My success may sound impressive, but it’s important to understand how brutally difficult it was to get started in a space that seemed so complicated and overwhelming.

I started out working for a small WOSB government contractor doing business development and proposal writing. I had no idea what government contracting was and it was literally like learning a different language.

I hated it at first because I would spend my entire days scrolling FedBizOpps (the old SAM.gov opportunity site) wading through opportunities for my company to bid on. I saw these alien terms like Sources Sought, Pre-solicitation, Combined Synopsis Solicitation, that I had no idea what these were.

I also didn’t have much in way of training or direction. I was told to review our “Capability Statement”, to check for bids on our “GSA schedules” and pay attention to the “Agency Forecasts” on the DoD websites. I could piece together a little of this, and I could see how it made sense, but I had no idea of what level of importance or priority to place on these. Point being, I was in sales, and I no clear path to my first sale.

I quickly became so intimidated and hopeless that I started carrying a folded sheet of paper with a countdown tally of days until the end of the year for when I promised myself I would quit.

But life (god) had another plan for me…

One day near the end of the year, I overhead my boss taking a call from a contracting officer who was inquiring if we could provide road salt to the nearby base. I heard my boss easily turn away contracting and hang up the phone. By this time, I had been going crazy to prove myself and secure a sale for 6 months, and I saw this as an opportunity.

After she hung up the phone I immediately engaged her and confirmed the details that I thought I overheard about the road salt deal.

She confirmed and laughed it off, but I challenged her and insisted, “What if I can find it?”. “If I can find the road salt, will you call the contracting officer back and do the deal?”. My boss hesitantly agreed, and I spent the next 2 weeks hunting for road salt and trucks. After 2 weeks (and to my boss’s surprise), I secured the last bit of road salt one state away from us. We ultimately won and fulfilled that contract.

This first win changed everything for me.

There was a lot I still had to learn, but I was reenergized, and I became hungry now that I knew what was possible.

Year after year I became really good at winning contracts, and overall won 32 contracts for the company I worked for. My boss had me start training others in our company to start winning, which I was able to do, too.

I’d become passionate about helping small business to win in government contracting, so I’ve since left the company and worked with hundreds of newly registered government contractors to help them win their first contracts in the federal space, too.