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Friday, October 16, 2009
Winning Federal Contracts: A guide for women Entreprenuers
The SBA just launched a new online course for women to help them navigate through the contracting process.
You can access the course here: http://www.sba.gov/fedcontractingtraining/
Now women who own small businesses will be able to use the new online training course to learn how to find and win federal contracting opportunities.
The program is part of an ongoing government-wide initiative to promote opportunities for women-owned businesses in the area of government contracting.
The tuturial walks her through the the contracting process, and is free of charge. She does have to complete a short questionnaire before logging onto the tutorial.
"The SBA is committed to ensuring that women-owned businesses receive at least 5 percent of federal contracts and believes better training opportunities are central to meeting this government-wide goal." reads the press release, dated October 14th, 2009.
The course is designed to help women business owners learn about the federal procurement process and to prepare them to compete for contracting opportunities. The tutorial uses audio and script to provide information about contract rules, how to sell to the government and where to find contracts.
If you haven't taken a look at this it's worth the read.
What do you think?
You can access the course here: http://www.sba.gov/fedcontractingtraining/
Now women who own small businesses will be able to use the new online training course to learn how to find and win federal contracting opportunities.
The program is part of an ongoing government-wide initiative to promote opportunities for women-owned businesses in the area of government contracting.
The tuturial walks her through the the contracting process, and is free of charge. She does have to complete a short questionnaire before logging onto the tutorial.
"The SBA is committed to ensuring that women-owned businesses receive at least 5 percent of federal contracts and believes better training opportunities are central to meeting this government-wide goal." reads the press release, dated October 14th, 2009.
The course is designed to help women business owners learn about the federal procurement process and to prepare them to compete for contracting opportunities. The tutorial uses audio and script to provide information about contract rules, how to sell to the government and where to find contracts.
If you haven't taken a look at this it's worth the read.
What do you think?
Friday, October 2, 2009
Tradeshows--Making the best use of your time
I read a blog post written by Andrew Brown regarding Trade Shows. I thought that he did have some good things to say and I'll summarize them here:
1) Set clear goals for your participation. I agree with Andrew about this point. Many businesses go to trade shows and they have no idea what their ROI is on the show. Personally, when I've gone to trade shows in the past, it has been to meet new clients or to obtain new information if it's in my own industry. If you go to meet new clients, be sure to follow up with each lead within a week of returning home. If you don't do this, then the money you spent was wasted. If you go to obtain new ideas, then be sure to bring your notebook with you and jot things down before you forget. Many times trade shows are so big that you will forget much of what you've seen.
2) Do your research. This is especially true if you are going to a trade show to meet new clients. Be sure that your demographic is actually there. For example, if you target business owners, you wouldn't want to go to a show where only HR directors attend.
3) Bring a customer. What a great idea! I've actually never brought a customer along to a trade show because I think that most of my customers would find the trade shows for my industry boring. However, the next trade show I go to to attract customers, if I have a customer who would like to target the same audience, I may bring him/her along.
4) Take copious notes. Andrew states: "If you do decide to attend a trade show or seminar, then we suggest you become a sponge. Have your notebook handy at all times – this is your classroom. How are exhibitors and competitors describing and promoting their products? If you’re in a seminar, make sure that you’re recording down the key points of the session. Take time during the breaks to network with other participants and even the instructor – find out what has made them succeed, what is keeping them up at night and write it down. It’s an educational haven." I agree.
5) Use it as a research experiment. Andrew recommends that you attend the trade show you are looking at exhibiting at before paying the money for your booth. I can't agree more. I've done this in the past, and it has saved me money when I realized that the show I was planning on sponsoring didn't fit my needs for one reason or another.
Andrew had some very good points, and you can follow him at http://www.small-business-guru.com
What do you think?
1) Set clear goals for your participation. I agree with Andrew about this point. Many businesses go to trade shows and they have no idea what their ROI is on the show. Personally, when I've gone to trade shows in the past, it has been to meet new clients or to obtain new information if it's in my own industry. If you go to meet new clients, be sure to follow up with each lead within a week of returning home. If you don't do this, then the money you spent was wasted. If you go to obtain new ideas, then be sure to bring your notebook with you and jot things down before you forget. Many times trade shows are so big that you will forget much of what you've seen.
2) Do your research. This is especially true if you are going to a trade show to meet new clients. Be sure that your demographic is actually there. For example, if you target business owners, you wouldn't want to go to a show where only HR directors attend.
3) Bring a customer. What a great idea! I've actually never brought a customer along to a trade show because I think that most of my customers would find the trade shows for my industry boring. However, the next trade show I go to to attract customers, if I have a customer who would like to target the same audience, I may bring him/her along.
4) Take copious notes. Andrew states: "If you do decide to attend a trade show or seminar, then we suggest you become a sponge. Have your notebook handy at all times – this is your classroom. How are exhibitors and competitors describing and promoting their products? If you’re in a seminar, make sure that you’re recording down the key points of the session. Take time during the breaks to network with other participants and even the instructor – find out what has made them succeed, what is keeping them up at night and write it down. It’s an educational haven." I agree.
5) Use it as a research experiment. Andrew recommends that you attend the trade show you are looking at exhibiting at before paying the money for your booth. I can't agree more. I've done this in the past, and it has saved me money when I realized that the show I was planning on sponsoring didn't fit my needs for one reason or another.
Andrew had some very good points, and you can follow him at http://www.small-business-guru.com
What do you think?
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