The Small Business Set Aside Program is a Game-Changer for GovCon Startups

Randal Wimmer, GCA Founder

Only 21 of 24 government agencies met FY21 Small Business Set Aside Program goals for all Set Aside categories leaving billions of dollars in earmarks on table.

MCLEAN, VA, USA, September 21, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- With Trillion-Dollar budgets, a massive economic stimulus package, and a continuously growing list of National challenges, the Federal Government will be depending upon government contractors even more. Without question, large stalwart government contracting companies will be ready for the growing opportunity. However, large businesses fulfil less than 75% of the Federal Government prime contracting demand.

The remaining demand is met by small businesses as part of the government’s Small Business Set Aside Program, requiring a constant flux of new small businesses to enter the market to replace businesses that are graduating from small business status. Although the US Federal Government grades its performance as an “A” on the FY2021 Small Business Procurement Scorecard for meeting small business set aside goals, the actual data isn’t as comforting.

Only three of the 24 government agencies, or 12.5 percent, that fall under the Small Business Set Aside Program met their prime and subcontracting goals for each of the four set aside categories. These set aside categories include woman-owned small businesses, disadvantaged businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses and companies within historically underutilized business zones. The source of data is the FY2021 Small Business Procurement Scorecards listed on the Small Business Administration’s website, SBA.gov. As such, billions of dollars in set aside earmarks are left on the table each year due to the inadequate number of qualified small businesses in each set aside category.

Government Contracting Academy LLC (GCA) was launched to help prepare GovCon startup founders launch, competitively pursue, and execute government prime contracts and subcontracts. GCA founder and CEO, Randal Wimmer, is both a successful serial GovCon entrepreneur and former executive with L3Harris and Unisys, having won approximately $2 Billion in government contracts. As an entrepreneur, he was the founder and CEO of Analytic Strategies LLC, managing partner of Secure Enterprise Analysis LLC, partner of A3IS Inc, and co-owner and Board Director of PlanetRisk Inc and PlanetRisk Federal Inc. He has been recognized on both the INC 500 Fastest Growing Companies List and the Washington Technology “Fast 50” List. His family-owned nonprofit organization received the President George H.W. Bush Points of Light Award, our Nation’s most prestigious award for volunteerism.

Being a former naval officer and large business executive, Randal states, “Former military and big business experience does not immediately translate into small business success.” He continues, “These senior leaders are taught to be train engineers, capable of driving a mile-long train along established tracks. A startup founder is driving a beat-up Ford Pinto with a bad clutch and no map which can be simultaneously terrifying, exhilarating, and extremely profitable!”

Randal continues, “I stepped on nearly every startup landmine when I launched Analytic Strategies. I was desperate for knowledge but couldn’t find the relevant, actionable information that I needed in any MBA program or book at Barnes and Noble. I had the drive and passion to launch a company, but I couldn’t learn what I needed to know to be a successful GovCon entrepreneur.” Randal’s first startup, Analytic Strategies LLC, took nearly eight years to win its first prime contract. After learning how to be successful as a government contractor, Analytic Strategies experienced near-vertical growth until it was ultimately acquired in 2016 for 8-figures.

Having a very low cost of market entry, the Federal Government contracting market is one of the best industries for veterans and first-time entrepreneurs. Randal launched GCA as a Social Impact Company to consciously and sustainably serve these two communities. “I founded GCA to compress my 8-year long learning curve into months for veterans and aspiring entrepreneurs,” Randal states. GCA provides a comprehensive “Believing-to-Bidding” curriculum that that can take a motivated entrepreneur who believes in themselves to competitively bidding on government contracts in a short period of time.

Although GCA's curriculum focuses exclusively on business, it is completely different than what is taught in an MBA program. The GCA curriculum exclusively addresses the GovCon industry. For example, GCA does not address accounting theory. Instead, it teaches how to perform a cost workup in a pricing proposal while showing how to continuously increase profitability during the contract period of performance.

Similarly, the GCA curriculum does not cover marketing. Instead, it teaches how to create effective proposal win themes and competitive discriminators to maximize bid scores. Furthermore, GCA does not use business textbooks. Instead, it provides lesson plans that are tailored to the FedGov contracting industry as well as a myriad of business tools, processes, policies, and other GovCon foundational documents. It also provides numerous sections from successful proposals to illustrate the culmination of various proposal activities.

The other differences between GCA and an MBA program are duration and cost. The GCA program is self-paced but is notionally a six-month program that can be completed while working full time. However, the program is designed to enable the pursuit of subcontracts within three months! The cost of GCA is also approximately an order of magnitude less than the average MBA cost of $66,300 according to the Education Data Initiative. However, initial GCA candidates are considering Top-25 MBA degrees as alternatives. According to the MBA Watch website, www.PoetsandQuants.com, the average cost to obtain a Top-25 MBA degree is around $195,000.

GCA’s website is GovernmentContractingAcademy.com. From this launching point, an aspiring entrepreneur can learn how to enroll in Government Contracting Academy to pursue their GovCon startup goals in the rapidly growing FedGov contracting industry to win some of those unawarded Set Aside earmarks.

www.GovernmentContractingAcademy.com

Randal Wimmer
Government Contracting Academy
+1 703-798-7743
Coach@GovernmentContractingAcademy.com
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