Entries for April 2007

Faye Coleman is in the enviable position of telling the government what to do. As founder of Bethesda, Md.-based Westover Consultants, she helps a range of agencies design outreach programs or create online tracking tools. On Monday, I wrote about how some small businesses are yelling at the top of their lungs but have yet to get noticed by the government. For six years, federal agencies have failed to meet a goal to dole out 23 percent of their contracting budgets to small companies, costing small businesses $4.5 billion last year alone, according to testimony this week at a House Small Business Committee hearing. But after decades of working with the government, Coleman's consulting firm is one business that has learned how to get its voice heard within the marble walls.

Melinda Emerson's car has logged a lot of miles. She has spent more than five years making the trip from her home in Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in hopes that her multimedia company, Quintessence, would win a federal contract. Despite spending tens of thousands of dollars on filling out paperwork, attending conferences, and networking with other businesses that have federal contracts, Emerson's company has yet to win a single one.

It has been 18 months since Hurricane Katrina whipped through the Gulf Coast. Many small businesses have cleaned up the debris but haven't been able to wash away their woes. Chief among their complaints is the black box process involved in getting government contracts to help repair the area and their bottom line. So last week Washington, D.C., trooped down to New Orleans, where federal agencies and small businesses brought out their boxing gloves.

Persistence doesn't always pay off. It's a concept that upbeat small-business owners, who regard quitting as failure, still haven't mastered, says author and blogger Seth Godin. In his latest book, The Dip, he sets out to get people thinking about the idea of quitting as a strategy.