Small Businesses must rely on themselves, but it’s nice to have a support structure to reach out to when requested. Having the support structure to adapt to the realities and counter the threats to your business is one of the reasons many business join the GSF–at least if you’re smart! Just like in operations, successful acquisition takes a network of trusted intel gatherers, advisors, and solid partners that can innovate and operate at speeds governments cannot (or just won’t).
I’m Dr. Jim Frey with Aero Simulation, Inc (ASI) in Tampa, and I volunteered to Chair the Small Business Committee for GSF this year for the same reasons you joined it (or soon will): strength in numbers, network or don’t work, and tightly shared interests, goals, pasts, and futures. When one piece of the committee gets better, we all get better…and more importantly, the men and women still in the fight get better training, equipment, and support.
So that’s where we start. The Small Business Committee (and all of GSF, really) agree on that.
The GSF’s resident Intern and Navy guy, soon-to-be-retired CDR Chuck Neu, recently supported the committee by sending out some steerage questions to current GSF Small Business Partners to assess their GSF experience and expectations. In the coming weeks, MA Yourchisin from AC4S, Chuck, and I will pour through the feedback and put together a plan that works for all of the participants in the committee and their organizations.
In 2018-2019, we’re thinking of incorporating more face-to-face meetings, networking socials, direct exposure to the forward-facing clients and their contracting officers, feedback loops for growth and opportunities, and ‘in house’ camaraderie. For example, you can see me in the center of the photo to the right at a GSF Field Trip to the Amalie Arena, hosted by BAE Systems.
Last but not nearly least, we are going to focus on more Small Business recruitment. If we are in DC and can say that we have 75-100 Small Businesses banded together in this industry we become extremely powerful and persuasive. As the Small Business Committee grows, we have more opportunities and options to be successful at them, and everyone wins.
Now more than ever agility, flexibility, innovation, and smart partnering are the on-ramp to success for modern acquisitions at NAWC, USSOCOM, any PEO, and Coalition or Partner Nations. If you’d like to get involved with this process, you’ve come to the right place.
Let’s keep the conversation going! Please reach out to me if there is anything I can do, other Smalls I can introduce you to, or capabilities you need I can help find for your next successful project.
Jim Frey
(757)707-2185
J_frey@aerosimulation.com
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Jim was nominated to be the GSF Small Business Committee Chairman for the 2018 Calendar Year. He is the representative from GSF Small Business Partner Aero Simulation, Inc. (ASI).
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