I had to deal with, I dicovered that I'm not
a team player. I don't kow tow to people just because they have a
better paying job than I do. I didn't learn it for awhile but I've
since discovered that's one of the characteristics of a entrepreneur.
I've been a suit and it's not anything that I ever want to do again.