Government Contracting: New and Lucrative Opportunities for Small Businesses

1
00:03:35.940 –> 00:03:43.260
MP: Good afternoon, everyone thanks for joining we’re going to give people a few minutes to sign on and we’ll start the program momentarily.

2
00:03:52.440 –> 00:03:56.850
Diane Darling: If anybody so inclined, please put in the chat what you’re hoping to learn today we’d love to hear from you.

3
00:04:30.300 –> 00:04:37.530
MP: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for an MP webinar outlining government contract opportunities for small businesses.

4
00:04:37.860 –> 00:04:46.590
MP: um any movement, the head of marketing here empty, and we are very excited to have three guest presenters here today from the small business association or administration.

5
00:04:54.360 –> 00:05:01.950
MP: Those of you joining us on a webinar for the first time and P, is a full service human capital management company offering a suite of products and services.

6
00:05:02.250 –> 00:05:08.700
MP: Including HR payroll benefits administration time and attendance recruiting and compliance assistance.

7
00:05:08.970 –> 00:05:24.600
MP: We support our clients with cutting edge technical solutions, as well as proactive and reliable service and deep HR and payroll expertise at MP, we are wired for HR and help our clients succeed by aligning their HR strategy with their business goals.

8
00:05:28.320 –> 00:05:36.570
MP: The US Small Business Administration works to ignite change and spark action so small businesses can confidently start grow expand or recover.

9
00:05:36.960 –> 00:05:43.230
MP: created in 1953 yesterday continues to help small business owners and entrepreneurs pursue the American dream.

10
00:05:43.620 –> 00:05:57.180
MP: The sky is the only cabinet level federal agency fully dedicated to small businesses and provides counseling capital and contracting expertise as the nation’s only go to resource and voice for small businesses.

11
00:05:59.280 –> 00:06:12.960
MP: i’m thrilled to introduce your presenters today Peter can talk with diane darling and Caroline Williams Peter serves as the Massachusetts deputy director within the small within the US Small Business Administration.

12
00:06:13.410 –> 00:06:21.750
MP: He is responsible for outreach and marketing activities to promote opportunities for accessing capital counseling and contracting.

13
00:06:23.490 –> 00:06:36.480
MP: diane darling is a marketing and outreach specialist with Massachusetts Small Business Administration she focuses on education and outreach to get the word out on how the SBA services can help small businesses succeed.

14
00:06:37.530 –> 00:06:44.010
MP: And lastly, Caroline Williams, is an outreach and marketing specialist with the Massachusetts district office of the SBA.

15
00:06:44.370 –> 00:06:49.740
MP: She helps businesses and resource partners learn more about SBA programs and services through various.

16
00:06:50.040 –> 00:07:01.860
MP: presentations and Community outreach she’s also worked on the restaurant wi fi revitalization fun and the shutter venue operators grant to help small businesses find much needed pandemic believe.

17
00:07:02.640 –> 00:07:12.570
MP: And, before I turn the program over to Peter, I just want to remind everyone that this program is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as specific legal advice.

18
00:07:12.960 –> 00:07:21.690
MP: And also, if you would like to submit a question during the webinar please use the Q amp a feature at the bottom of the screen and your questions will be answered at the end of the Program.

19
00:07:22.110 –> 00:07:30.750
MP: And then, lastly, a recording of the webinar will be sent out later today, along with the presentation deck and with that I will turn the MIC over to Peter.

20
00:07:32.280 –> 00:07:34.590
Peter Kontakos: Thanks very much amy can you all hear me okay.

21
00:07:35.700 –> 00:07:36.210
MP: Yes.

22
00:07:36.720 –> 00:07:41.250
Peter Kontakos: Okay, great If at any point, for whatever reason, you can hear me well, please just let me know.

23
00:07:42.270 –> 00:07:52.170
Peter Kontakos: amy thanks so much for inviting us back to do another webinar with your group we joined you a couple months ago, for the first time and did a.

24
00:07:53.100 –> 00:08:07.920
Peter Kontakos: SBA overview webinar about our various programs and services and we’re thrilled to be back today, and you know going a little more in depth doing a deeper dive on the government contracting.

25
00:08:09.090 –> 00:08:20.220
Peter Kontakos: programs at SBA can offer so today’s agenda, as is presented here on the slide we’re just going to briefly go over our mission and strategic planning objectives here at SBA.

26
00:08:21.240 –> 00:08:31.440
Peter Kontakos: we’re going to really dive deep into government contracting, and I say dive deep, but we could definitely go a lot deeper so i’m going to try and not overwhelm folks with information, but just really.

27
00:08:32.100 –> 00:08:43.350
Peter Kontakos: provide information so folks can can learn about government contracting get an idea of the programs and services that are available through SBA and across the federal government.

28
00:08:44.760 –> 00:09:00.210
Peter Kontakos: And, and you know just point folks in the right direction in terms of resources and websites and how to do some independent research will briefly touch on some technical assistance at SBA offers through our resource partner network.

29
00:09:01.260 –> 00:09:16.080
Peter Kontakos: And will briefly go over a very popular loan program that SBA currently has ongoing until the end of the calendar year now we’ll have time for some question and answers we can go the next slide please.

30
00:09:23.880 –> 00:09:32.460
Peter Kontakos: Great Thank you so our mission here at SBA just real quick so we’ve been supporting small businesses for over 68 years as the slide says here and.

31
00:09:32.910 –> 00:09:49.980
Peter Kontakos: And the bottom line is we’re here to help companies with with their planning of a business, you know, a business plan before you actually go into business launching the actual business managing that business and then growing that business, we can go the next slide please.

32
00:09:52.050 –> 00:10:02.760
Peter Kontakos: Our strategic planning agenda objectives for the period of 2018 to 2022 are outlined here again at the end of the day, it’s really doing whatever it is that.

33
00:10:03.660 –> 00:10:13.620
Peter Kontakos: You know, is needed for the small business communities at the local state and national levels, really, you know, focusing on entrepreneurship and healthy.

34
00:10:14.790 –> 00:10:18.300
Peter Kontakos: business friendly ecosystems, we can go to the next slide.

35
00:10:21.090 –> 00:10:32.160
Peter Kontakos: The four main areas and SBA supports our free business counseling that’s the technical assistance piece that we’ll talk about later on in the presentation.

36
00:10:33.180 –> 00:10:47.610
Peter Kontakos: SBA does provide a guarantees for loans, so you can work with your respective lending institutions to obtain SBA loans, the lenders work with us, because we guarantee on either some or all of that loan.

37
00:10:48.720 –> 00:10:49.710
Peter Kontakos: And then also.

38
00:10:50.880 –> 00:11:02.700
Peter Kontakos: Disaster loans, we provide a lot of disaster relief typically, for you know, hurricanes and tornadoes and and those types of events but we’ve been providing a lot of disaster relief for.

39
00:11:03.210 –> 00:11:09.870
Peter Kontakos: The pandemic this past year and a half and then Federal Government contracting and that’s the part we’re really going to focus on.

40
00:11:11.580 –> 00:11:17.190
Peter Kontakos: We can go the next slide Thank you so are you ready to consider federal contracting so.

41
00:11:19.500 –> 00:11:35.580
Peter Kontakos: The Federal Government is the world’s largest buyer of variety of products and services, and also the federal government is required by law to provide contracting opportunities to small businesses so just a really brief.

42
00:11:36.840 –> 00:11:45.600
Peter Kontakos: background on that so during the Second World War, and afterwards it was determined that we needed a very strong and robust.

43
00:11:46.650 –> 00:11:53.970
Peter Kontakos: industrial base and small businesses were able to provide a lot of niche products, a lot of.

44
00:11:55.380 –> 00:12:07.680
Peter Kontakos: capability that other companies just weren’t able to provide and so that really helped with the war effort and then following the Second World War, it was determined that.

45
00:12:09.150 –> 00:12:22.350
Peter Kontakos: We really needed to have a focus on trying to support small businesses to elevate them to you know, provide them whatever resources are needed to be able to be successful.

46
00:12:24.180 –> 00:12:28.050
Peter Kontakos: Both in the marketplace, but also to help support.

47
00:12:29.310 –> 00:12:39.900
Peter Kontakos: The war effort and ongoing you know war effort so, and you know transitioning from World War Two to the Cold War, and then you know afterwards in the 60s and 70s, there was.

48
00:12:40.650 –> 00:12:55.440
Peter Kontakos: A transition to in terms of thinking about how we promote and support small businesses, and it was more of a discussion about equity and inclusion and so we’re hearing a lot of that today as well, so.

49
00:12:57.060 –> 00:13:04.740
Peter Kontakos: You know we’ll talk about various socio economic programs set aside programs that are out there, so you know again just wanted to.

50
00:13:05.640 –> 00:13:16.560
Peter Kontakos: To give a sense of you know how the Small Business Administration, you know got started and and kind of how we’ve evolved, you know, in the 68 years since the inception.

51
00:13:17.880 –> 00:13:30.330
Peter Kontakos: So as it’s listed here at the bottom, you know sba.gov slash contracting and provides a very general overview on government contracting and then you can also dive deeper to i’ve got a slide with.

52
00:13:31.380 –> 00:13:40.890
Peter Kontakos: All the resource links, towards the end and as we go through the presentation, you know i’ll highlight some things and again i’ll just you know reference or meant that we have those links.

53
00:13:41.580 –> 00:13:49.860
Peter Kontakos: At the very end of the presentation I didn’t want to put links everywhere on the slides so um but everything is I thought at the very end of the presentation.

54
00:13:50.880 –> 00:14:00.480
Peter Kontakos: So with regards to Federal Government contracting there are goals that the government has to meet every year, and so.

55
00:14:02.250 –> 00:14:19.560
Peter Kontakos: We have what we call prime contracts and subcontract so prime contracts are direct awards to small businesses, they can be directed towards to other than small businesses as well you know, sometimes we refer to them as large businesses, but the technical term is other than small businesses.

56
00:14:21.030 –> 00:14:32.640
Peter Kontakos: The government wide goal across the entire enterprise each year is 23% of prime contracting dollars going to small businesses.

57
00:14:34.050 –> 00:14:51.540
Peter Kontakos: Now, within that definition of small business, there are set aside categories, and these are those socio economic programs I had referenced earlier, so the four set aside programs are the eight a business development Program.

58
00:14:53.220 –> 00:15:01.350
Peter Kontakos: that’s also referred to as the small disadvantaged business programming so within that specific Program.

59
00:15:03.060 –> 00:15:10.080
Peter Kontakos: To be qualified as an eight a firm eight a comes from section eight a of the small business.

60
00:15:11.880 –> 00:15:26.550
Peter Kontakos: You have to be considered, socially, economically disadvantaged and the individual who was considered both socially and economically disadvantaged chess to have at least 51% ownership and control of the business so.

61
00:15:28.470 –> 00:15:46.020
Peter Kontakos: As i’ll talk about a little bit these definitions in terms of who qualifies whether or not you’re eligible bear all laid out in the code of federal regulations, otherwise referred to as the CFR and you know typically folks who are.

62
00:15:48.000 –> 00:15:53.730
Peter Kontakos: who qualify for the eight a program are folks who, at some point or another, have been.

63
00:15:54.780 –> 00:16:03.030
Peter Kontakos: determined by Congress to have been added this advantage to have been discriminated against as a as a class.

64
00:16:03.510 –> 00:16:16.710
Peter Kontakos: And so you know some examples are African Americans Asian Americans, you know, there are more I don’t want to get too deep in the weeds because there’s a lot to it, and if you do apply for the program it’s a.

65
00:16:18.240 –> 00:16:29.580
Peter Kontakos: vetting process that could take anywhere from six months to a couple years, and the reason being is, if you, you know are considered for one of these set asides you do get.

66
00:16:30.600 –> 00:16:39.810
Peter Kontakos: preference for being able to bid and proposal government contracts so so I just want to make you guys aware and that’s one of the set asides that exist.

67
00:16:40.260 –> 00:16:49.200
Peter Kontakos: Another one is that historically underutilized business own program it’s also referred to as hump zone, so the hands on Program.

68
00:16:49.890 –> 00:16:59.970
Peter Kontakos: Actually originated in Europe, and then the US follow that model in 1997 and what that program aims to do is that aims to.

69
00:17:00.930 –> 00:17:20.790
Peter Kontakos: identify parts of the country, you know different states different cities and towns and counties within states that have been determined to be historically under utilized and so it’s really an economic development and growth program, and so the.

70
00:17:22.410 –> 00:17:30.900
Peter Kontakos: To be in the hump zone, there is a map if you go online and you just Google the hump zone map you’ll be able to see if your.

71
00:17:32.160 –> 00:17:35.580
Peter Kontakos: principal place of business located in a hubs on.

72
00:17:37.140 –> 00:17:52.320
Peter Kontakos: 35% minimum of the employees that business has would have to also themselves reside, and they have zone, as well as the business being located in the home zone and then there’s got to be bad.

73
00:17:53.880 –> 00:17:59.580
Peter Kontakos: 51% ownership and control of the individual who runs the hubs own business.

74
00:18:00.870 –> 00:18:15.900
Peter Kontakos: The next category is a woman owned small business, so it sounds pretty straightforward, not everything with the Federal Government or especially contracting is very straightforward but, but again here, you need 51% or more ownership and control.

75
00:18:17.400 –> 00:18:32.250
Peter Kontakos: By a woman and then there’s a net worth standard as well um I believe it’s 750,000 or less and, and so this one’s a little unique and that there’s some more caveats as to whether or not.

76
00:18:33.600 –> 00:18:47.010
Peter Kontakos: You would qualify for a set aside for this one, specifically, there has been a determination made about what types of work, what types of industries and sectors, women have been.

77
00:18:47.580 –> 00:19:01.170
Peter Kontakos: disadvantage and or discriminated against and so we’re going to talk about how those industries and sectors are developed in a couple slides they referred to as a exponents North American industry classification.

78
00:19:02.700 –> 00:19:08.910
Peter Kontakos: For the last one here is service disabled veteran don’t this is against straightforward in terms of you know you have to be a veteran.

79
00:19:09.270 –> 00:19:20.730
Peter Kontakos: And you have to you know, have been service disabled and the CFR lays out the definition of a service disabled veteran loans partner so so within the small business.

80
00:19:21.540 –> 00:19:33.540
Peter Kontakos: umbrella, these are the set asides, if you don’t fall into any of these for you can still get contracts you just won’t get one of these set asides, which are given preference before the government.

81
00:19:34.320 –> 00:19:47.280
Peter Kontakos: Will solicit a requirement for any small business so let’s say you know prime contracting is not what you want to do you don’t want to direct contract with the government, for whatever reason you can’t get it.

82
00:19:47.820 –> 00:20:02.130
Peter Kontakos: there’s also subcontract excuse me so contracting opportunities so so if a private contractor, you know needs some niche support has a hole on the team, and they need an expert or they need another company to really.

83
00:20:03.930 –> 00:20:14.490
Peter Kontakos: provide them a part of the solution to meet the government’s requirement bacon subcontract with a with a company, and so, if you’re new to this.

84
00:20:14.970 –> 00:20:20.910
Peter Kontakos: arena and you’re not quite sure you really want to take the risk of being a prime contractor.

85
00:20:21.210 –> 00:20:31.440
Peter Kontakos: You can consider being a subcontractor you know to an established prime and so it’s going to be really important to know who you’re working with what type of relationship you’re entering into.

86
00:20:31.860 –> 00:20:42.180
Peter Kontakos: What type of agreement you guys have for work, sharing and you know things of that nature so that’s going to come up later in the presentation as well, but just something to really.

87
00:20:42.810 –> 00:20:53.670
Peter Kontakos: You know, consider because you don’t want to not do your due diligence and then get stuck with a prime contractor that you’re not happy with, and will also have your reputation in the.

88
00:20:55.200 –> 00:20:55.650
world.

89
00:20:57.120 –> 00:21:00.600
Peter Kontakos: Beyond contract right so we’re talking about contracts.

90
00:21:01.980 –> 00:21:13.320
Peter Kontakos: They are our micro purchases, those are under $10,000, and so what those are our purchases, the government makes with a government purchase card.

91
00:21:14.010 –> 00:21:22.470
Peter Kontakos: You know folks refer to it as a credit card it’s not really a credit card, this is no interest charge but it’s just a simple card that makes purchases it’s very.

92
00:21:23.490 –> 00:21:30.300
Peter Kontakos: easy to do it’s an effective tool, of course, there are rules and regulations that govern how the government can make those purchases but.

93
00:21:30.870 –> 00:21:39.180
Peter Kontakos: You know if the government identifies you as a company that can satisfy their requirement or their need that the capability, they feel confident you can do the work.

94
00:21:39.660 –> 00:21:52.620
Peter Kontakos: They can go to you directly, and they don’t need to go through any other hoops basically now some agencies will say you know what it’s a best practice to at least review, you know, two or three different companies.

95
00:21:53.310 –> 00:22:05.250
Peter Kontakos: We prefer to you know partner with small businesses but there really is a lot of power on the government contracting agency side with these micro purchases so that’s a great way.

96
00:22:06.270 –> 00:22:06.960
Peter Kontakos: Like you know.

97
00:22:08.640 –> 00:22:09.630
Peter Kontakos: something to think about.

98
00:22:10.710 –> 00:22:24.600
Peter Kontakos: We then move on to simplified acquisitions So those are valued under $250,000 they are not formal contracts, they are considered purchase orders they work very similarly to contracts by.

99
00:22:25.620 –> 00:22:34.890
Peter Kontakos: The terms of conditions are a bit different and there’s not as much risk undertaken with a simplified acquisitions, but those are also a really good way to again.

100
00:22:35.550 –> 00:22:46.650
Peter Kontakos: get your foot in the door, if you’re looking to start out working with with federal agencies and with a simplified acquisitions, the law, the fires that they.

101
00:22:48.480 –> 00:22:55.320
Peter Kontakos: that the government considers small businesses First, it can be any type of small business they don’t have to consider the sentence on requirements.

102
00:22:56.040 –> 00:23:01.680
Peter Kontakos: When you go on to contracts which are value value to greater than $250,000 or more.

103
00:23:02.580 –> 00:23:11.760
Peter Kontakos: that’s where, as a program office official right if you’re an engineer or a technical expert and you have a need, and you got to buy something you know if if.

104
00:23:12.060 –> 00:23:18.240
Peter Kontakos: you’re working for the Department of Defense and it’s to help the warfighter or you’re working for a civilian agency and you need.

105
00:23:19.290 –> 00:23:30.150
Peter Kontakos: You know, an IT contract to provide you know, information technology services or communications support you need to do market research and you need to look at the.

106
00:23:30.840 –> 00:23:36.330
Peter Kontakos: Small Business set aside programs or socio economic programs we just discussed those four.

107
00:23:37.020 –> 00:23:46.500
Peter Kontakos: And if it’s determined that there’s not two or more eligible small businesses that are capable of doing the work at a fair and reasonable price then.

108
00:23:46.920 –> 00:23:58.980
Peter Kontakos: If you can’t make them fit with any of those four categories, then you say okay let’s look at you know to small businesses in general doesn’t matter if they have you know, a day or have zone woman owned or service disabled veteran.

109
00:24:00.000 –> 00:24:10.830
Peter Kontakos: If, at that point it’s not determine there are at least two or more capable than it can be a full an open competition or any company, regardless of their size, can can bet on it.

110
00:24:11.700 –> 00:24:23.640
Peter Kontakos: The last thing here is assistance agreements, I won’t go into this too much, but assistance agreements are basically either grants or cooperative agreements, and those are typically for R amp D, research and development.

111
00:24:25.350 –> 00:24:35.550
Peter Kontakos: You know, again, we can do a whole webinar on those but, but those are out there as well, so again, if your company does something that is more r&d focused that might be something that.

112
00:24:36.450 –> 00:24:47.280
Peter Kontakos: You know, may be of interest to you, and lastly here on the slide I referenced the procurement technical assistance Center, otherwise known as P tech they’re an invaluable resource to.

113
00:24:47.670 –> 00:24:54.570
Peter Kontakos: learn a lot about Federal Government contracting with i’m going to talk about them later on the presentation, but I purposely wanted to.

114
00:24:54.990 –> 00:25:02.160
Peter Kontakos: mention them up front, because they’re going to be a great resource for you, if you decide to learn more about government contract.

115
00:25:03.150 –> 00:25:14.880
Peter Kontakos: So we can go the next slide so loud to click a little bit here I think we’re good there yeah I think you’re so, so this is just the path of what I what I just discussed so you know, I think.

116
00:25:15.510 –> 00:25:23.250
Peter Kontakos: Everybody learns differently right, so you know we talked about it, we had some words and a little you know I would say narrative of bullet points but.

117
00:25:23.580 –> 00:25:30.180
Peter Kontakos: But here’s an actual pie chart with some commoners so so this just breaks down the targets set aside goals that we discussed.

118
00:25:30.960 –> 00:25:45.960
Peter Kontakos: So for the eight a program and the woman owned it’s there each 5% for the heart zone and the service disabled veteran down there each 3% So the first one there the small disadvantage business.

119
00:25:47.220 –> 00:25:54.510
Peter Kontakos: So what the government typically has accomplished or achieve this 10% versus five and so they’re exceeding the goal so.

120
00:25:55.560 –> 00:25:59.280
Peter Kontakos: The Biden ministrations actually just put out some.

121
00:26:00.960 –> 00:26:07.470
Peter Kontakos: policy initiative, saying they want to up that over time over a few years to 15% because they’re saying that.

122
00:26:07.950 –> 00:26:18.480
Peter Kontakos: You know we’ve already got 10% that we’re achieving so let’s try and and get that up to 15% and the woman owned small business program has typically been met.

123
00:26:18.870 –> 00:26:28.560
Peter Kontakos: Recently, but I think, last year we just fell a little short i’ll mention where you can access that procurement scorecards you can see some of this data later in the presentation.

124
00:26:29.160 –> 00:26:39.150
Peter Kontakos: i’m zones, always a tough one, to meet and then service disabled veteran don’t you know, unfortunately it’s also a tough one to be you know I know the government really does a lot to try and.

125
00:26:39.630 –> 00:26:51.750
Peter Kontakos: promote that program to support our veterans and try and you know really give these contracting dollars to the veteran organizations, but, for whatever reason that’s that’s one that’s that’s not always met.

126
00:26:53.280 –> 00:27:05.850
Peter Kontakos: Just so you guys know to there is also a veteran owned small business program not service disabled just veteran down but consideration is given there for sub contracting opportunities.

127
00:27:07.020 –> 00:27:14.010
Peter Kontakos: However, if you do work with the veterans administration, the va they’re required by law to.

128
00:27:15.600 –> 00:27:22.170
Peter Kontakos: Provide awards, or at least consider awards first for both veteran don’t and service disabled veteran.

129
00:27:22.980 –> 00:27:29.280
Peter Kontakos: So I know throwing a lot of information at you, I hope this is, you know, making sense and again we’ll do Q amp a at the end, but.

130
00:27:29.550 –> 00:27:36.600
Peter Kontakos: But, but you know I want to just be upfront with everyone, this is this is how it works, so if this is something you’re really interested in it, you just have to.

131
00:27:36.990 –> 00:27:43.140
Peter Kontakos: You know, have a baseline understanding of what the landscape is and some some more research so.

132
00:27:44.130 –> 00:27:58.800
Peter Kontakos: You know, at the end of the day, the government’s looking for the best and brightest because they’re taxpayer dollars, and you know we look for contractors to provide support services that federal employees cannot do themselves so it really is a private.

133
00:28:00.090 –> 00:28:01.230
Peter Kontakos: Public partnership.

134
00:28:02.850 –> 00:28:11.700
Peter Kontakos: And so it’s just really important that we get the right kind of companies, you know, supporting us across the enterprise okay let’s go to the next slide.

135
00:28:12.960 –> 00:28:22.380
Peter Kontakos: So, as I mentioned we’re the world’s largest buyer the federal government, and you know, last fiscal year we spent about $600 billion.

136
00:28:23.340 –> 00:28:35.610
Peter Kontakos: About 23% of those federal contract dollars were intended for small businesses, I think we ended up spending want to say something about you know high 20s I forget the exact number, maybe 28%.

137
00:28:36.960 –> 00:28:43.890
Peter Kontakos: of dollars that were set aside for small businesses so so as I mentioned before you know I apologize these.

138
00:28:45.030 –> 00:28:59.760
Peter Kontakos: 123 I would flip these, this is a slide that our headquarters gave us, I should have should have changed this but it’s okay so so we look at the small business set asides first and then we would do a full and open competition.

139
00:29:01.500 –> 00:29:11.520
Peter Kontakos: If we don’t have at least two or more small businesses that are qualified The other option is if there’s only one company out there that market research.

140
00:29:12.030 –> 00:29:21.030
Peter Kontakos: You know, indicates can do the work we can do a sole source and the Federal Government so that requires a justification.

141
00:29:21.630 –> 00:29:37.170
Peter Kontakos: For other than full an open competition it’s something that is frowned upon because we want to have competition, but if we know at the end of the day, there’s truly only one source that can do this work that is another option that government has to be able to just do a direct award.

142
00:29:38.550 –> 00:29:46.410
Peter Kontakos: To to that one company, the other way of doing direct awards are within those set aside programs so.

143
00:29:49.080 –> 00:29:53.430
Peter Kontakos: Again it’s not something that government prefers to do, but there is some.

144
00:29:54.870 –> 00:30:04.140
Peter Kontakos: There are some authorities there where if you’re a woman own small business or service disabled veteran owned or have zone, you can get a sole source award.

145
00:30:05.460 –> 00:30:21.090
Peter Kontakos: The Ada awards, those are typically more sole source that’s the loan exception and that’s because that program is is specifically dedicated to having a business grow and develop over a nine year period of time.

146
00:30:22.710 –> 00:30:24.240
Peter Kontakos: Okay, so go the next slide.

147
00:30:25.470 –> 00:30:33.540
Peter Kontakos: So the definition of a small business so we’re talking about small businesses and so you’re probably thinking okay well how do I qualify do I qualify, what does it all mean so.

148
00:30:34.020 –> 00:30:44.010
Peter Kontakos: So the authorities, and I use that word a lot because that’s where all this stuff comes from you know what are the authorities, what are the underlying regulations that.

149
00:30:44.820 –> 00:30:52.470
Peter Kontakos: they’ve taken you know why we do you know what we do and how we do it, so the code of federal regulations refer to the CFR.

150
00:30:54.570 –> 00:30:56.100
Peter Kontakos: provide the.

151
00:30:57.150 –> 00:31:15.510
Peter Kontakos: Guidance really for how a lot of these programs work, the Federal acquisition regulations, they are, I guess, I would say, like the next step that the the CFR So if you get a contract the agencies, and then the companies have to abide by those regulations as well.

152
00:31:17.460 –> 00:31:29.520
Peter Kontakos: Key takeaway here is this next code and size standards bullet points, so the next stands for North American industry classification system um.

153
00:31:30.090 –> 00:31:40.770
Peter Kontakos: So it is what it means North American so it’s the US it’s Canada and Mexico, they collectively determine on this industry classification system.

154
00:31:41.190 –> 00:31:54.180
Peter Kontakos: it’s a six digit number that basically says Okay, you know engineering service administrative service and these get like you know really in the weeds like there’s a ton of these and so.

155
00:31:54.780 –> 00:32:05.220
Peter Kontakos: If you’re in the manufacturing industry what SBA does is it will say okay you’re going to manufacturing next that these three countries have determined.

156
00:32:05.970 –> 00:32:16.410
Peter Kontakos: How are we going to determine whether or not you’re considered a small business so for manufacturing that’s based on number of employees so certain nicks codes will have.

157
00:32:17.070 –> 00:32:31.650
Peter Kontakos: 500 employees as the cutoff if you’ve got 500 employees or less in your manufacturing company manufacturing next code applies to you then you’re considered a small business if it’s greater you’re not a small business.

158
00:32:33.060 –> 00:32:47.370
Peter Kontakos: With regards to services based industries it’s based on average annual revenue and it used to be over a three year period of time now it’s changing to a five year period of time that’s to help small businesses stay.

159
00:32:49.590 –> 00:32:55.980
Peter Kontakos: As a small business for the definition, so you know there’s some thought behind how all of this goes into place so.

160
00:32:57.360 –> 00:33:13.020
Peter Kontakos: You know, some of them, it could be, you know, a million dollars, some of them, it could be 5 million, some of them i’ve seen that 35 say to yourself wow small business, I thought that was a mom and pop shop well for the purposes of federal government contracting it really depends.

161
00:33:14.370 –> 00:33:20.520
Peter Kontakos: Sometimes, what happens is some small businesses will outgrow the size standard, but then they’re kind of stuck in this limbo where.

162
00:33:20.970 –> 00:33:30.960
Peter Kontakos: they’re not big enough to compete with you know the boeing’s and the raytheon’s of the world, say if you’re in you know Defense contracting but you’re not small enough to get that.

163
00:33:32.250 –> 00:33:46.260
Peter Kontakos: That set aside or that preference anymore so that’s a known issue that that is being worked but, but again that’s where the teaming arrangements that supply tracks come into play, where you know it’s trying to think about different ways to get yourself business.

164
00:33:47.820 –> 00:33:54.420
Peter Kontakos: So in addition to meeting these next codes requirements your business also has to be a for profit business of any legal structure.

165
00:33:55.140 –> 00:34:03.270
Peter Kontakos: Be independently owned and operated not be nationally dominant in its field and be physically located operate in the US search territories.

166
00:34:03.840 –> 00:34:10.290
Peter Kontakos: And also says here the businesses outside the US may still be counted as small if they have an operation in the US.

167
00:34:10.980 –> 00:34:20.640
Peter Kontakos: That makes a significant contribution to the US economy through payment of taxes, your use of American products materials for Labor I typically don’t like reading, you know bullet points I have on there, I think.

168
00:34:21.090 –> 00:34:32.130
Peter Kontakos: The purpose, but I just wanted to just draw your attention to those things because you’re probably thinking well, what does that mean, and so again, this is all laid out in the code of federal regulations let’s see how far.

169
00:34:33.150 –> 00:34:51.090
Peter Kontakos: You can Google the CFR at the end of the slide deck I bet the link for it but it’s 13 CFR that’s the small business section of the CFR and then I think it’s like between sections 120 and 130 all the small business programs are laid out in there.

170
00:34:52.290 –> 00:34:54.780
Peter Kontakos: Okay, we can go to the next slide so.

171
00:34:56.430 –> 00:35:04.020
Peter Kontakos: let’s talk about how these opportunities can be identified and viewed so with regards to federal agencies.

172
00:35:05.250 –> 00:35:13.740
Peter Kontakos: With federal agencies do first and foremost, is they post procurement forecasts so before the actual contracting opportunity comes up.

173
00:35:14.700 –> 00:35:23.520
Peter Kontakos: The Agency is doing their acquisition planning, they are saying themselves okay we’ve got a need, we need to develop our requirements um.

174
00:35:23.880 –> 00:35:37.920
Peter Kontakos: let’s do some market research let’s see what small businesses are out there let’s see what capabilities exist and that’ll help inform us in terms of putting together our request for proposal our solicitation and so.

175
00:35:38.910 –> 00:35:48.600
Peter Kontakos: Part of this is public laws it’s mentioned here and it’s also to provide small businesses would advance notice of potential upcoming solicitations and so.

176
00:35:50.190 –> 00:36:00.960
Peter Kontakos: On acquisition.gov there’s a section in there, where you can view all the Agency procurement forecasts there’s also another section, where you can view.

177
00:36:02.700 –> 00:36:03.690
Peter Kontakos: Small business.

178
00:36:04.770 –> 00:36:16.410
Peter Kontakos: liaisons and there’s a directory, and they are now recently what they’ve done is the office of management and budget Washington DC is required to be agencies to come up with.

179
00:36:17.280 –> 00:36:27.180
Peter Kontakos: What are called vendor communication plans so basically now agencies have to formally outline and post it to the public and make it transparent.

180
00:36:27.570 –> 00:36:41.250
Peter Kontakos: What their communication plans are to engage with industry, the whole point is to try and make this a more transparent process for the public and to try and engage the public to understand what capabilities are out there.

181
00:36:42.330 –> 00:36:56.040
Peter Kontakos: To best inform the acquisition planning for the Federal agencies and then the other link here sam.gov so sam.gov stands for system system for award management.

182
00:36:57.420 –> 00:37:04.860
Peter Kontakos: If you’re going to do any business with the government, you have to register yourself and sam.gov that’s what entity registration refers to.

183
00:37:06.180 –> 00:37:13.860
Peter Kontakos: All the contracting opportunities that are actually formal opportunities over there alive, they get posted on sam.gov.

184
00:37:14.730 –> 00:37:19.110
Peter Kontakos: same thing with assistance listings if you’re looking for grants or cooperative agreements.

185
00:37:19.530 –> 00:37:26.370
Peter Kontakos: And there’s also some useful contract data there as well, so if you’re trying to understand the marketplace understand your competitors.

186
00:37:26.820 –> 00:37:35.220
Peter Kontakos: You know leverage the publicly available data that’s there you can go to sam.com there’s other websites to win we’ll get to that in a second but.

187
00:37:35.550 –> 00:37:47.760
Peter Kontakos: You can go to sam.gov and view some of that data it’s all public, so the key takeaway here, as I mentioned, is leverage all the available information resources at your fingertips and what’s a lot of information we’re throwing out there, but.

188
00:37:48.390 –> 00:37:53.700
Peter Kontakos: You know we’re trying to do our due diligence and just let you know that there’s a lot of stuff out there i’m.

189
00:37:54.240 –> 00:38:03.570
Peter Kontakos: Suffering Chairman technical assistance centers otherwise referred to as P tax if you’re interested in doing work with the government and you want to learn more.

190
00:38:04.050 –> 00:38:08.940
Peter Kontakos: This sign up to be a client with the p tak they are a tremendous resource.

191
00:38:09.930 –> 00:38:25.560
Peter Kontakos: They do exactly what you know the header says here they provide technical assistance, so they help you determine if your business is truly ready to enter the federal contracting arena, they help you to register in the proper places like sam.gov that I just mentioned.

192
00:38:26.790 –> 00:38:44.400
Peter Kontakos: They help you determine if you’re eligible for certifications and the best part is it’s a free service they’ll even help you with putting together bids and proposals, I mean they they are just amazing they are part of God, the proper Defense network, but they also get funded by.

193
00:38:45.750 –> 00:38:52.560
Peter Kontakos: The states as well, so they’re funded by the Defense logistics agency within God and also by.

194
00:38:53.580 –> 00:38:54.870
Peter Kontakos: The State of Massachusetts.

195
00:38:56.040 –> 00:39:04.260
Peter Kontakos: There are different representatives across the state, if you go to the website here you’ll be able to see them we’ve got one who covers the Northeast.

196
00:39:04.740 –> 00:39:10.650
Peter Kontakos: Other who covers the southeast one who covers Western mass when it covers central mass and they’re trying to.

197
00:39:11.040 –> 00:39:23.340
Peter Kontakos: backfill a position for someone who covers Boston I mean obviously now with webinars and doing things remotely you know they’re not having one on one sessions, but they’ll meet with the businesses.

198
00:39:24.630 –> 00:39:27.240
Peter Kontakos: You know, based on where the businesses located.

199
00:39:28.290 –> 00:39:40.650
Peter Kontakos: Typically, they do ask that you have two years of business experience, but again don’t meet with anyone so it’s a free service definitely take advantage of it that’s that’s my biggest takeaway there Okay, we go the next slide.

200
00:39:41.700 –> 00:39:48.180
Peter Kontakos: So some steps for success so registers and P tak client again they’re free services.

201
00:39:48.930 –> 00:40:00.210
Peter Kontakos: If you, you know are so inclined, and you decide, you really want to you know go go for it and you want to you know, engage in this in this world of government contracting.

202
00:40:01.050 –> 00:40:07.200
Peter Kontakos: You want to register the system for award management, otherwise referred to as Sam get feedback and help you out with that.

203
00:40:08.460 –> 00:40:17.610
Peter Kontakos: you’re going to have to think about how to develop a dynamic business capability statement again that’s something that the p tech offers webinars on.

204
00:40:18.480 –> 00:40:29.730
Peter Kontakos: It can help you one on one it’s basically a one page document that you know some folks refer to it as a resume or a flyer but you put the most pertinent information on there that you’re going to give to.

205
00:40:30.630 –> 00:40:36.450
Peter Kontakos: Either a government agency or a buyer and industries, so that they can.

206
00:40:37.020 –> 00:40:45.330
Peter Kontakos: You know, have something to take away and say okay yeah I want to you know engage with this individual I want to consider them and have them be part of my network.

207
00:40:45.960 –> 00:40:52.470
Peter Kontakos: You know the other way to do what is linkedin you know so linkedin is really the electronic.

208
00:40:53.160 –> 00:41:04.530
Peter Kontakos: method now of you know, providing those hard copy or even a copy capabilities statements so as much as you can network, you know that is super important.

209
00:41:05.400 –> 00:41:16.590
Peter Kontakos: I know it’s mentioned somewhere else but i’ll mention it here to matchmakers they used to have them in person now they’re doing them virtually it’s just a way for you to connect with people you never know who you’re going to meet.

210
00:41:18.930 –> 00:41:28.020
Peter Kontakos: You know I just can’t say enough about that just networking so that’s truly important you can determine which makes codes you’re eligible for.

211
00:41:28.680 –> 00:41:37.950
Peter Kontakos: You can be eligible for more than one, but you just have to do your due diligence on that because the way the solicitations are issued is their.

212
00:41:38.850 –> 00:41:46.020
Peter Kontakos: issues with a next code and so you know let’s say they choose a specific next code, you have to review it.

213
00:41:46.530 –> 00:41:52.830
Peter Kontakos: If you think your company can do that work, you can just add an apex code yourself it’s that’s not a hard process.

214
00:41:53.610 –> 00:42:02.700
Peter Kontakos: But you need to understand you know how that works in terms of okay i’m looking for an opportunity, I see that you know it’s being offered under this next code.

215
00:42:03.360 –> 00:42:11.880
Peter Kontakos: Is that really something I can engage in, and if it is okay, I need to know how to go into this sam.ca system to be able to add that needs to come.

216
00:42:13.350 –> 00:42:22.080
Peter Kontakos: researching these federal certifications and determining whether or not you know you’re eligible I mean there’s you know contact information to if you go to SBA website.

217
00:42:22.500 –> 00:42:30.750
Peter Kontakos: And you know there’s people who get help you out to before you actually start to go through the full application process which can definitely take time.

218
00:42:31.890 –> 00:42:37.110
Peter Kontakos: Okay, we go the next slide so some continued steps for success so.

219
00:42:37.620 –> 00:42:46.080
Peter Kontakos: researching the federal contracting marketplace so as I mentioned earlier, you want to search those procurement forecast you want to search the open contract opportunities.

220
00:42:46.650 –> 00:42:55.500
Peter Kontakos: There are various bid matching services that are offered P tak offers a service SBA is working on offer in one there’s other private ones as well.

221
00:42:56.070 –> 00:43:04.140
Peter Kontakos: And you want to data mine existing contract awards that see what potential opportunities might be upcoming and also know who your competitors are.

222
00:43:04.740 –> 00:43:12.150
Peter Kontakos: And then you want to, as I mentioned, identify those competitors or you can view them as part of that, so it could go both ways, you can say you know what hey.

223
00:43:12.510 –> 00:43:19.830
Peter Kontakos: I really want to team up with this company that’s been my best interests um The other thing I want to mention here is a lot of stuff is free.

224
00:43:20.670 –> 00:43:30.630
Peter Kontakos: There are things out there that you’ll see where they’re going to request money, and you know it’s up to you, if you want to pay for a service mean you know you can that’s your choice, but.

225
00:43:31.170 –> 00:43:46.470
Peter Kontakos: There are a lot of free services that Federal Government provides to its taxpayers so really try and leverage those those services and there’s because they’re free doesn’t mean they’re not high quality there’s a lot of really high quality free services out there.

226
00:43:47.970 –> 00:43:55.860
Peter Kontakos: The last thing here is engaging and self marketing activities, a lot of this is self marketing no one’s going to come to you and say hey you know what.

227
00:43:56.370 –> 00:44:05.760
Peter Kontakos: you’re you know, a small business and you’ve got this certification, so I need to give you business or I need to give you a contract, but how it works, you need to.

228
00:44:06.330 –> 00:44:15.450
Peter Kontakos: Be prepared to offer a solution of value added solution to a problem, the government has engaged with the government as a partner.

229
00:44:16.530 –> 00:44:26.820
Peter Kontakos: And that and that’s the way you’re really going to be able to have a constructive conversation and determine whether or not you know requirement, the Government puts out there is something you want to pursue.

230
00:44:27.870 –> 00:44:36.180
Peter Kontakos: So you can engage with the small business specialists and the Federal agencies they’re dedicated to advocating for small businesses.

231
00:44:36.630 –> 00:44:53.580
Peter Kontakos: Again, if you go to that acquisition.gov website they’re all listed there I used to be a small business specialist before joining SBA I was at US Department of Transportation so i’m telling you that that role is really a role that advocates for the small business community.

232
00:44:54.630 –> 00:45:01.290
Peter Kontakos: As I mentioned the matchmaker events and then you want to consider state and local contracting opportunities as well, so.

233
00:45:01.950 –> 00:45:05.610
Peter Kontakos: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has an office of supplier and diversity.

234
00:45:06.000 –> 00:45:15.150
Peter Kontakos: And then also your local city in Thailand business or economic development offices, you know if you’re interested in contracting but you’re you know not quite ready or your.

235
00:45:15.480 –> 00:45:22.590
Peter Kontakos: little apprehensive about going down the federal path started at the local level or at the state level there’s opportunities there.

236
00:45:23.130 –> 00:45:38.280
Peter Kontakos: A different process different certifications different ways to submit bids or proposals but it’s not as in depth or intense as the federal space could be so just something to consider we go the next slide.

237
00:45:40.050 –> 00:45:51.840
Peter Kontakos: So these are my tips for success, so we had steps for success before these are my tips for success just based on like 13 plus years of federal service working in federal government contract.

238
00:45:52.980 –> 00:46:05.670
Peter Kontakos: As I mentioned, that was a small business specialist I also was a contracting officer that did the buying under that was also on the program management side that came up with the requirements and engaged with the with the companies both small and large.

239
00:46:07.350 –> 00:46:18.540
Peter Kontakos: And you know and worked to oversee these contracts administer them so i’ve been fortunate to have you know quite a bit of experience in this realm so.

240
00:46:18.960 –> 00:46:23.430
Peter Kontakos: What I would say is you want to consider the time and financial commitments.

241
00:46:24.030 –> 00:46:33.810
Peter Kontakos: that are going to be required for you to perform you know the research even doing age with folks in government and industry and to prepare your bids and proposals so.

242
00:46:34.410 –> 00:46:38.520
Peter Kontakos: You have to just do a self assessment on yourself and on your business are you really.

243
00:46:38.970 –> 00:46:51.330
Peter Kontakos: prepared at this point in time to to engage in these activities, you know what do you have going on, does it make sense for you are you motivated to do it, I mean that’s something only you can decide on your own so you really got to think about it.

244
00:46:52.680 –> 00:46:59.370
Peter Kontakos: And then you want to consider is it worth it to be a prime or sub or other opportunities to do both.

245
00:47:00.570 –> 00:47:08.010
Peter Kontakos: You want to consider which organizations, you want to work with, so you know, in the federal government space, you want to do a little research and.

246
00:47:08.370 –> 00:47:17.880
Peter Kontakos: and see which government agencies are better to work with than others they’re not all created equal and they’re not all they don’t all operate equally some had.

247
00:47:18.270 –> 00:47:27.390
Peter Kontakos: You know bigger budgets than others, some have more resources other sometimes reputations good and bad so anything goes with engaging your your private.

248
00:47:29.250 –> 00:47:37.470
Peter Kontakos: counterparts as well, you really want to make sure that you’re establishing relationships that are worthwhile and you’re not going to harm your reputation.

249
00:47:38.460 –> 00:47:44.010
Peter Kontakos: You want to research, those agency missions and your partners or android competitors, as I mentioned.

250
00:47:44.550 –> 00:47:57.720
Peter Kontakos: And again, this one is so important, you have to provide a value added solution when you are self marketing your company to others, that is going to support the achievement of the agency mission and you want to be a problem solver.

251
00:47:59.040 –> 00:48:00.510
Peter Kontakos: Okay let’s go the next slide.

252
00:48:02.250 –> 00:48:18.390
Peter Kontakos: we’ll turn it over here to Caroline she’s going to talk about this slide and the next slide on this is focusing on our resource partner network, this is also another both step and tips for success leveraging these resource partners so carolyn take it away for me.

253
00:48:19.770 –> 00:48:24.210
Caroline Williams: yeah Thank you Peter, and that was a lot of great information can you guys hear me okay.

254
00:48:25.170 –> 00:48:25.770
Peter Kontakos: Yes, we can.

255
00:48:25.950 –> 00:48:33.600
Caroline Williams: Okay, great great great so Peter you’ve given us a lot of really awesome information, especially talking about the p tech but um.

256
00:48:34.380 –> 00:48:43.380
Caroline Williams: If you’re a small business and you find yourself needing more assistance Maybe someone to sit down with you walk you through the process our resource partners can help with that.

257
00:48:43.800 –> 00:48:56.010
Caroline Williams: So if you go to our website sba.gov slash ma there’s a tab for local assistance, so you put in your zip code and see which resource partners are near you so that you can get help.

258
00:48:56.370 –> 00:49:02.910
Caroline Williams: These resource partners can help you at any stage of your business whether you’re just starting out and need someone to look at your business plan.

259
00:49:03.240 –> 00:49:16.650
Caroline Williams: or your well into business, but perhaps need assistance with a social media plan and other things, they can also help you with loan applications for the different loan programs that we offer, and you can go to the next slide.

260
00:49:18.360 –> 00:49:28.650
Caroline Williams: Okay, so this is a more consolidated list of our main resource partners and to reiterate, all of them can help you, with your business i’ll just go briefly through each one because they kind of vary in their approach.

261
00:49:29.550 –> 00:49:38.370
Caroline Williams: So score is a group of mentors who have either own business in the past, owned businesses in the past, our current business owners are have a lot of experience.

262
00:49:38.640 –> 00:49:50.880
Caroline Williams: Working with businesses, large and small, they understand what it is to be a business owner and the ups and downs that come with it, so they are able to provide free counseling on a wide variety of topics.

263
00:49:51.930 –> 00:49:59.250
Caroline Williams: And the Massachusetts small business development Center much like score provides free and confidential counseling for all sorts of things, whether it’s.

264
00:49:59.520 –> 00:50:13.170
Caroline Williams: Your business plan personnel organizational issues conventional and unconventional funding, and of course contracting, they are connected to the resources of the University of Massachusetts as well, so they have the backing of the university to help.

265
00:50:14.550 –> 00:50:24.810
Caroline Williams: At the Center for women and enterprise also provides competent free and confidential counseling for many of the same sorts of things as score and the Small Business Development Center.

266
00:50:25.140 –> 00:50:29.130
Caroline Williams: But this has a special focus on women in business women business owners.

267
00:50:29.910 –> 00:50:48.300
Caroline Williams: They are open to all it’s not just women but they just do specialize in women owned businesses, if you want to get certified as a woman owned business, they can help you with that process which, as Peter talked about earlier can help you in your quest to bid on federal contracts.

268
00:50:49.650 –> 00:50:58.020
Caroline Williams: At the veterans business outreach Center this is run by cwt as well, they have a focus on business training counseling and resource.

269
00:50:58.290 –> 00:51:08.850
Caroline Williams: referrals to transitioning service members veterans National Guard and reserve members and military spouses who are interested in starting and growing a small business.

270
00:51:10.230 –> 00:51:20.610
Caroline Williams: And then, at the mass export Center if you are looking to take your business international it might help you to conduct them, they can help you assess your readiness for international business.

271
00:51:21.150 –> 00:51:36.060
Caroline Williams: identify target markets overseas help you with export logistics as like shipping and the documentation that you might need NAFTA compliance and I believe they offer translation services for marketing and promotional materials as well.

272
00:51:37.260 –> 00:51:41.250
Caroline Williams: And then lastly tippy top which Peter has talked about so I won’t spend a lot of Taiwan, but.

273
00:51:41.850 –> 00:51:53.880
Caroline Williams: The P tech and help you assess your readiness for government contracts help you, with your Sam registration identify opportunities and then, once you get going, they can help you bid manage and perform on your government contracts.

274
00:51:55.020 –> 00:51:58.020
Caroline Williams: And that will do it for me, Peter or Dan do you want to add anything.

275
00:52:00.150 –> 00:52:13.500
Peter Kontakos: Thanks Caroline that was great I really appreciate that overview for the the resource partners i’m diane i’m not sure if you want to just mentioned something about networking I know we briefly talked about it, but you know.

276
00:52:13.560 –> 00:52:14.040
that’s.

277
00:52:15.690 –> 00:52:22.050
Peter Kontakos: Something that diane has a lot of experience with the power of networking so anything you want to add there diane real quick.

278
00:52:22.080 –> 00:52:28.650
Diane Darling: Now I think you guys have done such a good job, I think the most important thing to do is you know, make a list of your fans and tell them what you need.

279
00:52:30.600 –> 00:52:31.350
Peter Kontakos: Thank you diane.

280
00:52:31.800 –> 00:52:33.990
Peter Kontakos: So the the last slide here.

281
00:52:34.980 –> 00:52:47.220
Peter Kontakos: talks about the coven 19 economic injury disaster loan program otherwise referred to was idle he ideal, so I threw this in there, because I mentioned the beginning of the presentation.

282
00:52:48.270 –> 00:52:57.390
Peter Kontakos: With a pandemic still ongoing, with a lot of the other pandemic relief and recovery support programs funding programs.

283
00:52:58.410 –> 00:53:12.060
Peter Kontakos: You know either drying up in terms of funds or the authority has lapsed they’re no longer available, this one is still available through SBA so right now, we still have quite a bit of appropriations quite a bit of dollars left.

284
00:53:13.200 –> 00:53:23.670
Peter Kontakos: You can apply through the end of the calendar year at this point, unless the funds dry up sooner than that alone threshold right now is 500,000 up to 500,000 excuse me.

285
00:53:25.440 –> 00:53:33.150
Peter Kontakos: For 24 months of economic injury so 30 year fixed loan at 3.75% no prepayment penalty or fees.

286
00:53:34.500 –> 00:53:45.660
Peter Kontakos: If you apply for any ideal, you can apply for an increase if you want to try and get up to that $500,000 figure and it’s really meant to cover working capital needs.

287
00:53:47.310 –> 00:53:53.670
Peter Kontakos: And again, this is because of businesses that but impacted and and have suffered economic injury during the.

288
00:53:54.420 –> 00:54:06.270
Peter Kontakos: pandemic, so I just wanted to throw this in there, this is the really the main program SBA currently has to provide into small businesses were still in need of it and we go the next slide.

289
00:54:10.050 –> 00:54:19.020
Peter Kontakos: These are all the resource links that I referenced or mentioned at some point during the presentation, I just wanted to put them all neatly on one slide for everybody.

290
00:54:20.040 –> 00:54:21.360
Peter Kontakos: So we can go the next slide.

291
00:54:22.530 –> 00:54:23.430
Peter Kontakos: and

292
00:54:25.440 –> 00:54:27.060
Peter Kontakos: Okay, this is open go back one.

293
00:54:28.890 –> 00:54:40.950
Peter Kontakos: yeah Thank you so again just to stay connected with us, these are some SBA links and contacts we do encourage folks always a sign up for our e newsletter we send a.

294
00:54:42.270 –> 00:54:50.070
Peter Kontakos: Calendar of events at the beginning of each month upcoming events and we send a formal newsletter mid month one went out today actually.

295
00:54:50.910 –> 00:54:59.040
Peter Kontakos: highlighting a lot of different events that we have different success stories different you know guidance if there’s a lot of information in there.

296
00:55:00.000 –> 00:55:08.700
Peter Kontakos: You can go to our website and view them as well, but if you sign up and get the updates get them automatically you’ll be added to our GM delivery of listing.

297
00:55:09.180 –> 00:55:23.520
Peter Kontakos: You can follow us on social media on Twitter, you can email us directly, you can call us directly and you know those are the SBA websites at the bottom one is focused specifically on endemic relief one is the SBA.

298
00:55:24.600 –> 00:55:31.080
Peter Kontakos: website and the other one is the Massachusetts website that we have a dedicated page, you know just for our office so.

299
00:55:31.620 –> 00:55:42.900
Peter Kontakos: So that is the conclusion of the SBA part of the presentation, hopefully, we have a little time for Q amp a but me, let me throw it back over to you for any any other remarks, thank you.

300
00:55:43.860 –> 00:55:48.690
MP: Sure, well, did you put an address the Q amp a first or I think one question came in the.

301
00:55:48.690 –> 00:55:49.680
MP: chart okay.

302
00:55:54.960 –> 00:55:55.740
MP: let’s see.

303
00:55:56.850 –> 00:56:00.240
MP: Can an ISA attain SBA loans.

304
00:56:01.650 –> 00:56:05.040
Peter Kontakos: A so pardon my ignorance profiles.

305
00:56:05.040 –> 00:56:07.560
MP: As a stock ownership plan.

306
00:56:07.710 –> 00:56:09.120
MP: obtain an SBA loan.

307
00:56:10.710 –> 00:56:12.510
Peter Kontakos: I would have to look into that i’m not.

308
00:56:12.510 –> 00:56:24.060
Peter Kontakos: Sure, because I hadn’t heard the term he saw before so now to to obtain the SBA back loan, I mean you can share this so to obtain an SBA back loan um.

309
00:56:24.900 –> 00:56:32.370
Peter Kontakos: You know, there are some stipulations there so typically folks who get folks who get SP back loans, through our traditional.

310
00:56:32.880 –> 00:56:52.560
Peter Kontakos: loan programs the seven eight program which is, which is working capital or the fiber for program which is more collateral fixed assets typically you’re unable to get traditional financing through your lending institutions so those are the typical SBA lending programs.

311
00:56:53.730 –> 00:56:58.860
Peter Kontakos: Now these other programs, you know the Coleman idol that I mentioned, or the.

312
00:57:00.600 –> 00:57:09.000
Peter Kontakos: mean the Patriot protection program in no longer exists, but those types of programs there had been a lot of exceptions made way are a lot of folks.

313
00:57:10.350 –> 00:57:20.370
Peter Kontakos: qualify for these loan programs these funding programs were traditionally they they they wouldn’t qualify for our traditional programs so.

314
00:57:21.090 –> 00:57:37.140
Peter Kontakos: So I guess I just be curious to from from the the individual that asked you know, is there a specific program they’re looking for so again if there’s more of a specific question, you know, please feel free to send it over to us, and then we can research and some more.

315
00:57:37.530 –> 00:57:41.970
MP: Okay fantastic I will put you in touch with the participant with the question.

316
00:57:42.390 –> 00:57:45.720
MP: Well, thank you so much for providing so much great information today.

317
00:57:46.560 –> 00:57:57.690
MP: lots of good information about contract opportunities for small businesses and I just want to let everyone know that MP also offers a full suite of products and services focus specifically on small differences.

318
00:57:58.020 –> 00:58:05.250
MP: We understand how much time it takes to run your business and we help businesses across all industries to mind HR and payroll.

319
00:58:05.550 –> 00:58:18.060
MP: and keep you abreast of important compliance changes, making sure that you know pandemic and beyond that you are in compliance with your employee handbook and volume play policies and we’ve helped lots of businesses obtain.

320
00:58:18.540 –> 00:58:24.780
MP: pandemic assistance they needed to take a foot to stay afloat, including PPP loans and play retention tax credits.

321
00:58:25.590 –> 00:58:28.320
MP: So if you have any questions we have a dedicated team.

322
00:58:28.830 –> 00:58:39.090
MP: Sam petri is one of our small business specialist please reach out to San his contact information is up here on the screen and I will also be sending out the deck along with the recording.

323
00:58:39.720 –> 00:58:49.380
MP: Of the program later in the day, so thank you again Peter diane and Caroline, let us know if you have any further questions and have a great rest of your day everyone.

324
00:58:51.120 –> 00:58:55.890
Peter Kontakos: Okay, thanks, very much everybody appreciate the opportunity to present to you guys today take care.

325
00:58:56.400 –> 00:58:57.480
Caroline Williams: Thank you so much.