The ultimate reward ? When a small business puts their own unique twists on basic suggestions and develops a thriving enterprise. _____________________________________________________________________ I had two mentors at key points in my 36 year career in Aerospace. They were a combination of technical, management and communications talent, rarely found in high tech industry. Neither placed salary, position or ego ahead of developing their subordinates and each reached the pinnacle of their respective careers for exactly that trait.  Their skills at developing and utilizing people ..read more

I appreciate the many individuals who have contacted me for advice through the Micro Mentor and SCORE Foundations, LinkedIn and other social media. It has been a pleasure to serve small business.  Catch the latest in News for the Government Contracting Industry:  Government Contracting News Please feel free to download the free books pictured here, as well as other useful information at the BOX in the right margin of this site You may also download the books free of charge from: https://smalltofeds.academia.edu/KenLarson The small business contracting books contain live links ..read more

During the January 2024 National Mentoring Month, my thanks to the SCORE and MicroMentor organization teams with whom I have worked for 16 Years. Small business volunteering has kept me active in retirement, in touch with my profession and engaged in a continuous learning mode. The SCORE and MicroMentor platforms have been my “Windows On The World” in pursuing those objectives. I believe we are growing entrepreneurs more than growing monumentally successful enterprises. Each, in turn, will grow a unique form of business using their efforts, not ours. We do not do it for them. They do it ..read more

This site is dedicated to Small Businesses who wish to succeed in Federal Government Contracting.  There are over 100 agencies or "Departments" in the federal government. Each of these agencies has a statutory obligation to contract from small business for 23% of everything it buys. Contracting officers must file reports annually demonstrating they have fulfilled this requirement. Not fulfilling the requirement can put agency annual funding in jeopardy. You have a motivated customer in federal government contracting officers and buyers. Large business, under federal procurement law ..read more

Small Business Administration  Becoming certified for the WOSB Federal Contracting Program means your business is eligible to compete for contracts that are set aside for WOSBs and economically disadvantaged WOSBs and sole-source federal contracts within eligible industries.  New WOSB Federal Contracting Program regulations were published in the Federal Register on May 11, 2020, detailing changes to the certification process. DON’T MISS OUT!  Visit the The Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program (WOSB Program) web site to submit your initial applicati ..read more

The purpose of this article is to compare small business federal government contracting as opposed to selling commercial products and services. The comparison may be useful for those who are considering melding commercial and federal government business or starting an enterprise involving both venues.  WHAT FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING IS - AND IS NOT Small business federal government contracting is not rocket science - to succeed you must take what you do well in the commercial market place or what your experience leads you to believe you can plan successfully as a commercial ente ..read more

On October 7, 2010, the U.S. Small Business Administration published a final rule effective February 4, 2011, aimed at expanding federal contracting opportunities for women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) The Final Rule sets forth procedures authorized by the Small Business Act to help ensure a level playing field on which WOSBs can compete for Federal contracting opportunities, while helping achieve the existing statutory goal that 5 percent of Federal contracting dollars go to women-owned small businesses. Some of the components of the Women-Owned Small Business Program include: To ..read more

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Involve the employees in the training process and encourage mentoring. The organization mission is conveyed by continuous organization training. Internal experts can be very entrepreneurial in training approaches. Recognize and reward them for doing so and place them in lead positions in training programs. Organization training in business is a form of communication. It is not an academic pursuit, although elements of it may include learning new information. Still, it is not schooling in the sense of personal improvement as much as it is communication of company policy and expectations ..read more

Image: Villanova University Effective small business project management focuses the resources on a plan for contract execution, the schedule, budget and customer requirements baseline and the status of a given effort among other concurrent projects to give visibility into problem solving and management trade offs. If you are a small enterprise selling off-the-shelf commercial items under FAR Part 12 or marketing commercial products on a GSA schedule, you may be initially challenged by the government contracting venue. With persistence you will establish selling relationships through ..read more