On the side, he brought in over $100,000. I'm projected to make twice as much as I did with the government as a GS-14 Step 7, and I'm only halfway through the year. When I'm not sleeping, either I'm working for the government or working for me. Keep your ears open.
What are they asking me for? So one full-time year, he already received an award. Amazing GovCon winners. I have someone beside me here, I mean, digitally, who I have known personally for over 10 years.
Mr. Alder, who is now the head of ALD and Associates, as a full-time government employee on the side, he brought in well over $100,000. You and both. Mr. Durr, welcome to the channel.
Thank you for the opportunity. Take us back. How is he able to work full-time and bring in over $100,000?
So I did 28 years in the Army National Guard and had an opportunity. to serve both at the state level and at the national level. On the national level, I held a number of different national positions overseeing kind of the enterprise stuff for the Army Guard diversity in our EO program, the sexual assault prevention and response, suicide prevention.
I did some work as an Army implant where I was working with the HG to RGC, meaning people on active duty, transitioning back into the reserve components. And then I retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2013 and had an opportunity to kind of transition. One day I left my office in a uniform and the following Monday I came back in a suit and tie. So I felt very fortunate to do so.
I did that for about almost nine years. And then some transitions happened and I had a chance to go back to some of my roots in recruiting. And I did the recruiting piece about a year and a half before I made that decision. So there are many out there who maybe can relate in many ways, right?
Maybe served our amazing country. Maybe they work for the government. When did you make that decision?
Okay, in addition to being a full-time employee for the government, I want to do something else. I want to potentially grow a business. So in my role in the government and military, I had an opportunity to do what I loved. I loved to train. I loved to engage.
I loved to create content. Serves as, I guess someone would say, an executive coach, even though. And I was coaching people that were probably two or three pay grades above me. But I had a breakfast opportunity once with a young lady and asked me, why am I still working for the government?
And I told her my salary and she said that I'm selling myself short, basically. That I had a lot to give and that versus looking at an organization at $350,000, let's go nationwide. It was at that point I started the business.
And by the way, that young lady happens to be Dr. Kisney Parts. Right after I started the business, COVID-19 hit. So.
was really dormant and I was saying to myself, thank God I didn't quit my job. I continued to work and I did some things for free. As I was working with people who were encouraging me, I had an opportunity to sit on a podcast with Draymond John and I was actually one of the featured businesses. And one of my military mentors said, you need to go and do this the right way. You need to go to JAG and you can get asked permission to have outside employment.
So basically I just asked for a JAG review. Is it unethical or illegal for me to do outside employment? And these are the things that I'm going to do.
And the response was, as long as you don't do it for the Department of Defense or the government. So I was able to, right after the George Floyd murder, there were a number of companies that knew me from some of the conferences I spoke at. And asked me to come in as their in-house consultant, basically on a retainer. So I was able to do that after I got the letter. And then I was teaching at George Mason University.
Was taking leave every time I left. Because one of the things you want to remember, you want to maintain your good standing while you're with the government. So take all the precautions. Do what you need to do in terms of getting legal reviews because you always want to be above repro. Because one day you want to come back at work.
Then the other piece, there's a thing out there that many people don't know about as federal employees called max leg schedule. And my leadership allowed me to say, all right, we will grant you max leg schedule because I made sure that I gave the government back their time. So if it meant that I'm sending emails at one in the morning or five in the morning.
what I was able to do with the max flex schedule is as long as you work 80 hours during the pay period and your supervisor is good with it, you can pick the hours that you work. So even if you work on Saturdays doing administrative stuff, you just go into your time card and put in, I did eight hours on Saturday. I mean, I've never been a government employee.
I'm like, this blows my mind because then it allows so much flexibility. I mean, no wonder you're able to grow your company. I mean, how many years did it take?
Because you went out, so was it? several years, several months? How long did it take? In 2019, I really don't count that as a year because that was a pandemic. But in 2020, I was able to do a couple of like little webinars and the webinars were only an hour, maybe two hours.
And it was then and done. So I took leave, even though I had that authority, I just didn't want to be on the clock. And again, it's about self-preservation and also credibility. And you're right. reputation.
So I took those two hours of leave and I had a lot of leave to burn because as a government employee, I really didn't do anything, only I just worked. And I'm glad I had all that banked up and then you do well, they give you a bonus and then they give you time off as well. So I was getting 40 hours a year extra time off and I was just using some of that time. But then it came to a point where as I began to do more and more, people began to ask.
And then I went in and started to do certifications. Now, let me tell you, it was a funny story about getting my service disabled veteran on. small business. As I was doing that, I was still working for the government. A lot of people would tell you, well, you can't get it while you're working for the government.
That is not true. Because I got mine when I was a full-time employee. And one of the questions that they asked, because I was honest and I disclosed that, and they said, well, how can you manage your business full-time?
My response was, when I'm not sleeping, either I'm working for the government or working for me. Right. That's it.
So I was able to get that. And then that was the birth certification. And then with the state, I'm SWAM certified as well. So I went in and got a minority business enterprise with the state of Virginia.
And then once I got that, I wanted to do work back in Seattle, Washington as well, because that's where I'm from. Originally, I live in Virginia now. I was meeting with someone from SCORE. And that's the other key thing is you don't know what you don't know. So you need to ask someone or keep your ears open when you say things because they'll give you the answers to the test.
And I was able to transfer my LLC from Virginia. to Washington state and still have it based in Virginia, but it was like a foreign domestic LLC. So now in the way that they explain it, think about State Farm Insurance. Those insurance companies don't have an LLC in each state.
They have one and then they register in all the other states, as long as you make sure you understand the tax stuff. So that was kind of the beginning of that. And then going home, people knew me back there when I was there in the military and also a trainer. I was able to kind of gather business there as well.
So. Going home was an opportunity. I was paying basically for people to find me home and be able to see me. I get tongue tied because I'm just so proud and so excited because things don't have to take time.
You don't have to work another 5, 10, 15 years and then, oh, I guess I can. No, I mean, it happens so fast. And I love the fact you took the ethical route, which is vital to do. You went back to where you knew and know.
You've received contracts there. And And also, I want to dig into something, too. You talked about, oh, I did some things for free because there's this mindset of don't give away too much because then what will people pay for?
You need to be booked and busy and you need money. So, I mean, I don't take that perspective, but please share what was the benefit of doing things for free? You know, that concept when you go to Costco, they have samples.
And then people who probably would have never bought that product had a chance to sample it. Oh, that's good. I'm going to go buy some.
During COVID-19, because I didn't have the branding yet, it was important for people to see me and know me and get a sense of how I present or how I conduct the business. So sometimes you give those what I call appetizers so that people can really work on their appetite to maybe say, hey, I want to bring this individual in to do work with my organization. Or I like what he's saying.
You don't do everything for free, right? And there are some times that you may have a product that you think is worth a lot more. than they're willing to give.
You have to meet where they're at. Initially, I worked with one, I subbed, I was a contractor for one organization and they really paid me miserably. And then my response to them is like, you know what, I'm gonna accept that because I'm gonna bet on black.
I'm gonna bet that when you see me and see what I can do and your clients see what I can do, they're gonna want me. And then when you call me back, you're gonna have to pay my full rate. And then they did, right?
They absolutely and some. And that's such a good lesson because it happens. Or even if it seems like, oh, it's a small contract, it's a half-time position, it's 500 hours, it's two trainings. You never know. It's just like the Costco.
They get to experience you. Next thing you know, they've purchased $1,000 worth of pizza rolls and they don't even like pizza rolls. Right.
Love that free sample. So the part-time turns into a full-time. The two or three courses turns into... five years worth of courses. So you asked me the question, when did I know it was time to leave?
Yes. I was sitting there and I'm getting more and more calls and I'm burning out my lead. And as I was going over my accounting and looking at the books, I'm projected to make twice as much as I did with the government as a GS-14 step seven. And I'm only halfway through the year.
I think I need to go. So ethical thing was give proper notice. and I gave a notice of, I gave him 60 days. And the first question, did we do something wrong? Not at all.
But I just want to pursue other opportunities. I'm very grateful for the experience. Leave graciously because again, there's always an opportunity to go back.
But prior to leaving, I would share that one, really begin to develop your network with the people that you know, people that have seen you do things. Make sure you get those phone numbers and emails and you keep them. Number two, social media, LinkedIn. Instagram, Facebook. A friend of mine told me, Al, you know, you've worked in this industry for a long time and some people have touched 10 or 15 lives.
We believe you've touched thousands. So all you have to do is like every day email 10 people. Hey, this is what I'm doing. Just go into your LinkedIn, send them your capability statement, a little bit about your business, your website, and, you know, let them help you carry the ball.
And that's been very helpful as well. Some of the contacts and networks that I've made over those 28 years of military service are serving me well today. And then the other thing is, you know, do it the right way.
Again, do not, and I repeat, do not do your business work at your government office. Don't do it. Have a clear line of clearly delineate what I do for me and what I do for the government.
Because those things and there's ways they can check your computers and check and you don't want to do it. At all. And you want to make sure you're using your personal device or devices. That's the other thing. And this even goes for privacy.
Don't mix the two. Go if you need to just buy a $200 PC, whatever you need just to be able to get to the point like Mr. Dirt, where you're like, oh my gosh, it's time to go. Look how much I'm bringing in.
Because you're so busy getting the word, doing the work, growing that you don't even realize, oh my gosh, look at where I am. And here's another valuable lesson. Dr. Parks had asked me if I could do something.
And I looked at my schedule and said, no, I'm booked. I'm not available that day. And she said, okay.
She went away. A couple of, like a month or two later, she says, so let's go back to that event. Asked you if you were able to do it. I wasn't talking to you.
I was talking to your business. Ah, so as you begin to develop your business and bring people in, you don't always have to be the one to do all the work because then it goes back to that old saying, are you working for the business or the business working for you? And at that point I was working for the business. So then I began to find people who I thought had credible skills and I further developed them.
And I took a little bit of a loss. on my profit to develop them so that then I could let them run free and do it on their own and then benefit fully from them doing their work versus me being there as well. Because what often happens with early stage entrepreneurs, what we focus on is doing all the work and doing business development. And I can't stress that enough. You have to continuously, because when those contracts run dry and you did them all and you turn around, it's like, what's next?
And there's nothing there because you did them. That is such a gem and it happens so fast where it's like you're winning work, trying to win work, but then they want you and you have to convince them, but wait a minute, you know, Juan, Barbara, Sherelle is just as good as me. No, no, no, no.
Yeah, I'm sure they are, but we want you. So how do you get them to also accept these other people that they're just good, if not better than you? And that's a great point because what you're selling is not yourself, you're selling your product. right now. If you really, really, really want me, then I'm going to throw out a crazy number.
And if you really, really want me, you'll pay it. It's funny. I've said, okay, I'm a thousand bucks an hour. Really? I will make time to be there.
But the word of the thing is, I think if you talk about a brand, your brand cannot be me. I really want people to stay with ALD and the services, not Alder, right? Alder is kind of the CEO who runs the business, develops the business, but it's the members of my team.
that are the business. So when we talk about a brand and we talk about excellence and we talk about being tactically proficient and knowledge wise, they come in. I don't just bring anyone on my team as well. This is not a family business. I'm not looking for my kids to run behind me.
And it's like, because it's not their, not their vision and not their dream. But I know people that are out there who want to make a difference and who have great skills. And it's my job to find them.
Right. And that allows you to scale because if not, otherwise you've just built. a job for yourself and it'll get to a point where it's overwhelming and it becomes also challenging when there's changes, whether it's changes politically, it's a pandemic or who knows, some type of personal change. It's always valuable to have that pipeline and your team. So then you don't have to worry about, oh, am I going to have new work or how am I going to be able to pay the bills?
So I'm curious, what kind of work are you going after? Oh, great question. Right now, a lot of our work has been rooted in diversity, equity, inclusion, and leader development. From the, I guess, the climate, the temperature in the water has changed.
So what we've done is, and one of the things that we focus on largely is agility. We pivot. And right now we're a business transformation HR consultancy, meaning that we focus, and that doesn't mean that we threw away diversity, equity, inclusion.
And by any means, that's still a very important program. But we also do strategic planning, program management, change management. policies and processes. Keeping in mind that DEI is embedded in all of them.
We just have to call it that. We don't have to force feed it. So within our team, we have people, I have a couple of As a strategist, I have some analytics people because I'm not really great with numbers.
And we sit down and we just have conversations, right? We sit down on a weekly basis and just think about what's out there. And one of the things we came up with is the article, white paper we'll be putting out soon called Stop Counting Numbers and Start Making Numbers Count.
And it speaks to how people are looking at creating equitable environments, but they're looking at it from a DEI lens. It's important that you must cultivate the soil so it can grow everything. Because if the soil isn't cultivated and you bring in that diversity, it's not going to be able to thrive. It's not at all. And what type of agencies do you go after?
Because I believe not only do you have state, federal, but you may even have some private sector work or you're even subbing to a billion dollar government contractor. Yes. You did your homework. So our first client was a private sector working in the, I won't say their name because they work in personal security.
So. They were my first ones and I helped them to develop their strategy, helped them to establish their own DEI committee. I mean, that was my first major contract and that was back in 19 and we're still at it. I mean, 20, 2020. And then the other ones that we looked at is I've done things with the state, attended a public instruction, instruction, department of corrections, done work with large hospitals, as well as the American Board of Internal Medicine. We've done stuff with, believe it or not, like floor and decor.
I mean, it's a wide range. I mean, you know. We don't discriminate when it comes to being able to sell our services.
And then we're doing some work with some of the federal government agencies, FAA, HUD. We've done some work with the VA. And I've also done work with municipalities. You never know where any of these coming from. And those municipality offerings came because I volunteered to do an emerging leaders session for Prince William County, one of the local chambers.
And from that led to, wow, this guy's good. The participant went back to their organization. they were able to get me in the door.
We did training for them. And then we were then nominated for a number of chamber awards. And I'm happy to announce that we were the 2023 recipient. That is tremendous. You know, in less than five years of being in business.
And only one year, only one full-time year. So one full-time year, he already received an award. It shows you what's possible.
It's fast, fast, fast. It's not, has to be slow and hard. It can be fast and easy.
You never know what will come from an opportunity, never discount an opportunity. Love the diversity of the type of agencies that you're working with and the rebranding. That's key too. For some, it could be maybe someone's only selling Samsung phones and then you decide, oh, well, I can sell medical supplies, right?
I mean, the same applies whether it's a product or service is being mindful of the market. Like there are still some people that might buy. a record player or a DVD player or a CD player while the vast majority are listening and watching on a phone or a device.
It's just that now these companies that were thriving in the DVD area, they've pivoted over. So you've got to keep up with all of the changes. That's why it's good to be in that position where you're leading the business and not constantly trying to catch up, catch up because you're doing all the work. So I want to hear about proposal writing because, man, I really hate it. I you there was a time I really loved it now like oh my god I'm so over it walk us through how did you get through that like you're working full-time and you're working on proposals or even after that like talk to us about proposals well you know it's funny that you should say that because I hate it still do but it's a necessity I initially tried to write a proposal one of my friends said look here's the bottom line there's an art and a craft to this you need to find help you may have to invest and you may take some losses But with those losses, you're going to get a product that hopefully you can work with in the future.
It's an initial investment. You have to learn how to do it. And then once you do, you know, because who would have thought I would submit a 60-page proposal?
Oh, my God. And you put the graphics in. And then the other thing is about proposal writing is it's about understanding the RFP.
What are they asking you for? And are you answering their questions succinctly, thoroughly? Because they give you the answers to the test.
This is how we're going to score you. Right. And then other times when you read a proposal, you have to understand the game.
If a proposal opportunity comes out and has a five day turnaround, I typically stay away from those because typically somebody has already been identified for that. And I don't want to put myself on that team because when you go into a proposal writing period, it's like you have binders on, the doors are closed and you just grind. You can find different proposal writers to help you anywhere ranging. I was lucky.
My first one was $55 an hour up to $200, $300 an hour. depending on what you're going for. But remember, if you have a network of other, what I call consultants, I call it my strategic alliance. We work together, you know, we kind of bond.
And that's another thing. When you come into this game, there's strength in numbers. So sometimes they're looking. for certain certifications that I don't have. So I told my team, if we don't have it, we'll find someone who does and we'll partner with.
And there's no shame in that. And also find larger companies who are getting these contracts and ask them if they need help and that you would love to serve as a sub. I probably have two or three teaming agreements that are already out there that we're going after stuff.
And that is horrendous. And they pay for the proposal writing. F, see the proposal.
Now we're out of it. That's the best part. They're paying for the proposal writing. You get the actual document.
So then you get to see, oh, well, this is what a Fortune 500 company submits for a proposal. That's what I did in my early years to build our database was just doing a lot of that. I don't know about you, but I found that, I mean, there were some things that I was definitely taken aback by and I'm like, oh, that's a good technique.
But by and large, it's pretty similar from even what you were doing before you met them. Right. And it's funny because when you think about, we all have these grand thoughts of, oh, we're going to make a lot of money. Okay. So look, I'm glad that money is important, but also I hope that the value that you bring and the product and the pride behind it stands out as well, because there are times where the government has a kind of setup that you're going to be limited to 10% profit margin, but that's okay.
But think about 10% on a million dollars, not too shabby. But one of the things that I've noticed that I had a struggle with my first year was rap rates, and I know we won't talk about that now, but profit margins and how to pay people, but then making sure that I got paid too. And sometimes they'll say, well, you know, if I'm paying $180 for this position, I may only offer the other person $90 an hour to do it because I have overhead. And guess what? I took a bunch of losses before we even came into that wind and I have to recoup some of that.
And that's what it's about when having a business. There's nothing wrong with paying someone a livable wage or rate. so you can make sure you have your profit.
There's nothing wrong with that. There's different formulas. There's different ways to go about calculating one's rates.
But it's taking that in consideration because he invested time and energy into proposal writing. And let's say you add on, you have a subscription to let's say Microsoft or to other platforms. These are all business expenses. So then when one wins some type of contract, there's a portion that should be able to hover.
all of these expenses. Because just like with McDonald's, those fries and shakes and ice cream when the machine is working and burgers is covering everything. The CEO's vacation, right?
Hamburger University there in Chicago. I mean, it's covering all of these things. And so it's the same mentality.
It's just at a different level. So glad that you mentioned that. Talk to us about, especially in the beginning, where did you go to find these type of opportunities? One of the things, Sam. And I know SAMS is kind of a hard system, but you really need to do that to get your unique identifier.
And also there's classes on how to use. I set up searches because I could spend hours looking for things, but that wasn't working for me. So I was able to get some instruction. One of the places that I went, you know, talking to people like Dr. Parks and other observable businesses that said that business development is a very large part of the business.
You cannot be totally inundated by it. So be smart with your time. Imagine if your time was money, would you just throw it away looking at, you know, I can go into Sam and it says 327 opportunities, but maybe only 60 of them were applicable to me.
Look at our simplified acquisitions, small business set asides, and set up my search based off of that. Some days I may only have five or six opportunities and they may not even align with what I do, but that's okay. I did my search and I walk away.
There's other ones that I subscribe to is GovWit. That was a little pricey, but. But again, what that does is it gives me an opportunity to look at long range.
So I don't have to always jump through hoops now. And it's so much easier to put things together if you have an opportunity three or four months. Are they telling you that this particular opportunity will be available in nine months?
And there's an incumbent. A lot of people get discouraged. Oh my God, there's an incumbent.
I'm not going to go. They're going to get it again. First of all, you don't know that. And second of all, reach out to the incumbent now and say, hey, do you need any support? And this is what my company has to offer.
I don't have a problem reaching out and calling people. and having these conversations. I mean, you have to be somewhat assertive with these opportunities and just look for a chance to say, you know, again, they already have the contract.
You know, the worst they could say is no. You know, if you look online, some of these organizations have industry days. Going to industry days, some of them will have webinars on how to do business with them. And then they have a matchmaking opportunity that you have an opportunity to do your spill.
Joining your chamber, looking at your SHRM membership. A lot of memberships for these are connections and people, even though they may be competing with you, but they may want to align with you for opportunities as well. Or they may be competing or aligning today and they still want to align five years from now.
You never know where it's going to take you. You know, we had someone reach out a couple of years ago about some work that we have. And. And then they recently called when we won the re-compete and once again offered their services, which I love.
And we are now looking into partnering on a completely different opportunity. Who would have known? But I love how they approached us.
It was just very professionally. They ask questions and they have a skill set that we don't have. So it makes complete sense.
So it's great to do that because you just never know and never assume just because there's an incumbent that they're going to win. It's like an election. Just because there's an incumbent doesn't mean that mayor is going to win again or that school board member is going to win again.
You never know what's going to happen. So what is next for you? What do you intend on doing over the next couple of years? Are you going to? apply once it becomes available for the ANA?
Are you looking to further grow? What are you looking to do, Mr. Derrick? Let's start with the GSA schedule.
We're in the process. The final document should be submitted in a couple of days, and then we'll wait for them to come back and hopefully negotiate and we'll get in. So I'm not going to say hope because hope is not a course of action. It's going to happen.
We started that process, but of course, everyone knows it was ours. and it's going to be positive. But in the interim, they've given us a checklist of what's needed. So we're putting everything together. We're going after 8A.
Once we get those two, we're going to go back to the GSA schedule and find people that are in OASIS. And you know, it's about vehicles. As many vehicles as you can get into, the better, right? Because you don't know which one you're going to need.
I found out in the GSA schedule, a friend of mine took me through his and saw all the opportunities that were available to certified service-disabled veteran-owned businesses. And as you pull back the layers... the number of potential candidates gets smaller and smaller.
I would encourage you to look for those small business set-asides. Look for the woman-owned businesses, minority-owned businesses. Another one that came to my mind was the airport concessions.
And I'm like, why would I want airport concessions? And I had to get school. And versus thinking that you know everything, because I promise you that you don't.
I don't. I know. I can share my experience.
But she says that many of them, when they have these contracts, there's provisions that they have to have, have a diversity plan. I have a strategy and typically so those businesses that are going after those we want to partner with you because you have the same accreditations and it makes them even stronger. You have all the certifications that you can.
Anything that you can do to really create something that differentiates you from everybody else because you know everybody's good. Well let's just let's just say everybody has skills and they're all good. How do you differentiate yourself?
So all things being equal this is what I have now. I moved up the list a little bit. And it's Going after the contract vehicles is totally next level.
It's kind of like a catalog of approved vendors who sell a particular product or service. And because they've been approved, government loves to use these vehicles because it makes it so much easier to buy diversity training, buy Microsoft products, purchase IT staffing, purchase cybersecurity. But in order to get on these vehicles, sometimes you have to have contracts that are in the millions.
Sometimes it's based on... who you team with. There's all these different point systems and it can seem overwhelming.
So especially starting out or within your first few years of being in business, following what Mr. Durst said is key because most of these contract vehicles, the list of recipients is public knowledge. So you can see all of those who are on Stars 3, everyone who's on Oasis, everyone on HCAT, NASA Soup, all of these different contract vehicles because you never know. if they want to partner with someone like you. And it could be that they want to sub to you. Maybe they're looking to sell their business.
Maybe they're graduating 8A, which is a great path for you to pursue, Mr. Durr, is to check out 8As who are graduating within the next couple of years. Because those who are graduating, either they're looking to sell, they've said, I've done it, been there, I don't want to do this anymore, or they still want to remain in business. And- there aren't that many companies really taking advantage of joint ventures as you would think.
And when Mr. Durr gets his 8A, other businesses can partner with him. They can create a joint venture. And then that joint venture becomes a service disabled 8A joint venture.
And it's especially powerful for those who graduated from the 8A program because they may have contracts that they don't want to lose. And I want to just reiterate what you just said, because it resonated with me. Those who are graduating 8A, what a great opportunity if I was an 8A to say, all right, I can now assume that contract. We can all keep, I'll keep your employees. Yeah.
Your employees. So like, you know, they can stay grounded. It's almost like a turnkey operation.
That is brilliant. I love it. I love that.
I didn't think about that. And then, you know, the other thing I wanted to bring up when you talked about doing searches is forecasting. And that's. Yes.
I believe that. When you go, most federal government organizations have what they call forecasting, and it tells you who's spending money, even in what quarter they're spending it, on what types of programs, all based off of NAC codes. So I can go in and look at USDA, for example, and say, okay, forecasting, and then under this NAC code, they plan to have this type of training in the third quarter with this much money, and here's the point of contact.
marketing strategy, I'm going to send them information about me, a letter introducing myself, sharing my website and my services, even before anything comes out. And then I'm going to follow up with, maybe even have a conversation if possible without hurting my chances or eliminating me from the pool. But it's a chance to understand what they're looking for. And it helps you to have something to work toward.
It's like, okay, I know this is coming out. Let's be ready. Let's monitor it.
Let's keep our eyes out for it because you don't know what you're looking for until you see it. But if you know that it's going to be there, then you know what to look for. And those forecasts, man, they're powerful.
That's how we ended up with our first $4 million 8-day sole source was because it was on a forecast. And we did that. We reached out.
We were notified they wanted to have a capability breeze. And then I flew to Maryland. And the rest is history. We've had that contract for 10 years. So.
You never know where the forecast is going to take you. And we've won other work on there. But it's nice.
It's so great to be able to see, oh, they're buying training or they're buying HR, they're buying staffing. Or there may be something on there that you're like, oh, I think I can sell that. That fits in this round.
That's still within our wheelhouse. And it just allows for those conversations. And plus, when you have the set asides, because there's some late breaking information to add to this interview, there is a chance that. the cap will be increased to $8 million from 4.5 for set-asides in the new NDAA for fiscal year 2024. So if that win, I'm going to put win, that is going to happen.
When it happens, that provides so many more options because as you're talking to them and going over the forecast, you can then pitch, hey, you know, I'm service disabled and you can set aside a contract for $8 million. Or I'm an 8A, you can do a sole source for $8 million. I'm woman owned, speaking for self, you know, you can set aside a contract for $8 million. Because $8 million is a nicer value than 4.5.
Because often these contracts are five years. So just keep doing that. Just get ready.
Get ready. There's going to be a part two and three because your business is going to 10x in way less than a year. Oh, it's going to. It's going to 10x in less than a year. How can people reach out to you?
Those who are like, oh my gosh, I want to know more. I want to connect with him. How can they best reach out to you?
If you're on Instagram, I want you to go to ALD underscore associates. The other one is they can go to me on LinkedIn. They're Alfranda. They're A-L-F-R-A-N-D-A-D-U-R-R.
I'm there. or go to ALD and Associates website and you'll find out information. Even if you just want the information for your own growth, come check us out.
And if we can do anything for your business, we want to be able to support. This has been amazing. And I just can't wait for you to come back. Thank you for all of it. Hit the notification button, hit the like button, share, check out ProfitableContracts.co.
If you haven't, until next time, everything is possible. Take care.