One bite at a time
I was thinking this morning about why I started this Substack in the first place, and it comes down to something I watch happen over and over. So many people never start at all, because the goal looks way too big from where they are standing.
You think about starting a business. Paying off the debt. Finally working for yourself. Even just making your first six figures. And it is so big and so far from today that it feels like a huge mountain you couldn’t possibly climb.
So you freeze. You research and research and never move.
That is analysis paralysis, and it takes more people out of this than competition ever does.
You know the old line about how you eat a whole cow. One bite at a time. That is not a cute saying, it is the actual method. Everybody who gets it done does it one bite at a time.
So let me tell you about a woman who did exactly that. :)
She came to me brand new. No prior knowledge of government contracting, none. She worked her way through the system I built, step by step, and got herself set up at all three levels, federal, state, and local. Then she started exploring, which is the part most people skip, and she found a simple opportunity with her county to provide school supplies.
Simple does not mean easy. We met every week while she worked through it. The real challenge was not the paperwork, it was sourcing. She had to find suppliers and manufacturers who could actually deliver, and we hit the things you hit in the real world. Quality that was not up to standard. Lead times that were too long, which is the turnaround time from when you order to when it actually shows up. We troubleshot it together, manufacturer by manufacturer, until we ended up looking outside the US and found the right suppliers who could meet both the quality and the timeline.
She pulled the whole order of required school supplies together, and she delivered them herself. 💪🏽
Because she delivered, on time and at the standard they needed, that county and school district now call her directly. That first small opportunity opened the door, and now it is one noncompetitive award stacking on top of another.
So here is the lesson, and it is the whole reason I wanted to tell you this one.
Starting small does not mean you are behind. It does not mean you are failing, and it does not mean you are selling yourself short. Starting small means you got your foot in the door, and the foot in the door is what leads to everything else.
You may not make seven figures on your first contract. But you can absolutely get your foot in the door, and that is what turns into your first six figures, which is what turns into the sustainable, recurring revenue business you actually want.
She did not start with the whole cow. She started with school supplies for one county. One bite.
Heres your week in bits sized actions.
Some take twenty minutes and some take an hour, but you only do one at a time, and at the end of the week you are actually set up and searching.
Monday: register federal on SAM.gov. Go to SAM.gov and start your entity registration. Have three things in front of you: your EIN, your legal business name exactly as it appears on your IRS paperwork, and your business bank account details. You will get a UEI, which is your federal ID number, and you will choose your NAICS codes, the codes that classify what you sell. It is free, so ignore anyone trying to charge you. Your submission can take a few days to validate, so today’s win is getting it filed.
Tuesday: register in your state. Google your state plus “open bids” and create your vendor profile.
Add the commodity codes that match what you sell, so the system knows which bids to show you. While you are in there, check whether your state has a small business certification, like California’s through OSDS, because that certification gives you a real pricing edge on state bids.
Wednesday: register local. Google your county plus “vendor registration” and your city plus “bidder registration,” and get on both lists. This is the level a lot of you will win first, and getting on the vendor list is often how you start receiving their bid notices by email. Do both your county and your city.
Thursday: run a real search at all three levels. Now that you are in the systems, use them. Search the same keywords and your NAICS codes on SAM.gov Contract Opportunities, on your state portal, and on your county and city pages. Save or follow every open opportunity that fits, and turn on email alerts wherever the site offers them so new ones come to you. End today with a few real, open opportunities saved.
Friday: build the system that keeps this going. Open a spreadsheet and make columns for opportunity title, agency, level, due date, pursue or pass, and status. Drop in what you found yesterday. Then put a recurring block on your calendar, a set time every week to search all three levels and update the sheet. That block is your pipeline, and it is Pursue in Triplicate turned into an actual habit instead of a phrase.
Five days, and by the end of them you are registered at all three levels, you have multiple opportunities saved, and you have a system that surfaces more every week.
If you want to take your own first bite with me in the room, that is what The Performance Circle is. Twelve months, group coaching plus 1:1 time with me, built to walk you from no idea where to start to a real, repeatable government contracting business. My Substack community gets first access before the doors open anywhere else.
Book a call let’s talk about your business growth 🚀
Let’s get to work!
Erin :)
