I spent 20 years in the Air Force. I was putting companies on contract with my contracting officers. People just aren't aware that the government has to buy from small businesses.
But yeah, less than half of 1% of small businesses are actually selling to the government. Just have to understand how the government buys what you sell. I have never bought something from somebody because of a set of size. I cared about who can solve my problem. I mean, I can remember the savvy companies would always ask me that and I'd help them.
Hello, all my amazing GunCon winners. We have a special treat today. We have Ricky Howard here who is a retired military member and I'm going to let him share more about that and he has a DOD contract academy and I'm telling you now get ready because you're going to want to watch this all the way to the end. Thank you so much for being here today.
Thanks Kizzy. You've got to share with us about your military background and your connection to acquisitions because I as much as I love it and as much as I've been in GovCon for 15 years I have neither. Well, a considerable amount of about acquisitions and federal purchasing.
And if anyone does go check out my podcast, you are one of our most popular guests on that episode. So you can look for Dr. Kissy Pox on the website or on the episode links. But yeah, no, I'd be more than happy to talk a little bit about my career and everything and see where the conversation takes us.
Well, definitely, because I know that there's a lot of veterans who. wonder, like, what do I do after I retire? Or can I really go from being in uniform to getting millions of dollars of contracts?
Because I heard about this service disabled set aside thing. Please share with us like your experience and how things really work. Yeah, no, we can definitely hit that up. Yeah.
So I spent 20 years in the Air Force. And first half of that was flying. And I got some flying memorabilia behind me.
I flew intelligence surveillance on a Constance aircraft. So 9-11 kicked off when I first came in. So it's So that was, I mean, I was pretty much deployed for that first 10 years flying missions. As I went through and, you know, met my wife and whatnot, we ended up switching.
So I switched careers about halfway through and went into acquisitions. And acquisitions is the profession of putting companies on contract for anyone that's not familiar with that. And I'm sure you talk to your audience a lot about, you know, who actually buys in the government. I always tell people, you know, 99.9% of people you talk to in the government probably can't buy.
what you're selling. Depends on the product or solution, but especially in the military, we have an acquisitions career force. So we have contracting officers, which have warrants, and they are the ones that can legally put you on contract.
And then we have program teams, program managers. I was a program manager, and they're the leaders of the acquisitions effort. So for a company, whether it's a small business selling cybersecurity solutions or landscaping, or maybe something bigger, like we're building satellite technology, weapon system technology. You're going to have a team and a program manager in charge of all of that. So that's what I did.
So I was, you know, putting companies on contract with my contracting officers, managing those through the life cycle and got to do a lot of different things, like a lot of technology development and a lot of foreign military sales. And I guess one of the things that I noticed when I was in is, although I wanted to put small businesses on contract, they had very innovative solutions. So, you know, we need big companies. We do for a lot of things, but we're talking about them.
Whether it's an innovative technology, and we have a lot of the MIT startups out there, a lot of the, you know, companies that have just developed something really interesting, or even just a service provider like a landscaping company, it's the small businesses that are willing to adapt, especially with military purchasing and Department of Defense purchasing, you know, they were willing to adapt to what we needed, you know, make changes, they were really motivated to work with us. I mean, it was really easy to take a great technology with them and work with them on exactly what we needed. But very few small businesses were actually even aware that the government was behind what, you know, they sold. Because most people think weapons and bullets and things like that.
They're not thinking about accounting services or legal or, you know, construction or, you know, a lot of those things. So I wanted to get out and start helping some of those small businesses understand the process, understand that the opportunity is there, teach them what they really need to do to win those contracts and stuff. So I retired and started my consulting business and the podcast.
And then we met and here we are. So. Thanks for having me on.
Well, of course. And I love this because you hit on some very important areas that there are things that the government wants to buy that need to be flexible, as well as knowing that the government wants to buy. Because some people don't know, I think you said something earlier around fewer than 1% of businesses sell to the government.
Could you kind of elaborate? And I don't have I don't have the figures in front of me right now. But one thing that's very different about the way the government makes purchases and about federal spending is that it's all public knowledge.
It's we call it the public sector, right? So Everything the government does, with the exception of some classified stuff, but even most of the classified things they're buying, that contracts themselves aren't classified. And so all that is publicly available information, and there are a lot of different websites you can go to to kind of look at that.
There are some paid ones you can. But at the end of the day, we know how much the government spends each year, who they're spending it on, like what companies are on contract, what they're buying, how they're buying. who's buying what. In 2021, the last numbers I saw, it was around, it was a little over $150 billion that the US federal government spent just on small business contracts.
So just with small businesses. Now, and by the way, over half of that was Department of Defense spending. So the reason is the SBA actually has, they have projected percentages of the contracts that every government agency is going to be initiating.
that they have to meet for small businesses. It's usually 23% or greater. So meaning, hey, Air Force, 23% of your spending has to be on small businesses.
So most people just aren't aware that the government has to buy from small businesses. It's $150 billion just in over that just in 2021. $80 billion plus of that was DOD. And it's for everything that you could think of.
We're not just talking about weapons and stuff. We're talking about every service, social media, you know, advertising. I mean, If you name it, I could probably find it and tell you how much they're spending and what you could potentially reasonably make, depending on what your specialty is. But yeah, less than half of 1% of small businesses are actually selling to the government.
And we know that because we know there are over 33 million small businesses in the US. And we know exactly how many small businesses sold to the Department of Defense and other government agencies in 2021. So it's just a math drill. So the bottom line is you have a huge, huge problem.
pool of customers out there that most people just aren't tapping into. The reason for that is, you know, knowledge, you know, that it even exists. And federal procurement is not commercial sales. It's just, it's a completely different process, which is why people watch your YouTube channel and go to you all the time, you know, and people listen to our podcast. It's, it is a different process, but it's understandable, you know, and because of all the information out there, we just have to understand, you as a business owner, just have to understand how the government buys what you sell.
And that's That is why, because a lot of companies are overwhelmed when they start looking at all of it. Some of them have an idea. They think that, you know, they might see sam.gov and think they, oh, I see all these solicitations.
I'm just going to start writing proposals. It's not quite the way it works. So, you know, it's easy to either assume, make assumptions and fail or just to get overwhelmed.
And what I'm trying to do, I think what you're trying to do, at least in part, is just to make it simple and say, hey, this is this is the process. Let's. have some understanding on, you know, what to expect.
And these are the steps you need to take and you can be successful too and win some of those contracts. Yes. And what is the first step for someone to take, especially if someone is a vet, what should they do?
Yeah. And by the way, I have a lot of thoughts on what vets can be doing when they get out of this. Because there are, so there's different set-asides, like you mentioned, right? We can talk about those. I can tell you, I have never bought something from somebody because of a set-aside.
So don't Now don't get scared if you've been going through 8A or trying to get your woman on small business or SDVOSB, because those things can help you, right? But it's always the solution first, right? So I always, when putting my government hat on, I cared about who can solve my problem. So if I have a technology that needs to be developed to solve something, whether it's small business or other, who can solve that? Landscaping services, who can do that?
Like prove to me that you can do the work. Now let's talk about, okay, you're a service disabled vet, right? So I'll get into that in a minute. But, you know, the first question you ask is, hey, what's the first step?
First step is, does the government even buy what you sell? Why even bother? You know, and by the way, they almost always do, right? So first thing I tell people is let's figure out how much the government spends each year on the product or solution or service that you provide.
And then we can, you know, there are, I think it's over 300 criteria that get published on most of these contracts. So, you know, we can take it down and start saying, okay, well, if the government spends, I'm making these numbers up, right? Because I don't have...
the thing in front of me, but you know, we can go, okay, well, the government spends a billion dollars, let's say in landscaping services. All right. How much of that's on small businesses, right? And you can say, oh, well now 600 million of that is on small businesses. Okay.
Where is it? How are they making the purchases? So we can get pretty granular and kind of get an idea. We can look at competitors.
We can get a really good idea of what you can expect to make once you get the ball rolling. So that's the first step. Do they buy what you sell? Kind of get an idea of how much you think you can make each year.
Look at some other small businesses, if that's what you are. And then from there, it's. obviously you have to register your business, but it's putting a roadmap.
So the way I take people through it is if they buy what you sell, let's figure out who's buying what you sell. Let's focus on one agency, one or two or three agencies, depending on how big your team is, if you already have a company, and then start looking at the purchasing mechanisms. Do they use GSA? Do they compete?
Do they do sole source contracts? Do you qualify for a set-aside? Some of these set-asides.
can, you know, if they're not familiar and who's buying what you sell. Now I'm focused on how they make purchases. Just if I do, usually you don't need a GSA schedule unless you're selling, you know, maybe office supplies or something, but we can see what the percentage is.
So we can look in and I can tell you, Hey, in your category, GSA, which is a contract vehicle, essentially that you can apply to be on. And it takes roughly six months or so. You don't want to, you don't want it. You don't need to be on here unless you need it.
Right? So if we saw that 80% of purchases in your area was through GSA, well, that might be part of your plan going forward. That might be in your roadmap. If I see that 20% of purchases go through GSA, you don't need it. You don't.
I mean, the facts speak for themselves. So we know that, or maybe it's what you sell is wrapped up in bigger contracts, which would indicate a subcontracting plan. So I want to know what, and you want to know what the plan is for what you sell.
And once we have that, once we know what maybe contracts we need, once we know if we're going to be involved in competitions or if they're. There's a lot of sole sourcing that goes on. Set aside usage, we can see all the numbers.
Then what we want to do is find opportunities, right? But, and this is different than maybe what, well, your audience probably knows this, but you know, a lot of, I guess you could say one of the top complaints that I've heard from businesses that would approach us is, hey, Rick, I've gone to sam.gov, I registered my business. I see these solicitations for whatever the industry is. I'm writing proposals.
I'm not winning anything. It's all rigged. These solicitations look like they're written for my competitors, and it's obviously rigged.
And the thing is, it's not rigged, right? But those proposals probably were written for your competitors. And I know that maybe sounds contradictory, but what we want to do is we want to, and how I help businesses, is we find opportunities ahead of the solicitation.
So when you get to the solicitation, the point that comes out, you just need to understand that there's a whole phase of acquisitions that comes before that called the market research phase. And it is the most important phase for any company, any company to be in if they're selling to the government, you know, and I do have one client I sell their software licenses and stuff for. And I can tell you, I'm in that I'm solidly in that market research phase. And that's where, you know, we kick butt and take names because I picture it like this, sorry, describe it. When the solicitation comes out, the handcuffs are on, right?
So an acquisitions team has to be extremely careful not to show any preferential treatment to any business. Once the solicitation's out, which in the solicitations, a request for proposal, a request for quote, it's like, hey, we'll stay on landscaping services. I need Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts needs a three-year landscaping contract.
And here are the requirements. Proposals are due in two weeks, 10 page, whatever it is. So that's a solicitation.
But at that point, if you ask me as an acquisitions officer, if you ask a contracting officer any questions, if they even answer you, it's going to be probably... through a post in SAM.gov so everybody can see the answers. Because if they have a conversation with you at this point, well, now you're potentially getting preferential treatment that other companies aren't getting.
Maybe you're getting information. And the way everything's written is it's once the solicitation comes out, that's when a lot of that goes into effect, because now you have requirements, now you have something that's out there. But in the market research phase that comes before that, if you have someone like me that's the program manager, and let's say that I'm in charge of the landscaping contract for the base, I don't know anything about landscaping. You know what I mean?
My job is to put companies on contract for the government and manage those. And that's program management and contracting. And that's the skill set, right?
So, and by the way, I and my counterparts over there, they have a hundred things to put on contract every year, right? This is not their skill set. So how do they find out what needs to be in the solicitation? That's market research, right? They're going to reach out to businesses.
they're going to say, because we do remember we have those 23% or better typically has to be with small businesses. So I want to know things like, can I set this aside for a small business? In order to do that, I have to know that there are small businesses out there that can do the work. Can I set it aside for a woman-owned small business, right? Well, again, I'm not going to do that unless I know that it's typically two, I want to say is what the regulations say, but I need to know there are a couple of small businesses out there that are woman-owned that can at least do the work before we're going to set that aside.
And you know, Of course, the reason is we don't want to duplicate the work, right? We need to be efficient as we can when we're putting someone on contract. But I also don't know, hey, what's the latest in technology?
What are the best mowers out there, right? Is there something, maybe I have some type of environmentally friendly clauses I need to work with, or maybe there's a machine out there that is better for the environment, right? So there's so much that they don't know. And that's where they're either doing their own research or companies are coming in. Savvy companies are finding out because they know that contract, maybe the last one's expiring.
So they're in my office. I'll put my hat on again, right? They're in my office saying, hey, I know this contract's expiring. We're a small business.
We have this environmentally friendly lawnmower that reduces emissions and blah, blah, blah, blah. By the way, we can also do. So now what you're doing, what these companies are doing is they're influencing what is going to go into that solicitation.
It's perfect. It's perfectly legal. It's perfectly legitimate.
It's not rigged. You know, even if I want to hire that company, it doesn't mean I'm going to. But what it means for that company, what it means for Kizzy's landscaping company is, well, hey, she just talked to me.
Maybe she was the only one, right? Maybe she responded to a request for information. And now, because she responded to that and had said, hey, I'm a small woman-owned business. I have these environmentally friendly machines that do X, Y, and Z. And I confirmed that with my team.
Well, now when the solicitation comes out, it's set aside for a woman-owned small business. I have a requirement for these machines that, you know, are environmentally friendly, which maybe 99% of the other landscaping companies don't have. And I mean, hey, maybe she has certifications that she recommended.
Now I'm putting those in there. So anything that you can get that office to put in there eliminates competition for you. So now only women-owned small businesses are going to apply. And if they don't, they have to partner with one, you know, a company that's not a women-owned small business.
You're just much more likely to win now. You know what the requirement is. You've talked to me and my team. You've suggested things and I know you and I probably like you and it's fair as we want everything to be. Well, of course, Kizzy, you're very personable.
So of course, you know, the teams like you. Yeah, but you can't, it's hard to eliminate the people out of the process. In fact, people, the people is everything in this process. Okay. And I so love this and I know people listening, like their minds are like, whoa, because there's so much here.
And I love all of this because you've highlighted how. the process happens way over here. It's not even on the screen, right?
Exactly. Oh, I see it on Sam. There's so much more that happens. I love the emphasis on the market research because what he shared, what Ricky shared, I've done that. I've watched other companies do that.
I learned from my mentors to do that. And it happens all the time, even if somebody is working from home. There's still someone reaching out to emphasize, oh, well, we use these special machines or we have this special license. And then next thing you know, when that procurement comes out, it emphasizes these things because somebody took the time to really market themselves.
And it's great. And then the other piece is you have to be likable. I mean, some people may be able to get away with it if you kind of fake the funk or you offer something that's so specialized.
But. Nobody wants to work with a vendor who's like, not like a Grinchy type. Right.
No, no, you're right. And it's federal acquisitions isn't known for being a fast process, right? Unless we're, you know, doing something like OTA or SBIR.
So more than likely, if you're trying to push a deal through, you're working with that program office over a period of time. So they're getting to know you, even if it's during the bidding process, the RFI process, you're having meetings with them. They're getting to know you.
They're going to know if you're reliable, if you do what you say you're going to do. Even as simple as, you know, showing up for a meeting on time or sending them, you know, a white paper when they request it. Depending on, you know, the technology you're selling or what your solution is or the capability statement.
So, yeah, I mean, there's a lot that goes into it. But the relationships and the meetings and all of that are critically important in the market research. And, you know, it all comes together.
It's so key. And I love that you talked about the responsiveness. Like if somebody sends an email, you're immediately responsive or if they ask for a white paper.
I mean, these are the things like the biggest thing is follow instruction. Yeah. Period.
If you struggle with following instruction and don't get me wrong, like I hate rules, but I can follow instruction all day, every day. Right. You pass and follow instruction. If they say 12 point font, Arial or Times New Roman, do not use anything else other than that.
No. Say no phone calls and don't call them. You know, as they say, you know, that, hey, I'm open to market research, submit for market research.
And then this is when you call them. You never know. Absolutely.
Absolutely. The only caveat that I would put on that is for solicitations, like you are a million and one percent. Right. It's like you can't get a page count.
You put an extra page in there. That page is getting thrown in the trash. Maybe the whole solicitation. Right.
If you're not if you're not following, you know, the criteria that they have in there down to the letter, you're you're giving them reasons to. either grade your proposal poorly or to not look at it at all. And in a competitive environment, you don't want that. But if we take a step over into the market research phase, I would still say you're 95%, right? I mean, you still want to follow the rules and not piss anyone off.
Because again, for that exact reason, it's about people and relationships and influence, right? But you do have the ability there. You're not being graded on the RFI response or the sources sought solicitations.
proposal. There's a couple that are in a weird category. I'm going to get into that right now.
But for the most part, we're talking about they're just doing market research. So I would still follow all of the rules. But if they don't ask me, and this is just my personal technique with my clients or me, if they're not asking me, and they might not be for how I think they should put it on. contract, or if they're not asking me for the environmental machine, right, they might not even be aware that exists. I'm going to put that stuff politely in there, right?
Like, hey, a couple recommendations. You know, if I was on GSA, I might say, you might use GSA to put this on contract. Or if I had another contract vehicle, like a NASA soup or ITES, or you name it, you might, you know, consider these mechanisms for putting me on a contract.
If I was 8A, I would absolutely, you know, some of these certifications allow for sole source contracting, which is putting someone on contract without a competition. It's pretty difficult to do as a contracting team, unless you have a reason. So that typically that's reserved for you have the only solution out there that we can put on contract, right? So that's rare, right?
Because, you know, we live in a big world. A lot of people have a lot of, you know, different things. There are some unique... technologies and whatnot. But anyway, you can make it easier for the government to put you on contract, you want to let them know how you've made it easy for them.
So you could be 8A, now you're letting them know, you're letting the contracting officer know, hey, you know, I could satisfy an 8A requirement, and I could put you on contract a little bit easier. Maybe you have another contract with that agency, right? Like, hey, I'm on contract already with Air Force Research Lab or Hanscom Air Force Base, PEO, C3INN, I'm on this contract. Well, they might have a way to get to you. through that contract.
So there's lots of different ways. But if you have anything like that, you know, you can recommend it. Or if you don't be like, hey, I recommend an open competition, because you don't want this thing to get set aside for GSA if you don't have any of that. And you can recommend that too.
So I do like to insert some things there to make sure that I'm trying to get them into the solicitation at the end, but only during the RFI sources part of my research phase. This is where it allows companies to really, this is where you really highlight your differentiator. Those lovely differentiators you want to throw on your capabilities, put on your website, or tell your family.
This is where they come out about the equipment, or the background of your team, or the partnerships that you have. I know for some opportunities they love it if you're connected to HBCUs, or to certain colleges, or they love that maybe you're connected to like a Google. They love those kinds of things, and this is where you emphasize that, or if you have certain certificates.
They will love this and then it can definitely start to shape that potential opportunity, really giving you a leg up. So instead of being frustrated, man, this is set aside for my competition. Now it's kind of set aside for you in some ways.
And it happens. It's happened for my clients. It's happened for my businesses. And it just, it can definitely happen by putting in the work. That's what's key.
No, it really is. It really is. And then of course, once you're on contract, I always say the easiest way to sell to the government is once you're already on contract, because now you have a relationship in place.
You probably have a contract in place. So regardless of what you sell, hey, you have some area there that, if it's a landscaping example again, that this isn't being done over here, maybe we can add that to the contract. Or hey, you can always have the conversation and see if there's any need.
And then you can ask them. You haven't anyone you can recommend to me within, you know, in other offices that could use our service, if it's our cybersecurity services, you know, everyone needs them. I mean, I can remember the savvy companies would always ask me that and I'd help them, you know, I'd be like, hey, you know, my buddy over here, you know, has something coming up or maybe you should look at this contract vehicle. Or now that you mention it, I wasn't because everyone's busy, right?
They're not thinking about your next sale or your or your QBR, right? They are thinking about mission. If it's the military, what the next thing is on their plate on the government side. But if you ask them, they'll start thinking, they'll pause to think about it, especially if they like you and they think you do good work. They're going to they're going to help you out.
So, I mean, there's a lot of work to be gained while you're when you're on contract with the government, too, just by talking to people and having those conversations. Which is excellent to hear because there have been I know some of my students had the mindset of just like, oh, it's the government. I have to be very proper. I have to just come across like as this ultra business owner. And, you know, you just reinforce what I shared.
And it's we're all people. Right. And that's what's important is we do business with people as long as you have the solution that is needed.
And that's what's key. Yeah. Agreed.
Agreed. What is something that those watching today could immediately do besides, of course, going to dodcontract.com and listening to your podcast at DoD Contract Academy. I mean, of course, I'm a guest, but in addition to that, on the podcast, he has amazing information because Again, one of the reasons I have you on here, you're a retired lieutenant colonel, you're a pilot, you're in acquisitions.
These are all things that we see in the movies or maybe we have like cousin, cousins, cousins, cousins. But none of them, I mean, I have no connection or background to the wealth of knowledge and experience that you have. And, you know, grateful for you, grateful for your service. And so please. Everyone go to these places, DODcontract.com, check out the contract, DOD Contract Academy podcast, because you bring all this out, not just from yourself, but from all of your guests.
And the way to keep growing and growing and growing as a business owner, especially in this space, is to continuously learn because it's not just, this is how things are done. And then that's it. Like there's this constant learning.
Yeah, no, I'd be happy to point people in the right direction. And then I do want to say I was a navigator, not a pilot, so I don't want all my aviator buds going, hey, man, what you trying to do there? But no, I had a great time flying.
But yeah, there's a lot of free resources that you can check out, right? So whether it's your channel or the podcast or whatnot, and certainly there are paid resources as well, and you can find those on probably both of our websites, I would imagine. But I would go to usaspending.gov to start out because that's a free website.
that walks through how the government is spending. And you can start taking a look by year. You can look by keyword. So you can start, you can go by NAICS code.
So there's a lot of different criteria, which is a North American Industry Classification Code, but it will help you out. You can start typing in whatever it is you specialize in, accounting, and it's going to pull it up. And then you can start looking at that.
Okay, well, how much is the government spending by year? And you can look at the agencies. It'll also list them out in order.
It's not going to give you the contracting office, you know, and that's, you know, something that, you know, I help people walk people through, but it gives you a start. So now you can start going, okay, well, maybe the DOD is who I'm focused on, or it's the VA, you know, you can start looking at who's actually doing the spending, see how much of it's occurring each year. And that's going to give you a good inclination as to whether this is for you, right?
Is there an opportunity there for what you're selling? You know, because there are some things that the government buys, but it's in there aren't $20 million contracts out there, and you're going to see that, right? A good example, we had a documentary film company as a client, right? And they came in and we started crunching the numbers for them. And at the end of the day, the $20 million contracts weren't out there, but they could still expect to make, we saw $100,000, $200,000, $300,000, $50,000 purchases from the government.
And it was more than that over time. So they could expect a $100,000. additional line of income and that's all they wanted, right? But if you were in it for, hey, potentially I want to build up to those bigger contracts, well, you're going to get an idea if that's the case for you or not. Right.
Which is good to know because often the size of the contract doesn't necessarily dictate your profit margin. Right. As time goes on, I mean, that's key is profit margin and cashflow with your business.
So it's great that you mentioned that. I mean, hey, documentary companies can get government contracts pretty sure that. you know many of you watching the same applies as well as there are those who are like look you know my main line of business is hair care products but I'm on the world so now I sell cyber security and there are people who have gone off and done things like that or the background is just drastically different than the business that they set up and if that's what someone's interested in it's great to do that I know I did that I'm a have a PhD in psychology and most of what my main businesses, my government businesses do now is really become a lot of staffing.
In reality, it's a lot of it. And it's like, hey, why not? You know, it's something of interest. Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, part of what we do with our higher ticket courses or offers where we have a five week launch program now where, you know, one of the first things we're doing is developing the niche for the company.
And, you know, when you really get into the details, and this is what's amazing about about selling to the government is There's so much information out there. As long as you know where to look for it, you can really have a high probability of being successful if you go about it the right way. So, you know, if you take something like an accounting firm, right, you can go in and start looking at, well, you know, maybe, you know, you're doing bookkeeping or something along those lines. And, you know, when we dig into it, we see that because you can see in some cases how many offers are coming in on average as well. So when we look at the numbers for.
Small businesses winning those type of contracts, we may see, well, hey, there's a little bit of money there, but there's a lot of offers. It's highly competitive when we see how many offers are coming in. And then we may look at tax preparation services and see that, oh, well, on average, you're only getting two or three offers per solicitation. Now, when you get down to that granular level of detail and you know the office, the exact office, the name of the people in there that are doing the purchasing, the path becomes a lot clearer.
It becomes a lot more manageable, especially for a small business. And yeah, I mean, that's it's really important. So that's where I would start.
That's where I push people. USA Spending, it's a decent website for a government run website. Fairly, fairly easy to understand.
It definitely is. And these are great first steps. They're easy first steps.
Help build that confidence. And again, I thank you so much for being on here today, Ricky. And I want to reiterate again, everyone to please go to dodcontract.com. Check out DOD Contract Academy podcast, which is great. If you're traveling, you're working out, you're at an airport, listen to a podcast.
You're always welcome to go to profitablecontracts.co. I've always have a free download for all my amazing GovCon winners. And again, I just want to thank you so much.
And if anyone wants to connect with you outside of the website or the podcast, what's the best way for them to do that? So they could send me an email. richard at richardchoward.com and they could also check me out on linkedin if they look up richard howard and slap a lieutenant colonel retired at the end of it they'll they'll find me on there awesome well thank you so much again you gotta subscribe y'all gotta hit the notification button like share all of those amazing things and don't forget everything is possible