Government contractor

They're in construction.

They're in GovCon.

A lot of them are in professional services.

So we really are industry agnostic and just are here to help business owners.

Looking forward to a great conversation on this Friday.

I really enjoy, as you can see from the logo over my right shoulder here, I represent our GovCon Center of Excellence.

So as you can imagine, I'm always really excited uh excited and and enjoy hearing from you know accomplished ceos like yourselves and uh getting your perspectives on really what's going on in the gov con marketplace because it is it is you know the wild west these days so looking forward to the conversation and just to kick us off uh I know that David had a really good introduction, but if you could maybe elaborate on a quick overview of your company and what product services you provide, everything from revenue size, employee size, your main core competencies.

Let's go with Robert to kick us off.

Everyone was looking forward to putting that in our rear view, right? And having a fantastic 26, hopefully 2021.

uh you know as we as we closed out the fiscal uh right uh recently so hopefully you all uh you know we're we're uh closing out on some really good opportunities as well and really 2026 uh I think it really shaped up to be a defining year for federal contractors.

What would you all say is the single biggest operational shift that you made in the past 12 to 18 months to really stay competitive in this kind of interesting GovCon marketplace? Robin, why don't you go ahead and take that one?

Yeah, sure.

A book that no one opens.

I texted you and said, we should ask, what are some of the scariest GovCon costumes? Did you think of any? Oh, no.

I missed that.

You didn't see that? Well, I didn't come up with any good.

But if I was going to dress up as the scariest GovCon or federal procurement costume, maybe like just a late requirement.

Yeah.

Or like if you're if you're in policy, maybe just dress up in all red.

Hello everyone, Shirley here.

Some small GovCons who survived Doge and the chaos of 2025 and 26 are now growing and creating market value.

What are their keys to success? How did they pivot their thinking, products and services, and their strategies to adjust to the new federal marketplace? What can we learn from the past to position additional small businesses for success? My name is Shirley Collier, CEO and founder of Scale to Market, publisher of the Small Businesses Equal Federal Innovation Substack, and host of the Growth Masters Federal Podcast.

I am very pleased to welcome my special guest today to help me with this discussion, Paula Smithers, Director of M&A at SB Liftoff.

And SB Liftoff is a boutique national M&A advisory firm.

We are located in Northern Virginia, and we work closely with government contractors.

Most of our clients are typically founder-led GovCons that are beginning to think about a transition and whether that transition is near term, or possibly several years away still.

So Paula, before we talk about all of the factors that go into creating market value in the complex, evolving federal marketplace, let's discuss why it is necessary for small GovCons to rethink how they are approaching the federal marketplace.

I think my salary is $25,000 a year.

So any GovCon, anybody that wants to get in GovCon out there, they need to understand that...

the payoff isn't going to be in your first contract.

And especially the owner, don't be afraid to give other people the payout for your win and keep building you.

Mm-hmm.

Whether it's in business development, whether it's in operations, people delivering the services, you got to focus on those and delay that gratification even more.

I mean, GovCon is a lot of delayed gratification as it is.

It has a very long sales cycle.