Month: January 2023

Key Questions to Ask as a Consultant – Part 1: Your Vision

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Congratulations! You’ve taken the first step on the road to becoming a consultant. By choosing to read this blog series, you have decided to explore the opportunities available to you in consulting. Throughout this series, I will be addressing the key questions you need to ask yourself prior to making the leap. I’ll start at the beginning with a fundamental question:

WHAT IS YOUR VISION OF YOUR CONSULTING CAREER?

The first thing any consultant needs to do is identify what type of consulting career you want or need. This basic vision of how you want your career to develop is critical to answering all the other questions I pose. Here’s some guiding questions to help you begin the process of defining your life as a consultant.

Is this temporary or permanent? Some people (like myself) choose to go into consulting as a permanent move. If this is the case, then you need to put into place a formal process to develop a market and clientele for your services. You need to develop a structure to enable your success (which we will talk about over several blog posts). Others get into consulting for a short period of time for a variety of reasons (unemployment, family commitments, need for temporary flexibility, etc.). In these cases, you may not want or need a formal approach to succeed.

Where are you in your career? Understanding where you are in your professional development is critical to knowing how your consulting career will develop from the beginning. If you are nearing retirement, you may be looking at consulting as a part-time engagement to keep your skills and mind sharp. You may only engage in the types of opportunities you find most desirable. If you are a senior proposal professional but not quite ready to stop working full-time, you will likely take on more work but can usually demand greater pay due to your expertise and experience. If you are a more junior professional, you might not have the flexibility of the others and will likely need to prove yourself to command a higher rate.

How much do you want/have to work? This is closely related to the previous point. If you are the primary or sole provider for your family, you have an obligation to work a significant amount. On the other hand, if this is a side hustle or part of a semi-retirement plan, your required hours for the year will be significantly less. Knowing the target number of hours you have for a year helps set you up for success.

How strong is your network? This question is critical to knowing where your next project will come from. If you have a strong, deep, diverse network you can use it to cultivate and develop opportunities. On the other hand, without solid connections, it will be a struggle to find work on your own. Prior to founding BZ, I spent 12 to 18 months actively growing and tending to my network, including expanding my reach outside of the proposal space to include more BD and executive level individuals across industry. I attended industry events, used LinkedIn to comment on posts and connect with individuals, and reached out to people in my personal network who were in Government contracting. This sustained effort allowed me to leverage those new relationships to find work and grow the company. 

What type of work do you want to do? This may sound like an easy question, but it’s not. Even with traditional proposal development job titles, there’s a lot of wiggle room. If you are a proposal manager, do you want to focus on process or be what most of our clients need, a Swiss Army Knife professional who can tackle multiple roles on a bid? If you are a writer, what are your area(s) of expertise (not just technical functions but do you prefer to write management volumes or resumes or past performance)? Are there agencies or technical subject matter you want to focus on? Are there certain types of firms you want to engage with (small businesses, large businesses, certain socio-economic categories)? Knowing the answers to these questions is critical to how you will engage as a consultant.

Do I want to work for consulting firms? A final question to ask up front is how do I want to get work. Some consultants simply work as independent 1099s with their own, small client base and carve out a comfortable living. For the vast majority, however, there is a need to engage with one or more consulting firms to get work. Unless you have a significant pipeline of work through your own network, I highly recommend you engage with consulting firms and get your resume in their hands. It allows you to leverage their depth and expertise to find work. Remember that in these situations you may need to accept a lower rate than if you are directly billing the client yourself. I also highly recommend you do not commit to exclusivity with one firm, especially at the beginning. This provides you the ability to cast the widest possible net with which to get new work. 

Conclusion. Before you begin consulting, you need to clearly define what you want out of a consulting career. Only when you have a clear vision of your goals, desired areas of focus, and time commitments can you begin looking at how to implement that vision.

Next time, I will cover the second key question: “What is your financial framework?”

Lessons Learned as a Proposal Content Editor from Decades of Experience Serving on Proposal Teams – Part I

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I have been involved in proposals for nearly three decades. This depth of experience provides me with three key lessons on how to best support efforts from my role as an editor.

Lesson 1: It pays off in spades to assemble a well-rounded proposal team and not skip important steps. 

Is your proposal team suited up with the right people? Are you not only proposing the right people in your actual proposal and demonstrating their qualifications but also engaging a proposal team that nails an understanding of the work and the level of effort needed? 

Successful bids bring together the right mix of people with contract and program management and subject matter expertise who can evaluate whether the proposal “answers the mail.” You need the bench strength to gauge how well your company tells its story and puts its best foot forward. The combined expertise is critical to producing major, complex proposals where the competition is cut-throat. Given that proposals have a million moving parts, an experienced proposal manager is also vital to orchestrating all of the steps and problem solving when inevitable curveballs are thrown in the path. Your writers, editors, graphic designers, and production team play important roles in developing the content and creating the polished product. A great proposal team really is greater than the sum of its parts.

Lesson 2: An experienced content editor can help you through many stages of the proposal process. 

The proposal’s technical content learning curve is far less steep the earlier you get a content editor involved throughout the proposal process. That’s because skilled content editors are inherently analytical and detail oriented. Early familiarity prepares your editor. When the final draft comes across their desk for editing, the process will be more efficient. 

It is useful to have these individuals review the RFP before the deadline for questions to the funding agency. Often they can spot unclear or contradictory information requiring clarification. 

In storyboarding sessions, they can become familiar with the proposal’s win themes. If they know a fair amount about your company or the work being proposed, they can provide creative input. They can also jog their memory for company accomplishments to highlight that you might be overlooking. 

Having editors serve as a reviewer on your proposal review teams adds clear value to your bid. They can look at it from a different vantage point than your managers or subject matter experts. They  might identify text that won’t make sense to your average lay person, who may be one of the evaluators scoring the proposal. In addition, if they are familiar with your company’s boilerplate materials, they can suggest graphics and figures to break up long text. Given their expertise as editors, they can also recommend ways for writers to tighten up their sections. 

At a bare minimum, your editor can really use comprehensive notes from these meetings. And the more they can see of actual drafts, the more they will be prepared when the real thing comes along.    

The bottom line is proposals run risks when the editorial and then the production and design team is completely uninvolved until the end. Same result applies when they are shortchanged on the original time allotted to complete the work. Working extremely late night (or early morning hours) significantly increases risk and can be a recipe for mishaps. 

Lesson 3: It’s important to define the role of your editor in a consultant agreement. 

To avoid any misunderstandings, clearly delineate the editor’s tasks. Many companies engage both a content editor and a copyeditor. Therefore, the lines between the two can blur. Generally:

  • The content editor focuses solely on the proposal content. They ensure it reads as one voice; logically flows; is clear, thorough, and cohesive; is engaging to read;  weaves in the company’s discriminators and win themes; and, if agreed to, responds to all RFP requirements.  
  • Copyeditors review the proposal with a fine-tooth comb. They check for stylistic consistency and mechanics of style, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and typographical errors. 

If it is not possible to use a copyeditor, it’s advisable to give your content editor a slight breather — and ample time — before asking them to perform this role. They will need to read through it again with a copyeditor hat. The content editing looks at different aspects of editing. 

Given these lessons I’ve learned, how can you make sure you enable your editors to be successful? I’ll detail my suggestions in my next post.

Beth Rabinowitz is a consultant with BZ and has devoted a significant portion of her 30-year career helping clients produce successful proposals. Many of her clients are on a mission to improve public health, children’s welfare, and/or educational outcomes. When she isn’t working on proposals, she’s often writing, content editing, or copy editing training tools and educational resources; white papers; brochures, fact sheets, and blogs; case studies; annual reports; evaluation reports and policy papers; and dallies into creative writing.  If you’d like to engage Beth on your next opportunity, reach out to BZ here.

Key Questions to Ask About Consulting – Part 1 (Introduction)

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January 20, 2023 marks the fifth anniversary of BZ Opportunity Management. I started BZ as a way for me to move from full-time employment to independent consulting. Today, the company is a full-service proposal consulting and training firm with a roster of over 40 talented proposal and contracts professionals. Over the last 5 years, I have consistently seen the need for highly qualified, high quality consultants, and the team at BZ works hard to fill that need for our clients.

Given our success, I often receive questions about beginning or continuing a career in consulting. It is a topic I love talking about. As I received invaluable support and advice when establishing  BZ, I do my best to pay that forward by freely sharing any knowledge and wisdom I’ve developed on my path as a consultant. The number of requests I receive for such advice and the number of people entering the consulting ranks made me realize it would be a great topic for a blog post series.

To me, there are four key questions anyone interested in consulting needs to consider. Each of these questions will be the topic of its own blog post in the coming weeks.

  • What is your vision? You need to know what type of consulting career you want.
  • What financial framework do you have? In order to succeed, there are several key financial considerations you need to be aware of.
  • What tools do you have? Knowing the basic tools you require is critical to success.
  • How do I stay connected and communicate? At its core, a consulting career is about remaining engaged.

There are multiple reasons why now is a good time to consider becoming a consultant, especially in proposal development, including:

  • The increased recognition of proposal development as a profession. Over the past decade, there has been an increased recognition that proposal development is not just a function but a profession with clear skills and value. The work of our professional organization, APMP, and the continued development of certification opportunities continue to help define proposals as a clear area of specialization and expertise.
  • The increased acceptance of remote work. Especially since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increased acceptance that people can do the vast majority of jobs for proposal development virtually. We have seen clients who used to demand people be onsite now willingly request remote support. The removal of geographic barriers allows consultants to support many more clients and opportunities.
  • Client willingness to engage consultants. I believe there are multiple reasons more growth professionals see value in using consultants today. There are economic benefits to bringing in consultants. Consultants are the perfect solution for surge support or to avoid staff burnout. Small and mid-sized firms often leverage consultants for critical efforts to maximize their chances of success.
  • Other factors. There are multiple other small factors that influence people making the move to consulting. The Affordable Care Act provides people an easy way to acquire health insurance without being  employed somewhere. Recent tax reforms provide significant incentives to being a small business owner, including consulting. Finally, the increased focus on wellness and work-life balance has opened people’s minds to careers that are not bound by the traditional office model.

This series of posts looks to provide people interested in consulting with some insight on what questions, issues, and opportunities are out there today. While consulting has worked well for me and many others, it is not for everyone. There is risk inherent in going out on your own. Therefore, even with the information laid out in these posts, I encourage you to take time and make sure you consider all the options, positives, negatives, and risks associated with consulting before making your own decision.

 

Want to learn more about BZ and our full-service proposal consulting services and training offerings?  Visit us here.

A Proposal Professional’s Reading List – Part 1 (Proposal Related)

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Like most of us, I spent the holiday season figuring out my personal goals for 2023. And, like most of you, one of mine is to read more books. While blog posts and articles are good, there’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of picking up a book and feeling that sense of accomplishment when you close the back cover upon completion. Yes, I am old school and prefer real books (although my Kindle is good for my nighttime reading). 

I often get asked what books are on my reading list and for suggestions on potential titles. I would like to share some of my past favorites and most anticipated books on my list for 2023. I plan to split this into two posts -the first with proposal-centered books and the second with other titles offering  significant benefits to those of us in government contracting. 

Writing Business Bids and Proposals For Dummies by Neil Cobb and Charlie Devine. A must have for any proposal professional. Published in coordination with APMP, this book provides key insights and great advice for anyone who is involved in bid development. It is a great reference tool to keep on your shelf.  

The In Plain English series by Christoph Mlinarchik. Christoph has three books in the series (focused on Government Contracts, the FAR, and contracts negotiation) to help those in Government contracting understand the legal side of the business. The series isa good overview of the topic and offers a starting point for further study. 

Secrets of Strategic Pricing for Government Contractors by Marsha Lindquist. This title is next up in my professional reading queue. Marsha is an expert in pricing and bid strategy. I am very excited to read her insights and tips for developing quality, winning pricing strategies. 

Game Changers for Government Contractors: Insider Tips and Advice from the Industry’s Top Experts by Michael LeJeune and Joshua P Frank. Mike hosts one of my favorite podcasts of the same title. This book, also on my must read list, takes insights from 29 industry experts and boils it down to a single volume that’s easy to read and helps guide your strategies. 

Zero to a Billion: 61 Rules Entrepreneurs Need to Know to Grow a Government Contracting Business by David A Kriegman. David has been in the GovCon space for more than 3 decades. He provides a lot of great tidbits to help me guide my clients with their growth strategies, and I know you would too. 

Persuasive Business Proposals: Writing to Win More Customers, Clients, and Contracts by Tom Sant. A central work in our field that I am slightly embarrassed to admit I have not read yet. It’s on the list for 2023 – I know the ideas and key themes of this work will continue to improve my writing and my proposal leadership efforts. 

Unleash the Power of Storytelling: Win Hearts, Change Minds, Get Results by Rob Biesenbach. This is another 2023 read for me. Given my recent focus on empathetic and creative proposal development (see the nextbook on this list), I am sure there will be key ideas and tips to bring into my writing process. 

 

Keys to the Castle. Shameless plug alert! Yes, I put my own book on here. If you are looking to improve your storytelling capabilities and put together proposals that have the client at its core, I recommend you give it a read. 

I know there are many, many more books in our field that I’ve missed. Use the comments below or send me a note with some of your favorites and we will look to add them into a future post. 

Next time, I’ll dive into books on a topic near and dear to all proposal managers – leadership.

Learn more about Keys to the Castle and pick up your copy today by visiting https://keys.bzopportunity.com.

 

How Many Types of Contracts Are There, Anyway?

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When I first set out in federal contracting over 15 years ago, I remember feeling underwater, swimming in a vast ocean of foreign terminology.   Abbreviations like “IDIQ” and phrases like “Firm Fixed Price” were constantly volleyed around my office. I was just supposed to know what they meant!

As I quickly learned, the type of contract used by the Government in executing a program impacts many aspects of the work itself.  Most importantly, there must be a balance between incentivizing the contractor to work efficiently and cost-effectively, while hitting all the vital benchmarks for the federal government customer.   

For the uninitiated, every Federal Government opportunity will fall into a pre-selected type. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) defines a dozen different contract types. The contract type dictates how the work is performed, how payment to the Prime contractor is delivered, and how the Government anticipates receiving the goods or services they are seeking through the program. Almost always, contracting boils down to a question of risk.  What is the Government willing to take on regarding performance risk? Is the schedule proposed attainable? Is the goal achievable?  

Here are five of the most conventional contracting types and how they impact both the Government and contractors:

Firm Fixed Price (FFP):   This contract sets a cost for the work performed prior to the work beginning.  This places the largest risk on the contractor performing the work, as there will be no reimbursement for costs incurred exceeding that budgetary threshold.   This type of contract is often used in the commercial space where costs can be fairly estimated and assumption of risk reasonably forecasted.  Best used when: Requirements are clearly defined. 

Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Level-of-Effort (LOE) : If the work prescribed is quite vague, and the Government isn’t assured the task is achievable, this approach may be best applied.  It allows the set cost parameters of FFP while the Government must assume the risk associated with the administrative burden of tracking the contractor’s best level of effort to achieve the desired results within the specified LOE.  Best used when: Requirements can be somewhat defined and the Government is willing to assume some administrative obligation. 

Cost Reimbursement:  Within this framework, the incurred costs are reimbursed as described in the contract language.   The contractor may not exceed the pre-established ceiling without the approval of the contracting officer. This type of contract places emphasis on expediency in starting the work, thus placing markedly more risk on the government’s side.  Best used when: Requirements are unclear, and success isn’t guaranteed.  

Time and Materials: If the Government’s goals and required approach is vague and the timeline or goals are equally undefined, this is the optimal approach.  It allows for flexibility in defining labor types but does require a more precise knowledge of the cost for any billable labor.  The Government will pay for hours worked and any Other Direct Costs (ODCs) incurred all at cost pursuant to accepting a Statement of Work (SOW) that gives some outline to the anticipated work. Best used when:  No other contract type is suitable, and it is possible to estimate labor rates (as well as overhead/profit), but not hours or material required to satisfy the goal.

Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite-Quantity:  When the Government isn’t sure about the specific number of ‘widgets’ they need for a project, but can create a basic contract upon which an indefinite number of delivery orders or task orders are placed.  This allows the Government to attempt broad specialization with selection of a strong Prime, while simultaneously granting the government inherent risk in that gameplan. Best used when: the project is a service contract and works as a base year plus option-year structure. 

The vital takeaway from any Government contracting discussion is to remember the assessment of risk.  Who is taking on the most risk? What is the goal, and is it reasonably achievable? Ultimately those are the answers that will take you the furthest in your understanding and help you and your firm determine if the opportunity is worth pursuing.  

Kazia Levin is an Assistant Director of Contracts at BZ.  She is a federal contracting professional with extensive experience guiding program management, policy implementation and financial goal-setting.

BZ offers comprehensive contracts management and surge support services.  Learn more here.

New year, New MACs: How to Position to Win on Vehicles in 2023

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Happy New Year! If you’re like me, you used the last couple of weeks to reflect on the year that was and to look forward to the opportunities ahead. In the GovCon world, there is a lot to look forward to in 2023. There are several critical multiple award contracts (MACs) in the pipeline. Alliant 3 (for large businesses), OASIS+, and VA T4NG2 top the must win lists for many firms. A number of other agency-specific vehicles will also be released this year, and as always, there are alterations and adjustments to GAO schedules to wrestle with. With the battle scars of recent troubled procurements (CIO-SP4, anyone?) still fresh for many in industry, what can you do to prepare for these critical solicitations? Here are my four key tips to prepare for the coming year’s MAC onslaught. 

Do your homework. The first step is to determine what to bid on. Many firms need to decide where and how to best allocate their resources. Even the largest GovCon players have budgets and need to focus on the opportunities that best suit their business needs and capabilities. Therefore, make sure you look in depth at every potential MAC in your pipeline and determine if you really can win a spot on the contract. More importantly, your team needs to honestly assess how much business you can realistically expect to win on that vehicle. A vehicle is great but the investment of time and money is meaningless if you cannot win task orders and revenue from that vehicle (unless you are looking at being acquired, which is an entirely different topic of conversation).

Engage. Now that you’ve decided where to focus your resources, it is important to make use of all the information out there about those opportunities that best fit your portfolio. There are two main sources of information you can rely on. 

The first comes directly from the Government. All three of the opportunities I mentioned above either had draft solicitations or requests for information released in the last several months. Interested bidders must do deep dives on those materials to begin planning their response. In addition, whenever the Government asks for feedback or inputs, provide them! It gives industry a chance to help shape the contract to deliver the best value and competition. Be sure to attend any industry days or other opportunities to meet with and talk to procurement officials. The pre-RFP stage is the ideal time to make your voices heard to avoid lengthy extensions and thousands of questions post release. 

Our industry also does a great job of helping break down the requirements and guide firms on what to look for and expect. Look for webinars, blog posts, and other opportunities to learn about any contracts you are interested in. Oftentimes events include time to network, which can help you build relationships and identify potential teammates for that opportunity and others. 

Get the basics in place. The Government provides draft solicitations not just to receive feedback. They also allow interested bidders to begin preparing their responses. While you may not have all the instructions, scoresheets, and attachments, the information provided can steer you in the right direction. Teams need to begin gathering required documentation (certifications, corporate documents, etc.) that will be required as part of your submission. Getting these routine documents in a central, opportunity-specific location allows your team to focus on the places where you can differentiate yourself during the post-RFP period. Identifying your potential corporate experience examples, collecting all relevant contract and award documentation, and making sure your client has submitted a CPAR for that effort is a great use of your pre-release time. 

Lock up resources now. Finally, do not be afraid to ask for help. There are many consulting resources out there with expertise and experience in handling all aspects of these types of procurements. If you need help with the business development and capture side (to assist with Government interactions, teaming, etc.), find a firm that fits that need. If you need help developing your response, reach out to a proposal firm you know and trust. (Shameless plug – BZ has worked many of the large MAC opportunities over our 5 years and have experts on call to help you craft your response). My biggest piece of advice is to engage with consultants as early as possible. Many firms already have commitments on these opportunities and you do not want to lose the chance to work with the right partner. 

2023 is shaping up to be a banner year for Government contractors, with many critical MACs being released for bid. Positioning your firm to take advantage of these opportunities can maximize your growth potential through the rest of the decade.  

BZ provides high-quality, comprehensive proposal development support for MAC and IDIQ contracts. To learn more, click here.