News from TargetGov

July 2012 Issue 1

Greetings!

What lights your fire, floats your boat, puts a spring in your step?
What makes time disappear for you?
What motivates you to happily get out of bed in the morning?

I was also going to ask: What do you like to do to help you enjoy life? But I realized that too many of us would say: enjoy adult beverages or something similar or even unprintable. And I don't want to go there because this is not that kind of newsletter.

Where I do want to go is discovering why we do what we do, work where we work, engage in the business we do and find joy in our lives every day.

If you are fortunate enough to have family and friends around you who love you, I hope you share your time and hearts with them and embrace that joy fully.

If you are in the group of people who also love your work and find joy in the everyday tasks and events associated with your work, you are doubly fortunate because you have discovered a secret-when work is fun, it is not work.

I am not so good at the work-life balance that is such a popular topic these days. Maybe it comes from really enjoying business life and creating success-the "win-win" concept has proven to be my motto, and even if it is a clich�, it makes me happy to help others see success.

I hope that you are in that group of people who love what they do. Tell me about it the next time we meet. And if you are not in that group, maybe it is time to make a change and do something that will float your boat and make you happy while you work. It's OK to make a change, really it is. Scary, perhaps, but life is too darn short to be doing something every day and not be happy.

Here's to your happiness, and success too, of course!

Gloria Berthold Larkin
President, TargetGov
1-866-579-1346

"Women In Contracting"

Complimentary Webinar

women contractors

Are you getting your fair share? Five percent of the $500 Billion Federal Contracting Budget is targeted to go to small businesses owned by women - that is $25 BILLION Dollars. The federal government buys virtually every type of product and service from businesses large and small thoughout the U.S, is yours one of them?

Last year, the federal government purchased over $500 BILLION dollars from businesses of all types, sizes and locations throughout the U.S. Are you ready to open the door to great business opportunities?

Date: July 24, 2012

Time: 10:00 am PT, 11:00 am MT, 12:00 pm CT, 1:00 pm ET

Cost: NONE

Registration: Click here to Register

In one hour you will learn:

--What the federal government buys
--Where the government buys
--How the government buys
--Who the decision-makers are
--When the government makes purchasing decisions
And
--WHY YOU SHOULD SELL YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES TO THE U.S. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT!

Especially for Women Business Owners or women who WANT to be business owners!

Learn More...

DOD Budget Objections and Comments

Editor's note: It IS all about the money. How can you alter your message to do more with less?

"...The department has committed to reducing the budget by $487 billion over the next 10 years. The CBO report makes clear that if Congress blocks proposals to achieve cost savings in the 2013 budget -- particularly efforts to address skyrocketing personnel costs -- the Pentagon will risk violating the strict spending caps that Congress imposed on the department in the Budget Control Act, Little said.

CBO officials applied their own forecast to many of the DOD proposals, according to Little.

As an example, he said..."

Click here for the full DOD article.

Small Business Strategies: Why clothing choices are key

Excerpts from the article by Rhonda Abrams

Published By: USA Today

When you own your own business, you figure that one of the great benefits is that you get to wear exactly what you want, right? Well, not always. What you decide to wear can increase or decrease the chance you'll land a deal, motivate your employees, even get better terms from a supplier.

One way to think about clothes is to consider different "levels" of dressing:

Level Three, Business Formal: For when you have to look your most professional, such as negotiating a deal, giving a presentation, doing government or international business. For men, this means a business suit or similar. For women, this means a business suit or coordinating dress or skirt outfit.

Level Two, "Spiffy" Business Casual: This has become the norm for most business meetings other than those in major urban centers. For men, a sports coat, no tie, nicely pressed pants; for women, a coordinated skirt or pants outfit.

Level One, Informal Business Casual: For working with casually dressed customers, while traveling, meetings in casual settings such as resorts. Men and women can both choose casual pants -- even nicely pressed jeans or khakis. Women could also wear a casual skirt or dress. But even the most informal business casual doesn't mean shorts, messy jeans, T-shirts, tank tops. That's just casual, not business casual.

Read the rest of the article.

Summer RFP Flood Alert

By: Gloria Larkin

Published By: The Business Monthly

July 2, 2012

The song goes like this: "Summertime ... And the living is easy ..."

While fish may indeed be jumpin' somewhere, what also is jumpin' is business in the federal market, because we are once again in the final months (July, August and September) of the federal fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.

On that note, thousands of requests for proposals (RFPs) are listed on FedBizOpps (www.fbo.gov) and other federal posting sites.

This annual cycle is consistently predictable and successful businesses have already planned to take advantage of the summer months to beef up marketing and sales efforts. They're laser-focused on leveraging every contract vehicle, from credit cards to task orders, blanket purchase agreements and multiple award contracts.

The federal government and military work with annual budgets, and the "use it or lose it" mentality has been ingrained through the decades. If an agency does not spend all the money allotted in the budget, it will lose all unspent funds. This year, we're also looking down the sights of a special event called "sequestration," which will drastically cut even the existing budgets in the coming fiscal year.

Read the rest of the article.

VETS 2012 Post-Conference

Were you able to attend this years VETS2012 Reno conference? Or did you miss out?

The post-conference website is now available. You can check out the speakers presentations (including Gloria's),
and see the photo gallery.

Its never too early to start planing for next year. Check out them out on Facebook and follow them on Twitter #VETSEntSymp.

In This Issue

Women in Contracting Webinar

Small Business Strategies

Summer RFP

VETS2012

TargetGov Resources

What Are People Saying About the TargetGov Experience?

"...Thank you very much for taking the time to provide the very informative presentation ... Your Toolkit provided the framework to ensure the highest possibility of success... I intend to check the targetgov.com site regularly for valuable information.

John Kim

SVCM, Inc.

"Your presentation was one of the best I have attended. I liked that is was to the point with specific action steps. No down time during your talk"

S. Ross

"You were great!!! So much buckshot began to come together as one silver bullet."

S. DeVincentis

" The presentation was very clear and the speaker was very knowledgeable."

Lorman Education Services

" It was the best presentation I have seen in a long time! I'm glad I bought your book!!!" M. Hoover

"Great session yesterday - six people listening in on the call/webinar (a Sr VP/Proposal folks/Contracting Specialist/Editing/Pricing) all were very impressed with the presentation..." L. Jackson

I think the teleconference format is very convenient...in fact, I actually listened to one of the conferences while driving back from a meeting with Army representative. Registering and attending is always super easy.

R. Alexander

Was impressed with the registration process. Getting the toolkit link was easy. Download was easy. Dialing in was flawless. Very easy process. Name withheld as requested

Registration was easy, conference was valuable. I'll definitely attend other ones.

M. Creager

What are you waiting for?

Click here for the upcoming schedule.

Quick Links...

tg logo Have your checked out our resources lately? TargetGov offers a variety of resources to help you on your journey to success in the federal market place. From our complimentary Capability Statement Grader to the on demand resources in our Resource Library, TargetGov is your one stop shop in Government Contracting Resources.