Off the Cuff: Good Enough for Government Work: Part 1 of 2

SALES & MARKETING

Off the Cuff: Good Enough for Government Work: Part 1 of 2

December 07, 2009
By Mark L. Venit, MBA

There are times in business when, for a moment or two, you wish you could pack it all in and get a “normal” job — you know, one where, as long as you show up on time and clock in the required number of hours, you get a paycheck every week. Or maybe you could get a government job, where it seems that sometimes, even if you don't show up to work, you can still get a paycheck — at least until somebody notices you’re away or your boss gets indicted.

To a large extent, you already work for the government. According to the National Taxpayers Union, all the income you gross until around mid-May goes to a government somewhere on the local, state/provincial and federal levels in the way of personal taxes, business taxes and mandatory fees. But you do have a very legitimate way of reversing the relationship if you can get a piece of the public pie for yourself. It’s a popular pastime for big companies, interest groups, politicians’ friends and relatives and — every so often — small companies like yours. And you don’t even have to contribute to anyone’s campaign!

Bidding, Anyone?
Bids — or “tenders” in the Canadian lexicon — should be one of the means you use to go about getting your fair share of government contracts. Governments buy all kinds of products that our industry produces every day: T-shirts, sweat shirts, golf/polo shirts, caps, jackets, bags and much more. Who wears it all? For the most part, normal people — along with soldiers, sailors and prisoners. Governments buy in the mega-millions for recreation programs, employee identification and recognition, public relations, advertising and promotion and fundraising, as well as re-sale in government-owned gift shops at tourist attractions, hospitals and other public venues.

And from whom do government purchasing and procurement agents buy all these wares? From companies just like yours, particularly if you own a screen printing or embroidery shop.

How do you go about getting business from towns and cities, counties, military bases, sanitation departments, penitentiaries, convention and tourist bureaus, recreation centers and community-based programs? The answer is the same as the classic answer for how salespeople get orders: Ask for it! You'll also benefit from doing a little homework and filling out some paperwork. Getting on bid lists ain’t rocket science; rather, it’s online research, phone calls, letters and occasional legwork.

Bidding Information Centers
Allow me to save you a lot of time and trouble by telling you about five one-stop shops where you can quickly learn a lot and access tons of information in minutes, and in most cases enlist a friend who will guide you through the paperwork that you will have to complete. In some places, they will even do all the paperwork for you and then hand it over to you for your signature!

These five short-cut centers include:

1. The local office of your U.S. Congressional Representative or Member of Parliament. The personnel in the district offices and riding offices from the Rio Grand to the North Pole are there to help you, which is the least they can do in return for you paying their salaries, isn’t it? These people work for your representative, who has his or her own vested interest in bringing home the bacon. Our elected officials want you to generate revenue from outside the area, as well as helping to keep business in the community. They know some of the money you earn on this business will stay in your community and be re-circulated there. Therefore, everybody wins.

In many areas the local offices of U.S. senators also perform the same services for constituent entrepreneurs.

2. The offices of local, county, state, provincial and regional Chambers of Commerce. These business groups will help just about any business in the community — even non-member businesses. At most, all they’ll really ask in return is that you consider joining; in most cases they don’t make helping your company contingent on your paid affiliation.

3. Local, county, state, provincial, regional economic development offices. These agencies have direct interest in bringing in business, promoting cooperation among local firms, and creating more businesses and local jobs.

4. Other business-friendly agencies, from the U.S. Small Business Administration to your local library. Seek and ye shall find.

5. Online avenues. Of course, going online to learn about the process, see listings of bids and reviewing bid requirements will save you a lot of time before visiting any intermediaries’ offices. The entire process often can be done online, including the actual submission of your bids.

Within days of contacting these agencies and offices, you’ll be well on your way to being positioned to receive bids from a host of potential public buyers. Surprisingly, you’ll be in very limited company from your peers in the apparel graphics industry. I estimate that, at best, 10% of all screen printers and embroiderers are engaged in the world of bidding on a local basis; the percentages go down from there as you move up the levels of government and to the military.

The actual process of being included among those firms who receive bids is simple and begins with merely completing forms that tell potential public buyers your company name, address, phone numbers and a few other details about your business. It really is this easy!

Many years ago, getting on bid lists wasn’t as inclusive of a process as it is today. Networks existed for the benefit of the already-haves and to the exclusion of outsiders and newcomers. And while some of the vestiges of the privileged castes still exist in certain areas, things are pretty clean nowadays for the most part. Except for acquisitions involving trade secrets, licensed technology and national security matters, purchasing records are public information and reasonably accessible, often online. But most assertions that all bidding is rigged are based on misconceptions, sour grapes, stories of long ago and ignorance.

Nonetheless, I’ll acknowledge that some past ills, including some dinosaur provisions and vestiges of the privileged, do still haunt the bidding process. Among them are unfair and unnecessary restrictions to certain athletic garment brands. Veteran screen printers probably remember the era of “Russell or Champion on nothing!” Still, there are occasional mandates for garments with union-labor or USA-made styles that just don’t exist today. But these things can be challenged and successfully overturned with a little effort and documentation.

Now What Do I Do?
Having informed various agencies within the governmental networks that you'd like a shot at some work, you’ll receive information detailing the items sought, decoration specifics, deadlines and other pertinent information. Some bids can be filled out in a few minutes; others may entail hours of work, especially where you have to source specialty garments or figure out production costs on technically or operationally complex orders.

Whatever you do, respond to the bid — even if your response is only “We decline to bid on this order.” Rarely do you even have to give a reason for not bidding, but where you’re allowed or encouraged to do so, there’s ample opportunity for you to tell the truth, which may include “”Specifications are too rigid” or “The due date is unrealistic or impossible.” Before you decline to bid due to things you may not understand, speak with the contact person listed to get clarification on unclear information, rulings on whether legitimate substitutions are permitted or other edification that might help you reconsider your initial decision to pass on the bid.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how reasonable and genuinely accommodating some bid writers can be when informed about legitimate shortcomings of their solicitations. Most bid lists will drop you if you fail to respond to two or three consecutive bids, but virtually all will keep you on the hit list as long as you continue to respond, even if your responses indicate that you decline to bid.

In Part 2, we’ll look at how to maximize your chances of winning a bid that you can actually make money on, and whether or when to sharpen your pencil.

Mark L. Venit, MBA, is president of Apparel Graphics Institute Ltd., Ocean Pines, Md., which provides management and marketing consulting and proprietary research to apparel graphics companies throughout the Americas and Europe. He also is the chairman of ShopWorks Software LLC, a provider of industry-specific business software. Venit teaches pricing, strategic marketing, salesmanship and other business management topics at the Imprinted Sportswear Shows. You can contact him at markvenit@cs.com.

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