When it comes to government projects, last year was a challenging one. It’s no secret that sequestration negatively affected the construction side of Frontline Support Solutions; it beat us up pretty bad. I spent that downtime focusing on identifying projects that are advertised in my area and coming up with ways to keep my guys busy. But things may be changing for the better; I’m seeing more and more solicitation for government work lately and it’s inspired me to gather teams and get ready for what could be a much busier year.

In early May, I was gearing up to head out on a business trip to Florida. Before I left, I checked the Federal Business Operations website and saw a whole slew of pre-solicitation notices posted. It really took me aback! I hadn’t seen that level of advertising in quite awhile. When I got to thinking about it, though, it actually makes sense. If they’re announcing pre-solicitations in early May, that puts the solicitations going out in the beginning of June. Then, you’ll have thirty days for procurement, which will put you in July, August will be used for reviewing proposals, and the award notices will go out around September 1^st. This makes the start of the contracts around October 1^st, which is the beginning of the new fiscal year.

All of this adds up to pretty positive outlook for the upcoming year. It certainly gave me some new ideas as I was heading out to try to drum up some more business for my company in Florida. I had already planned on visiting the US Coast Guard facilities in Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico; they have a couple of projects that fit my expertise. I also wanted to meet with some folks at the VA in Miami and Tampa. These added project ideas just gave me more ammunition because I was able to see those opportunities and bring those into the discussion.

I’ve talked in previous posts about dealing with pre-solicitation notices and what that process looks like. It gives us time to identify the jobs we want to pursue and start preparing for them. As you probably know, I’m big into collaboration, so if there’s a certain element to the contract that I’m not able to execute myself, I will seek out teammates to fill that void. For instance, I was looking at project recently that is set aside for a service disabled vet, but there’s one critical aspect that I can’t perform. So, I started looking around and found a buddy from my entrepreneur’s organization that is interested in the job as well. I trust him and his business and we are going to pursue it together.

Regardless if we’re going through tough times or the most fruitful, you’ve got to get prepared for the work that is available. As our economy gets stronger and more jobs open up, my team is focusing in on what we want to accomplish. I can’t predict what will happen next month, but May has been pretty positive. Like I said above, I am a big fan of collaboration. If you have an idea or any questions about the work that’s out there, you can contact me, Joe “VetBizMan†Perez, directly.

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