We find ourselves suddenly in April and the beginning of 2Q18.  How did that happen?  We’ve closed the books on 1Q18 and have 3 more quarters to meet our goals.  How did you do?  Are you prepared for ramping up?  Here’s a checklist to get you thinking:
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• Proposal season – it’s almost here.   Is your team ready to tackle a few monsters?  Have you lined up teaming partners?  Have you started storyboarding your technical solution?  Now’s the time to start locking resources, teammates and solutions down. Don’t forget to include recruiting for potential slots as well to get ahead!

• Pipeline Report – How real is the pipeline report?  Have you started glossing over “must wins” on a spreadsheet in your efforts to make the meeting go faster?  Who has dug into the opportunities and have you set them up to be successful wins?  Trust but verify CEOs… BD and Capture folks are inclined to load a spreadsheet with people they spoke with before, but that’s not an opportunity.  Be very clear on what makes it to the list and why it’s there.

• Revenue – What did you have as a 1Q18 win that slid?  Are you going to be able to recover that revenue in 2Q-4Q?  Time to review the revenue assumptions for the year and figure out where you can make it up while there is still time.

• Cash – by now, you should have recovered from your December cash spend/holding back bills and should have paid off any LOC used to make it through January’s payroll.  Are you in a good position?

• Multiplier and profit – are you going to make money this year?  How many “must wins” are in your indirect rate budget that you are using for bidding?  Ensure that you are turning a profit and not undercutting your rates unnecessarily.

• Hiring Talent – when was the last time you checked in on your potential hires?  You know, the folks that you’d love to work with but can’t hire until the contract hits or cash flow frees up.  A quick coffee to touch base can keep their interest.

• Infrastructure – A little spring cleaning is always a good thing.  How’s the team running?  Do they need more resources or can you get away with less?  Have you documented everything your folks do, should they win the lottery and leave?  No one is indispensable… make sure you’ve covered how your organization runs.

The above should serve as a quick checklist of things to follow up on and analyze.  If you don’t know the answers to the above, you should take steps to find out…now.  There is time to not only recover but gain this year if you have your act together.

Did you know? BOOST does strategic planning to help with all of the above! You could benefit from the variety of resources we have in our BOOST backpack including the area’s top matchmaking resource, govmates.  Send an email to [email protected] and let’s set you on the right path for the rest of 2018.