Credit Card Processing Questions
For those people frustrated with difficulty in finding straight answers on how credit card processing works there is a new site that attempts to help you answer questions about credit card processing.
For those people frustrated with difficulty in finding straight answers on how credit card processing works there is a new site that attempts to help you answer questions about credit card processing.
There are many unique aspects of capturing business for your company in government compared with private industry. First of all contracts must be publicly announced, allowing newcomers to the field to be able to find new opportunities. For NASA the website to monitor is the NASA Acquisition Internet Service (NAIS) website. You can search using specific criteria or register to be notified of new business opportunities in a certain area.
So once you identify an opportunity how do you go after it. Initially the government posts a synopsis describing the details of the contract. After determining that some of the work in a given contract is in your area of interest the next step is to see if there is any restrictions on what type of businesses can go after the work. A very common thing to do is to only allow small businesses or small disadvantaged businesses go after the work. Some common types of small disadvanted businesses include:
I’ll get into more into this subject in a later article.
Check out this great article on the wrong way to implement Knowledge Management on a government contract. Thanks to J$ who posted this on his blog.
This is an excellent article covering some of the difficulties in dealing with RFPs. Working for a government contracters I have had experience in writing responses to RFPs and agree with most of the points mentioned in the article.
Lesson Number One:
A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day. A small rabbit saw the crow and asked him "Can I sit like you and do nothing all day long?" The crow answered, "Sure why not." So the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.
Management Lesson:
To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.
Lesson Number Two:
A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy."
"Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients." The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it actually gave him enough strength to reach the first branch of the tree.
The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, there he was proudly perched at the top of the tree. The turkey was promptly spotted by a farmer who shot him out of the tree.
Management Lesson:
Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.
Lesson Number Three:
A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field. While it was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on it. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, it began to realize how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him!
Management Lessons:
1. Not everyone who drops shit on you is your enemy
2. Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.
3. And when you are in deep shit, keep your mouth shut!
One of the bigger areas my company is involved in is Risk Management. This article from CIO is a great example of the importance of risk management.
Awesome post on why, if you should get in the position where you get calls from them, should take every call that comes along from a Venture Capitalist.