Winning Ways: How to Grow From $64,000 to $100 Million Marketing and sales should be a small firm’s second priority, according to Mary Ann Elliott, founder and CEO of Arrowhead Global Solutions, an 8(a) company in McLean, VA The first priority: “honesty, integrity and quality in what you do internally,” she told the audience at Set-Aside Alert’s Small Business Strategy Summit June 22 in Falls Church, VA. She said an entrepreneur must establish sound business management along with quality accounting and processes and procedures. Elliott founded Arrowhead in 1991 as a provider of satellite communications equipment. The company has diversified into technology solutions and expects to top $100 million in sales this year. She preaches the power of persistence. In 2001 Arrowhead won a $2.1 billion indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract with the Defense Information Systems Agency, taking the work away from Lockheed Martin. Elliott said she had been chasing the contract for nine years and had bid on it and lost twice. “There are no shortcuts, none at all,” she said. Other tips for growing a business in the federal marketplace: •Identify your company’s core capabilities and focus on just a few agencies as prospective customers: “Don’t do something you cannot manage.” She added, “I don’t recommend bidding on a project if you don’t have the expertise to write the proposal.” •“Small businesses cannot win really big, complex deals alone.” Find your strategic partners before an RFP is issued. “The biggest thing is to get yourself a teaming agreement with a lot of teeth,” she said. •Be prepared to lose before you win. “You have to have permission to win. Permission to win means they know you. They respect your skills. And you’ve lost at least once.” •Win or lose, ask for a debriefing. “You’ve already lost, so shut up and listen.” If you win, ask, “What was the winning thing about our bid?” •Be prepared to win by having a line of credit in place. Elliott recommends a line sufficient to support a project for at least 120 days, until the payments start flowing. “The government is not your banker,” she said. •Elliott believes strongly in the power of networking: joining trade groups, attending pre-bid conferences where you can meet contracting officers and program managers, and volunteering for professional committees within your industry. But she also believes a business owner must know when to walk away from agency officials: “If they are not interested in working with you, pick up your things and leave. It’s not worth the effort and the aggravation…Spend what marketing dimes and dollars and minutes you have where you can get the most bang for your buck.” •At first, target agencies located within a four-hour drive of your office, “so you can afford to go back and see the people week after week.” •She advocates hiring ex-military or ex-government people who know how agencies work. •Even the smallest company should maintain a professional-looking website with up-to-date information because contracting officers and program managers will check out your website before they meet you. She called the Internet “the biggest equalizer in the world.”