Finding contract work

[HAULN-SS]

Since a lot of you all work on various contracts for the government, or other organizations I thought I would make a post here.

Lately my mind has been wandering on going out on my own to find work, but I am not exactly sure where to start looking. Have any of you ever explored this before, or known anyone who did?

This all started last year when I switched jobs. I brought some work in the door to my current company. This was complicated as shit on our side, and eventually went to the wayside. A few months ago, some more related work comes in the door via a co-worker. I am the one for the job. I write up the proposal , get everything ready to go, and once again our contracts department bungles the delivery of the proposal materials, delivering an incomplete package that cost us the conrtract. I believe the denial email read "We liked what was written here, but a full evaluation cannot be completed because of X, Y, Z missing, and we are going to down-select to another bidder"

So all of this has left a bitter taste in my mouth that two contracts worth over a year of work and at least a few hundred thousand dollars has gotten bungled. These projects were actually projects I'd want to work on, as well.

Because of this I have been having serious thoughts on trying to start my own (LLC, corp, what?) and going for some contracts on my own. Of course the first line is reaching back with contacts I have in industry and going from there, but where else do you look? I am not all that familiar with much of the process, but I know somewhat about various aspects of what is expected as part of actually submitting the proposal. I know next to nothing about the legal aspects of creating the actual contract after winning, etc .

[D_Eclipse9916]

My father started his own, and was extremely successful, over 300 employees at his time of death only 8 years into the companys founding. Why I say this is : dont, unless you plan on giving up all your life to it. Including your relationships, your hobbies and everyone around you. Yes there are fairy tales of "falling into sucess", but I assure you that is not the majority of successful startups.

[HAULN-SS]

Was your dad the guy that started HPTi? I think I remember hearing that somewhere.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Wow, that came off a bit negative I realize, just trying to put across a point that its not all roses and unicorns. Its hard, but achievable, and you might find years, decades, down the line, it wasnt worth it. Life isnt about work, nor about the money that comes from it. I will probably never start my own, I would rather "work for the man", let "the man" worry about risk, stress, late nights, and take a smaller paycheck and be able to enjoy my life and family.

Edit: yes he was.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Quick Excerpt from the "History of HPTi" that describes somewhat what its like to start a government contracting firm, and this is the "corporate document". AKA - fluffed and pretty:

"To pursue their dreams, HPTiÔÇÖs founders had to take on both financial and personal risks. Both Don and Tim had to forego the security of a paycheck for most of the first two years. Not only did they invest significant portions of their personal savings, but they also secured a line of credit with their personal assetsÔÇöincluding their homes, their childrenÔÇÖs college savings, and their retirement investments. As Tim relates, you cannot fully understand the fear and excitement of an entrepreneurial pursuit until youÔÇÖve had the opportunity to pledge your home against your dreamÔÇöand convinced your wife to co-sign on that pledge! As was to be expected, the families of both founders experienced significant stress during the startup phase of the firm. Don and Tim agreed that to succeed in business only to lose their families was not their definition of success. Dr. Jeffrey Mohr was not able to sustain the stress of this commitment, and he left the firm for a more traditional career path. He is now a successful systems architect for Computer Sciences Corporation. To help alleviate this stress, the remaining two partners realized that they needed to include their wives in the business early on so that they too could share in the dream. DonÔÇÖs wife, Laura, was brought in to help establish the accounting organization, and TimÔÇÖs wife, Kathleen, established the contracts and finance organization. Through this arrangement, both spouses could see the firmÔÇÖs progress, significantly contribute to its success, and thereby share in its vision. This solution was not a panacea for the stress or risk, but it did mitigate enough of the risk to keep the firm moving forward toward its dream. "

[D_Eclipse9916]

Lastly, if you have the drive go for it!!!!!!!! But dont view it as a way to get out of "misery", you become your own boss which is way worse than any boss you have now.

[HAULN-SS]

Interesting take on things.

I am not unhappy where I am necessarily. My bosses are not untolerable, and I am happy with the money I make. The only real bummer is that these contracts seem to be out there and available, and keep getting away. I am quite certain if it was just me going after them, I would be able to secure them. These are typically one man jobs for 6 months to a year. I am not necessarily looking to jump in and manage people right from the get-go. The main draw to me is being able to be flexible enough to go after the work that I am actually interested in. Making a stable paycheck and being able to pay for my insurance and stuff, I am pretty sure I could come in 30 -50% cheaper than what my current company bids me at, for example.

[ScottyB]

But dont view it as a way to get out of "misery", you become your own boss which is way worse than any boss you have now.

i completely disagree, mainly because my experience in that area is the opposite. what i can absolutely agree with you on is that doing your own thing does not alleviate stress, it only changes what kind of stress you're under. its also very time consuming since you must handle everything people in other departments used to do out of your sight and mind.

i've been doing the small biz thing for a year now and would not go back unless forced to. its tough though, and i'm slowly realizing it takes time to grow a client base and become decently profitable (due to being naive/lack of experience). that cuts into the fun money a bit, and you might not find thats the kind of quality-of-life change you can tolerate.

can't speak to the contract stuff, that's just something entirely different than what i do and i don't know anything about it. but in terms of how your organize your business, would you be looking to expand and employ others in the future? if not i think going LLC is mostly advantageous and convenient for small or sole proprietor situations. its worth your time to consult a small business accountant, i love having one and they are worth their weight in payment if they're good.

if you think you can do better, like working on your own terms and have a healthy savings squirreled away at first to hold you over while you get going, it can be a really fulfilling thing.

[Evan]

2 most important words of gubment contracting are - contract vehicle

without that (which costs $$$...) you're stuck subbing and small biz set asides. still good work and money there, but you really need connections to make those work.

[HAULN-SS]

Scotty: Good perspective. I will reiterate I'm only under stress of being pissed off that we dont win contracts in the type of work I want to do, and that it seems to be hard to find companies doing that kind of work (at least overtly), but there does seem to be some(plenty) of it out there. I think without all of the beauracracy hanging over, it'd be easier to get into the kind of work I want to do.

Of course, I dont think at first I'd be interested in hiring other people, but assuming the work was taking off, I could see hiring up to a few guys. I would expect that to be quite a bit in the distance

After a little googling I come across this site: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.fedmarket.com/">http://www.fedmarket.com/</a><!-- m -->

seems like some good resources, but I havent had time to read in depth. As far as contract vehicles go - I think of being a sole source procurement because as a SME, you are THE person that the government guy would ask for specifically right? I dont think you could do this indefinitely, but I guess at first it is a possibility. I know a couple of COTR that I have had good relationships with, but I am not sure how to come out of the dark after being off those contracts to ask for work. Do you think people get started by working for a company, making arrangements to quit, and come back working for COTR directly?

It seems like the most likely route is to find the prime that has put out bids for subs, or being able to find and search through RFPs directly. Does this kind of thing exist on official websites and such? I have been kind of trying to figure out how to do this kind of work while still having a job here. It seems like people at the top want to pursue the line of work I am involved in, but the Business dev types dont have any contacts, and probably wouldnt know where to look. I'd like to just show up at work one day with a list of proposals we should put in for. I think even just getting to do this type of thing would help if I were to ever branch out on my own.

[.RJ]

I dont think the gov't can (let alone would) award contracts to an individual.

You also need to be on the GSA schedule - its a pain in the ass and expensive - my company pays another group to do handle all the contracts and deal with the gov't schedule BS, they take a small cut off the top of all the contracts. Probably really good business for them, they dont have to go out and sell *anything*.

Probably better off looking for contract work as a Sub - there are recruiting/hiring agencies out there that place people in contracts for this.