we do about $5 million a year we currently have S to eight National contracts with the government where we Source a product for them and when they issue these contracts they're typically for a period of 3 to 5 years but 99% of all the items that we deliver to the federal government are drop Shi so I never have to touch hello all my amazing goon winners we have a special treat today we have have Jerry Martin who is the majority owner and president of ab Martin Services Inc he is in the the supply area of Federal Government Contracting which is an area that I know you all want to know about because it's an area that you're constantly asking questions about so I'm going to turn it over to our amazing guest our expert who started this business in 1997 so he can share so much information you're not going to want to miss out on any of this so Jerry welcome welcome so much to the amazing Channel thank you thank you uh love your introduction you make me sound uh Park and uh I'm just your average business guy out here that's been doing this for about 25 years sourcing for the federal government for about 25 years and the good news about that is is I've made a lot of mistakes and I've leared a lot of things along 25 years in terms of having uh how to make a business work while you're sourcing for the federal government and also how to avoid some of the pitfalls that I fell into early on and be glad to share that with your listeners and I appreciate you so much for having me on I watched you I I I try all I got your little notification Bell on so I see all the new videos that come out I've been watching you for a while so I'm excited to talk to well I'm super excited because you're in this area of sourcing and I'm pretty confident that there may be some who are watching that are like what is that because it's not really a term that you hear often on YouTube videos or Instagram or other places so break it down for us Jerry what is sourcing what does that mean I'm going to contrast sourcing from sell okay because to with the federal government you don't sell them any okay they're going to buy what they want to buy you're not going to go in there with a blue widget say I know you like blue widget said I want to show you mine they're going to say we put in our offer exactly what we needed and that's what we need so sourcing is the flip side of that coin the federal government puts out the uh proposals for a quote or rfqs request for a quote and that we find on sam.gov and they name the equipment in that uh solicitation and they also give you the specifications for it so if they want a blue widget it will say blue widgets only so I contrast selling people ask me if I sell to the government I said no I really don't I let them buy from me rather than selling so that that's kind of a funky way of contrasting sourcing and selling I know a lot of people say well I'm not a sales person you know I I'm just not a salesperson and maybe they uh are already in business and they do sell or their product is sold outside and maybe they don't sell it maybe they have reps that we sell but the small business person can s s for the federal government and not have to worry about selling but there are a few Keys we'll get into those when they're further down the road yes and could you give us an example of something that you source for the government yes we currently have seven to eight National contracts with the government where we Source a product for them and when they issue these contracts are typically for a period of 3 to 5 years and they're mandatory contracts so if they buy one of those blue widgets and I have it on contract and they have to buy them all from me and let me back up I'm speaking of the Department of Veteran Affairs I'm a veteran and my socioeconomic status quote unquote my unfair Advantage is SD V USB so we have contracts for optimol equipment uh everything that would go in an ey doctor's office from the chairs to the the examination instruments that he has various ones we Source uh safe patient handling equipment we have that on contract safe patient handling uh can go from everything from uh wheelchairs on up to ceiling lifts where you have to lift someone out of bed and then our portable lifts I actually my daughter is totally disabled as results of her service uh and 1993 and we just recently ordered from the VA a um automatic lift that will lift her out of bed allow us to take her to the bathroom or into the shower without two people struggling to lift her and get her so we Source safe patient lifting we Source uh opab olic equipment we have National contracts for dental equipment all the little hand tools are going to dentist office uh we have I have have had contracts in the past for point of care items such as uh the carts that the nurses roll into your room and get your meds out of I've had contracts for those so the the VA over the past five years has gone a lot to these National contracts and it just keeps him from doing H so many RFQ for the same thing over at over and uh but yeah we we Source custom furniture for the government uh there are there's a company in Michigan that makes Custom Cabinets for hospitals they're they're really pretty wood cabinets made out of Walnut or cherry and there are VA hospitals and military hospitals around the country that want to spruce up their rooms while they're doing a remake of the hospital and so they'll they'll order these cabinets they might order 50 of them for one for each room and we are the sole source for those K which is another term we'll talk about like soulle sourcing very yes it's definitely important and hearing all this I imagine man do you have some like Amazon style Warehouse with cabinets and carts and dental equipment and you know do you have where does all this come from do you have a warehouse house who's providing all of these these items I do have a warehouse but 99% of all the items that we deliver to the federal government are drop ship so I never have to touch and the the by drop ship I'm you that's where the manufacturer ships it to my end so and that's so nice I I used and may think how many years ago this is 50 years ago I owned a business that was a an appliance store washers dryers you know refrigerators and I I had to have a warehouse to keep all the washers and dryers and all my refrigerators in and had to make sure that I kept replenishing that warehouse so I didn't sell out of items m in 1981 I had an IRS on and I'll tell you the end of the story first they didn't find anything but it was about six months of drudgery going through every piece of paperwork where I bought brought stuff in and I had to show up where it went out and then had to show them the receipts they were on me like white on rice after that audit I decided my perfect business will be little or few or no employees because that was another big deal the employees they really went deep into emplo no receivables and no in now that's the perfect business and I come as close to Perfection as I can just like with my wife I think she's Perfection but I know I've come pretty dog on close and so my business is the same way I do have receivables uh the good thing is the receival are from the Federal Government Federal Government pays yeah don't do any collection unless there's a breakdown in the system they're going to pay you every time there are a few exceptions where somebody in their warehouse forgot to count something and we have to ask them to go back and recount very few so I have uh no inventory receival from somebody that's always paid and I do have employees but they are commission drien so I'm not paying they're like uh subcontractors of mine they're commissi driven they make a sale they get a big part of that com of our gross profit on that item and the company gets the balance so that's my business model it's CT it's not a pair of shoes that fits everybody let me let me me you you forgive me if I use some uh odd terms here I'm kind of a philosopher wannab be but business and I I believe this sincere businesses are like a pair of shoes you know you go into the shoe store KY and you will find a pair and those are beautiful mhm but if they don't have them in your size hey they don't work they hurt your feet and even if you buy them it's still not going to work they just set on the ship businesses are the same way uh they might look good our business model might look good but if it doesn't fit who you are or what you're currently doing and that business model is not for you and of your viewers the people that are already in business they have a business model current and that you know they are structured they they know how they get the product how they take it to Market they may change their Model A little which change is always a good thing but may they may change their model a little when it comes to government uh sourcing for government product but uh that that's the business model I developed a long time ago a bad experience with the IRS and uh I decided I'm going to stay with you because that was only uh you know just my paycheck uh to audit and uh I don't have any inventory I do carry inventory let me back up a minute I do have a warehouse we have about say 2400 square foot Warehouse next to our our office I carry inventory for a local VA oh okay fville Arkansas they don't have enough storage space like when covid was ramping I bought them disposable trays disposable food trays that are OneTouch trays and basically the people in the cafeteria never touch them they if they do they have gloves on but they put the food on it then with their gloves they set it in the carrier that brings it to our rooms which is another good product to sell I might add the the nurse will roll it cury in the patient takes it off consumes the food and then puts it in a disposable a recyclable bin which they roll in so touch very very sell them by nobody with their hands a couple with gloves so anyhow they wanted to buy they needed a lot of those so I bought several pallets of these and I'm able to store them in my warehouse deliver as they need them and they really appreciate that yeah I I can imagine that they definitely appreciate it and we have a lot of hand sanitizer we bought back the early covid days which is still in our warehouse we're looking to to make somebody a good deal on some of that but uh you know we try to move out old inventory that I try to Warehouse very few things unless it's for a local V and for those who are just starting out you know or if you were to put yourself in their position if you were to start all over again today what kind of advice can you offer to all of our amazing gocon winners out there who are like I want to get Government Contracting well let's define starting out I'm a big user of rabbit holes I want to go pretty far down that rabbit hole here see what's at the bottom uh first of all you have your viewers that are already in business and want to start out selling to the government from their existing business maybe hopefully their existing products then you have your viewers that are not in business yet but want to start sourcing for the federal I spent a little time preparing some high tech Graphics yes that uh I think they will appreciate now I live in Arkansas and we don't have a lot of Uptown stuff okay but I'm proud of these graphics and this is the first thing I would re okay I I might have to stole my wife over her scribbling she really didn't do this I did I like to blame her business plans you have to have a business plan you need a business plan for your government business just like you need a business plan for your current business then you must learn how to use your resources very very important and I'll go into a little detail on that then you need to seek advice from those that have done it or those that know something about what you don't know none of us are keepers of all knowledge some of us have lived a long time we won't talk about those but let's talk about using resources anytime someone comes to me and says I I do some Consulting on a personal basis mostly sometimes on a business basis but and and they say Jerry I lost my job but what do I need to do use your resources look at yourself first what experience do you have but more just as importantly who do you know people you know are important and if you know somebody that has sourced for the federal government go set down talk to them buy them a cup of coffee or invite them over just they're not going to worry that you're a competitor CU a federal government Marketplace is so humongous y'all will never see each other in the market uh so I would say that's one reek first of all your personal knowledge about business maybe uh about the product you want to source for the government and then resources another resource that is so important a lot of people Overlook if you're not selling a product that you produce let's say you're starting to sell for the federal government for the first time excuse me I use the wrong word starting to source for the federal government for the first time MH and you're sourcing medical refrigerators that's something that we we Source on occasion you need to know what a medical refrigerator is and I would recommend that if there's you know a nurse or somebody works in a hospital or somebody works in a doctor's clinic talk to them say hey y'all have a medical refrigerator and if they do you need to go look at it make note of what brand it is how big it is if it's built in or not built in then if there's a VA hospital in your community or within reasonable driving go to that VA hospital or Military Hospital same s if you can get on base Center and you can if you make prior AR range uh to go to military base you typically will have to call ahead and you may have to fact some some information about copy of your driver's slice uh and the purpose of your visit but try to go look at these refrigerators here's a big word in set to and that is uh I think it's Latin means in place in the situation but go look at it where it's being used and talk to the you after you do that you can come back home and say I know what they need now and I've got a brand name I can do now often times in the solicitation a request for a quote they will name a brand name but then right after they name the brand name it will say or E very important because if that brand name manufacturer doesn't want to deal with you because that's say he just won't quote you for some and you can go to his competitor and find a competitor that makes a refrigerator that meets their exess means and quote that so resources you most of us have resources everything and so you did kind of my first advice just starting out is take an inventory of your resources and then start looking for other resources that you might bring into your uh world for that the the the other thing one of the resources that's so important when you're first starting out in the government business regardless of your already and sorry for the Hightech PCH yes procurement technical assistance center I had to think about it I just always burn to okay but each state has a p every state has one and they are wonderful people their only business is to help the person that wants to to source for state and local and federal governments that's what they're there for they realize that the government bureaucracy at whatever level can be daed so search for Pac in your state or just search for Pac and that takes you to the National website you click on your state and there is one of the greatest resources you will need starting out and I still use Pac 25 years after starting I I seldom a month goes by that I don't call and answer the question and they're you know they kind of know me now uh so they're always act like they're happy to hear from me they answer my question and if they don't know the answer they have resources were ven the other order written right here on this the Bolton board I guess is process it's important that everybody that sources for federal government understand the process cess of doing it I I like to bring my family thing my my son-in-law would worked for Tyson since I don't know 20 25 years ago a Tyson chicken which is headquartered nearby our location and they trained him on uh some computer programming uh software he come home one day and he says well I'm learning their processes and I said you know not not being the keeper of knowledge I said said what are you talking he says jurry everything is a process and I said really he said yes putting your shoes on this first you got to find the shoes then you got to check see if you got socks are on and so on and so so everything's a process the government has a different process than most of thees meses we deal with every and Pac is a can help you understanding process how you ship them how how you invoice them how you get paid where you know do you get check or you get electronic funds into your checking Camp it's all a process that the government does differently than most what I refer to is domestic so that would be my early probably talk too long on that that's my early recommendation for people that wanting to start in the no that's that's terrific because you have to have this moment where you come to terms with what is really needed to be successful even if you've had a business whether you're starting out whether you're thinking about it whether you're looking even a partner with someone and form you know partnership and you have to begin that's it you have to start you got to start and and learning you I want to really emphasize learning those processes are key because it also will minimize aggravation frustration and overall stress because they have their own ways it's just hands down how it is and I also love the fact Jerry that you still are learning and that you still ask for assistance I have two superpowers I've shared with you offline my first superpower is curiosity I would and and I mean that in every way I was over curious just like a little kitten and I'm always curious about everything and that lead you to learning and that's so I want to learn more my other superpower is stupidity I don't have all the answers ever so I have to be willing to recognize I need to find those answers from people smarter than I am on that particular subject whatever wherever it is and uh I think those two superpowers go together so you you know you need to learn and you're curious about learn so let us talk I I love I think the one mistake a lot of people making businesses failed to start think about it you can watch YouTube for months and months but you have to start and here's a bit of my phos my one grandchild by the time she was I'm going to say four I taught her this uh is a profound statement and I'll explain that nothing happens nothing happens until someone does something it's also uh a a rule in physics that you know an object placed in rule or placed in a stationary Position will remain there till it a force is appli my wife expl my this is my second wife and uh right after we were married she pointed out my socks on the floor and I said in the afternoon I said well yeah she said you know those won't be moved until a force is applied to and you're going to be the force I learned right then that she was right you know you got to apply a force before something happens nothing happens before somebody does keep that in mind if you're trying to start up in a bus change and what are some other mistakes that you have you know maybe experienced or you're like oh my goodness please avoid this at all cost that you can share with our amazing audience there are a lot of those I could share but I'll just try to highlight one is never argue with a contractor yes do not do that you don't get mad around your money and that is hard to learn I had a hard time learn because for some reason I thought well if I got mad enough he was going to change just the SE they're kind of like Baseball umpires ain't going to happen though what you need to say they be extremely nice and curious and humble may I have made over the years several Contracting officers unhappy with me now they're only each they're probably 20 25,000 Contracting officers Federal some two or three you would think wouldn't hurt you but I've seen their names come up several times over the years I wish I hadn't got mad with my money so ex be humble if you don't win it you learn something from it that's the price that you pay uh by when you lose or fail I'm Excuse yes that's that's a price you pay for your learning when you lose try to always be nice and perf I guess the second most often mistake that I've made and I'm glad glad to say it's not so often these past 10 or 12 years I wouldn't read everything in the solicitation and a for instance is and I'm I'll tell one on someone else although I've been just as guil uh about 2008 my local hospital VA Hospital ordered about $200,000 worth furniture I bid on it because they're only 12 minutes from me some gentleman in New Jersey bid on it Al he won the propal for $600 out of $200,000 over my bid but he did not read all the solicitation on you know these solicitations they're short well I wouldn't say a lot of times they run 42 pages that just say be a magic number 42 pages and it's and and and a lot of it you do get used to because it's kind of baller plate far regulations that they refer to but there's a lot of detail in that solicitation maybe on about page 12 it said vendor must be present on day of delivery uhhuh see it was a big deal for me cuz I'm only 12 minutes away he was in New Jersey two bad things happened first of all the day of delivery the hospital was waiting on someone to carry it into where they wanted it up and down the floors that's the reason they wanted the vendors to be there so they could help place the furniture inside was delivered in the morning and in the afternoon we had a big Thunder and all that furniture was ruined cuz it set outside because there was no one to put it in that's a fact so the government has options they always have options something everybody needs to keep opt uh one they go back to the vegar and and tell him he's at fault and he's got to replace it at his cost or B they can say this doesn't tastes good but we're going to eat it and reput it back out for B which is they chose option too and uh so I got the bid the next when everybody back out for bid you know $600 wasn't too much to ask rather than losing $20 some th000 so read the contract I remember in the when I was in the eighth grade a teacher of mine that was two of the happy she may have been three but read the question rtq read the question well read the solicitation because it can cost you money and another way it will cost you money for instance is on shipping depending on who you're sourcing mhm sometimes they pay the shipping the government will and sometimes they won't they will not pay the ship so you have to know who's going to pay the ship it may not be a line item on rf2 so if you just quo the line item he wants 10 of these at $10 that's $100 I'm going to charge you $100 but then you read down later or you fail to read down you're responsible for the shipping or fob destination which means your respons and you've got a maybe six years or $70 that ate up all your profit and you lost money on a $100 bid so shipping is very important so youve got to read the uh solicitations and learn to highlight the parts that you need to read you'll after you review a few of them take yellow highlight highlight you know just highlight them KN that you've got to read that over and over and one more time before you send off that is fantastic IC advice because you definitely have to read the offer read the quote so you don't end up like that gentleman from New Jersey you know I I know we lost out on a very big contract vehicle because yours truly did not provide signed contracts and so the contract officer disqualified us and it's it's my mistake I didn't read it I provide yeah and you sometimes those uh that learning tax is what it is well I'll tell you one that's larger than yours that I did oh no I signed a fiveyear contract for purple widgets okay to deliver and the gross number on that contract was around $18 million that was the amount of product that's going to be delivered over five years wow when years truly price that contract I did not read my solicitation so I gave him a price let's say now we're talking $18 million I gave them a price that was 3% so wasn't such a large contract I quoted 3% over my cost not too bad 3% of $18 million but in the solicitation another page or two down that I found out after I was awarded the contract I had to pay the government a 3% processing charge in addition so guess what like that's that's a pain I'm in pain processing that oh yes but I've learned since I pay I mean I got a good learning as they say here in arkansaw for that right there uh did Jerry and and also so everyone has an idea if you can share kind of on average you know what is what is your business bringing in or whatever number you feel comfortable sharing so people have an idea of what this I'll give you a five year a okay it's a little more accurate we we've done a lot more than this this year but just taking the last five years we do about $5 million a year in government sales uh but because we've acquired these contracts over the past three years MH the uh our average if we just looked at the past three years it's probably closer to seven and uh it's going up because these are mandatory contract which are not easy to get I will say getting a mandatory contract probably you're going to have to get established in the arena of government sourcing because they're really trusting you to deliver all this even if you lose money they Wen deliver it okay and you don't you say you never want to uh not do a contract you never want to say well I wouldn't I was just titty I don't want to do this because if you do you'll never get a another so you have to take your medicine and smile so that's what we do we have uh I have two inhouse commission people mhm two out of house by our house I mean they live in another state or whatever but they they've been with our company one of them is an independent rep so he sources several companies I'm just one of the companies he sources for and when he finds an opportunity and we are awarded then P she gets paid from us and then I have couple office people three office people I think County myself and you mentioned about you know being a philosopher I would love to hear just a little bit more about this business philosophy that you were sharing before we started recording if as a businessman I do have a partner in my business and Allen is so important to me he's the brains I'm the looks you know it's you got to use your tool belt right you got to have theux you got to have it first day he came on as CEO of my company he and I sat down and talked of course we talked a lot prior to his control but he made a statement that I just cannot forget he said jar business moves at the speed of trust and it does if your employees or your partners or the people around you don't trust you it ain't going to work so you and if your suppliers uh or your customers again be they whoever they sense that you're not trustworthy it does not above all you've got to be good to your word and be trustworthy even if it cost you money so that's the number one piece of philosophy I would encourage everybody to remember business moves at the speed of trust and I appreciate Allan saying I guess I've kind of touched on a couple others one other uh one other one is and this is Allen also never get mad with your money unfortunately I had done that priority Inc coming and I may have done it once or so in the last five years but I am I have learned to smile and be hum being humble is something we all need to Le yes and another one we no one is the keeper of all WR some of us think well I've done this so long I know everything about it and you say this but I know that we the best listen you know uh who was it Ross fro uh Bab predate a lot of your viewers I don't know but I remember when he was running for president he said he was all ears because he had big ears naturally that's the way you have to be in business you have to listen listen listen and there in be the solution to all of so that I think that would be the top three business uh philosophies that I would tell you oh I've got one more Everything That Glitters Is Not goat H and the go government business is not a Gable they are not just up there to give us money you have to ear the money and it's something you said earlier offline you must add that if you don't add value why they going to do it h they may do it once or twice but so you have to realize you should always be adding value any products that you source for the federal government and that value can be the value of ongoing business where you've been in business quite a while and they don't have to worry about you uh not you know they can look at your history that value can be that simplifies their Acquisitions because uh you know you have uh processes set up to make this acquisition go slow so some value is invisible other uh others are tangible I I love that it's such great advice because the objective is stay in business stay in business provide whatever it is that you're providing whatever you're sourcing be a success so then one day if you want to sell it or you just want to retire you want to pass it on or you want to do something else you have choices options yes yes you always want to have an option yeah in business you have to plan for those things just don't happen they're plan for right Success is Not does not happen quick it may take you I mean you can make some money in the short term it's depending on how you define success but making some money is not my term of success because I have something I'll got to do with that money and it doesn't stay very long but M uh making a successful business probably will take uh two to five years then you'll kind of say okay this is going to run even if I don't show up know because I've got enough my customers like me and I've got enough of them half of them leave I'm still in business which that's probably or if my partner decides to leave or whatever you could breathe easier after that period of time but you got to know it's it's worked to build a business especially in the early years and would love some kind of closing remarks for our amazing gocon winners anything that you haven't shared that you wanted to share or something that you wish I would have asked you that I haven't asked you know KY the falling back on my 50 I've been in business for roughly 50 years of some sort or another you know PES business I bought sold airplanes for quite a while I I've done a few different things in life the most one of the most important things in this that I knew uh preco and I'm starting to do again is I like the meet the people I dos I like if I sell something to a VA in pul Sal home or Kansas City I like to go up be there when it's Del Liber shake the people's hands let them see a face and next time I talk to them on the phone guess what they feel like they know you and you know they and maybe more importantly are your uh manufacturers that you deal with if you're buying to consistently when from a manufacturer it's so important to either a go to their home office and meet the person you're talking or B go to a trade show that they're going to be at and that's why I'll ask what trade shows do you all achieve and if there's one close to me you know with 300 miles or so I try I would try to attend that I haven't done that in a few years because Co but you tried to attend that trade show show them you're a serious business person and let them get to know you and and you get to know them better CU that really greases the skids from that time on I think meeting the people you do business either on the the uh customer side or the your supplier side where it be a manufacturer or District I've I like to go and meet and I think that's important it just makes an impression that they don't foret and very few very few people do MH so you want to be set yourself apart that's the way to do just like I did with my graph you did you're constantly setting yourself apart I mean that's why you've had such success and you're always delivering you're humble it's clear how caring you are and you know I would be remissed if I did not also thank you for your service to our amazing Nation I'm just so grateful for that and I'm just I am beside myself that you're here today and that you shared so so many nuggets and diamonds and oh my goodness you shared so much that I really hope everyone you comment below of course you're subscribing hitting the notification button going to govcon winners.com but more importantly that they're looking to put everything into practice so that they start right that's what I really hope that they get from this let me add one last thing yes yes I'm a big YouTuber and being the uh I digest a lot of I don't have anything on YouTube not yet I I have learned thank you I have learned that hitting the like button is so important and it costs the viewer nothing but so many times that I'm just as guilty as everyone else you just go to the next video but by hitting that like button that gives more data to YouTube and they'll keep you or keep this video up longer on the first page and so other videos come up so if you like KY I do and you're a golc winner then click that like button and I also hit the notification and I don't do that veryy I think I probably got five people that I hit the notification Bell so you you are chosen well I'm very honored so honored and thank you again for everything that you share Jerry thank you thank you thank you thank you I appreciate you having me maybe we'll see you again okay awesome and don't forget all my amazing dcut winners everything is possible