🆓 FREE Government Contracting Q&A 📅 Saturday, September 26, 2026 🕞 3:30 PM – 4:00 PM PST Today's discussion: 💼 Can Government Contracting Help Stabilize & Grow Your Business? https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89874291649?pwd=zNMWWPL77HwbptKouWfQRblQpCpnN5.1 🌞 Good Morning & Happy Saturday, CFS Government Contracting Community! Today's conversation is especially important for business owners: CAN GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING HELP STABILIZE YOUR BUSINESS? Every day we hear about businesses struggling, cutting expenses, laying people off, or closing altogether. And when sales slow down, many business owners immediately think: “I need more customers.” Yes—but maybe you also need to think differently about WHO your customers can be. Your business doesn't have to depend entirely on individual consumers or private-sector customers. The government can be a customer too. Federal, state, county, city, school districts, healthcare systems, correctional facilities and other public agencies purchase products and services every day. And this isn't a tiny marketplace. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses received approximately $179 BILLION in federal prime contracts in FY2025 and nearly $273 BILLION when prime and subcontract awards are combined. Think about that. There is an entire marketplace that many small businesses never seriously pursue. DIVERSIFICATION MATTERS. If 100% of your revenue comes from private customers and that market slows down, your entire business feels it. But imagine building multiple revenue channels: Private customers + commercial customers + government contracts + subcontracting opportunities. Now you're not depending on one customer base to carry the entire company. That doesn't mean government contracting is easy. It's work. You have to learn the process. You have to research opportunities. You have to understand what agencies buy. You have to price correctly.

Yesterday's free Community Call turned into such a great conversation around something that doesn't get talked about enough in government contracting: How do you actually approach manufacturers, suppliers and potential teaming partners? We talked about why there isn't one script that works for every situation. You have to research who you're approaching, understand the company, learn their history in the government space, know what you're asking for, and sometimes adjust your approach based on what you learn. We discussed building relationships with manufacturers and suppliers before you need them, keeping track of companies that could become future partners, using your past performance strategically, and learning from both your wins and your losses. We also had @Shanaé Murraine one of our new community members who previously worked on the government side, join the free call. I asked her to share her perspective, and it added another great layer to the conversation. One of my biggest messages yesterday was: Government contracting isn't learned from one place. You research. You make calls. You build relationships. You join communities. You listen. You learn from other people's experiences. You learn from your own experiences. And then you take a little from here and a little from there and develop strategies that work for your business. I'm posting the full free Community Call replay here this morning for anyone who missed it. We then continued this conversation during our paid Member Program Call, where we went deeper into these strategies and had another great discussion. Both replays will be added to the paid Government Contracting Program library so members can return to them as they build their own supplier and teaming relationships. Don't just watch the replay and move on. 😊 Think about the products or services you want to offer the government and ask yourself: “Who should I start building relationships with NOW—before I need them for an opportunity?”

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The hard part is what comes after figuring out who's actually buying, when, and why. SAM.gov just gets you in the room. Most people treat registration like the finish line. It's the starting line. What stage are you at right now, still working through registration, or registered and stuck on "okay, now what"?

Good morning everyone! 🌞 I learned something today that I wanted to share because it could save someone else a headache. My PIEE account had been archived because I had not logged in for a while. When I contacted support, I learned how important it is to regularly access your account rather than waiting until you need it for a solicitation. If you have a PIEE account, my recommendation is simple: Make it a habit to log in every week. What is PIEE? PIEE stands for Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment. It is a Department of Defense procurement environment used throughout different stages of the contracting process. If you're pursuing DoD contracts, PIEE can become very important because it supports activities involving: Solicitations → Proposal Submission → Contract Administration → Invoicing → Payment You may also hear about WAWF (Wide Area Workflow), which operates within PIEE and is commonly used for electronic invoicing, receiving and acceptance processes on DoD contracts. 🔎 And Here's Something Else… You can search for DoD solicitation opportunities through PIEE. Many new contractors automatically think: Government contracts = SAM.gov SAM.gov is extremely important, but it isn't the only resource you should learn to use. PIEE has a Solicitation Module/Portal where you can search certain DoD opportunities, access solicitation information and, when required by the solicitation, electronically submit proposals. That means part of your government-contracting strategy should be learning where agencies actually conduct procurement—not simply searching one website. ⚠️ Learn From My Experience I hadn't logged into PIEE for a while because I didn't currently need it. Then when I did need to access it… My account had been archived. 😩😂 Thankfully, I'm getting everything reactivated, but imagine discovering this when you have a proposal due in a few hours! That's why I'm sharing it with you. If you already have a PIEE account: ✅ Log in regularly