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hi i'm travis luther and today we're joined by attorneys from watson and
associates
the nation's interest in federal government contracting has significantly
increased over the years large and small businesses alike were actively seeking
new opportunities to increase revenues
the u_s_ government is by far the largest customer of commercial services
and products
although a very lucrative ensure there are complex regulations and laws that
contractors must face
in the current administration there is a mandate for more scrutiny on federal
contracts and performance
this puts current contractors in sensitive situations
here with us today is theodore watson managing member of watson associates a
l l c a government contracting and business law firm
theodore thank you for being with us
when a lot of us here uh... the term government contracts often we think
about companies like halliburton are boeing
what's the difference between a large company like that in a small business
owner that's looking to secure a contract how does this small business
owner best positioned himself to get that work
while i think the first approached needs to be congress gets a lot of their taxes
a significant portion of their taxes revenues from small businesses
because of that it's incumbent upon uh... the government to create
uh... opportunities for businesses small uh... to secure more contracts
uh... each industry is
designated with a north american industry classification code
and in layman's terms that is
if its construction it we have two three six naics code which identifies what the
company does
along with that
is a certain limitation on annual revenues
for construction again you're probably looking about thirty three point five
million if you're making less than that
your considered small business by regulation
um... the other point i would add
is when you look at government contracts about fifteen twenty years ago when i
was in the blue suit
government contracting was very difficult
and a lot of the commercial sectors uh... turned away from doing business
with the government
uh... they'd
termed it red tape
well congress seeing that um... wanted to change the rules to encourage those
businesses to come back to the government
to do work
so what they've done now is created what they call performance-based contracts
and in a nutshell
the government gives
the end result that they want the contractor comes and tells the
government how they're going to do it
so that's something out there that viewers need to understand
that the rules are changing to make it a lot easier for businesses to do to come
and do work for the federal government
so
does your law firm watson and associates do you actually help businesses write
these uh... contract proposals are due just deal with disputes or
good question
again with the economy and we're trying to create a business model
to adapt to the economy and more specifically to the needs of contractors
so what we've done
is in addition to deaingl with the legal disputes I always say
federal procurement is a process that begins
part a
with the companies who are now turning to government contracts
are trying to market themselves all the way
to contract close out
so to answer your question more directly
we try to build relationships upfront
with the issues that customers are looking
to get help with
hence the proposal writing the marketing
and then once they acquire the contracts that we go down the pike and we deal
with
the uh... compliance issues sometimes there may be a bid protest that we may have to
file
so in comparison to the other
traditional law firms what we're trying to do is adjust to the economy and focus on
what the clients are really facing increase their bottom line
so to a to z_ process
and so having been in the military yourself and having been a small
business owner self acquiring government contracts i suppose you won't admit it
but you probably do have some pretty significant insight into that process
and how it works that i mean is that really uh... play to your firm's
advantage in and being able to help process these things perfect question i
think for any client whether it's a contractor anybody
when they come to firms like mine they want to understand first that you
understand what their concerns or problems are
to you a question i think a good
position to be in is to be able to have understood to be able to understand the
other side i've been there on the other side
dealing with the small business programs
and so forth so that when clients come to me
it's not just for legal dispute i know how the process works
so i'm a better position to align them
with how to restructure how to refocus
how to develop internal controls so that they can be in compliance
so in actual fact they are talking to someone who has been on the other side
is there anything important that you'd like to add that you think we have not
covered this afternoon
i think you touched on it earlier uh... in this economy i think a lot of the
contractors out there need to seriously look at what's working for them and
what's not
from my perspective i'm seeing a
big struggle
in the proposal writing aspect
because obviously that's how they secure
government contracts
there's obviously uh... different ways of getting government contracts or
certain small business programs such as the 8a and hubzones
around these are congressional programs that are out there
but i really think that they need to focus on
or restructuring
what they have done in the past
to adjust to the way the economy is going now and more importantly
how the agency's are changing
the old habits and selecting bids for award
once they adjust and do that what we're doing is uh... offering training
uh... and in various aspects for two thousand twelve for example we have a
lot of
bid protest classes and how to prevent them
proposal writing classes to really get into the meat and potatoes about what
really works
instead of just a general overview of proposal writing that's kind of what you
see out there
and do you provide free consultations
actaully we do
um... yes and and obviously i think that's the benefit of the client than
the relationships that we form the client has to see a as we talked about
earlier
do we understand what their properties and i think it's fair to potential
client atleast be able to not be chagred for that time
to be able to see if there's a relationship
so yes free
consultations
okay well thank you mister watson i appreciate you coming down this afternoon it
has been a pleasure
uh... if you are a business owner in your considering uh... looking into
government contracts for you file the government contracting if some questions
or concerns about that process
i would encourage you to reach out to the law firm of watson and associates
they can be reached for free at one p six six six and zero one five five one
eight where you can visit their website online at theodore watson dot com
again mister watson thank you