How to Land Your First DLA Contract (Step-by-Step Guide)

How did you get started in this journey?

I'll never forget my dad. He mentioned to me, he said, "Hey man, get into selling something to the government. That's probably going to be the best kind of business to get in."

Tell me about your first contract that you won with DA.

It was actually for Dayton Motors. And right now, the DA awards over 10,000 contracts every single day.

Have you used any other platforms to win DA contracts, or is Dibs the primary only platform?

Yeah, Dibs is the only place that I've gone as relates to product supply. The DA is very active on SAM. You can find a lot of service-based type contract opportunities. The DA is very, very small business-centric. 80% of their procurements are made through small businesses.

What are some of the common missteps that people have when approaching DA?

Common missteps is not really well one being afraid. The DA does great with their office of small business programs. Reach out to them and say, "Hey, we're a small business. We're new to the DA." The very first question I think that I recommend student clients ask, like, what types of products are no one...

Let's go back, backtrack a little bit about, uh, where you started at. Tell people, you know, how did you get started in this journey?

I got started in government contracting, uh, man, over 20 years ago. As a matter of fact, my background is engineering, okay? So, coming out of college, I had a job with the local brewery, you, you may have heard of them, Anheuser-Busch. And so I was working with AB as a lowly mechanical engineer and, um, started working with a lot of vendors at the time. And I've always kind of, you know, I grew up in a household, my father was an entrepreneur, so I knew being a business owner was going to be the end-all-be-all solution for me. But again, coming out of college, you know, you got your, you know, degree, got your resume, got your first corporate job. In the back of my mind, I'm like, "Okay, I got to find a path out of this." And so at night, I would always kind of put together business plans and come up with ideas of ways that I can start, you know, a business. And I never forget, my dad, he mentioned to me, he said, "Hey, man, get into selling something to the government. That's probably going to be the best kind of business to get in." And, you know, again, I'm like 21 years old. I was like, "The government?"

You know, it just seemed really vague. And he said, "Yeah, the state of Missouri, man, you might want to start there." And so, I was like, "Okay." So, I started doing a little research. And again, we're talking over 20 years ago. So, we didn't have like Google. I think Yahoo was the platform back then, and it was really rudimentary back then. But, uh, I started researching just government contracting with the state of Missouri, got, you know, decided to start a company. And at that time, I think, um, I just wanted a very generic name to a business. So I started National Material Supply was the company that I started. And, uh, from there, um, you know, just doing seminars and all the research, and then I stumbled upon the SBA.

Okay.

And, and so the SBA had a bunch of like outreach programs going on here in St. Louis where, you know, they were inviting me to come down and learn more about government contracting. And, you know, I, at that time, you know, I'm learning again, the state of Missouri, getting involved in like bidding on RFPs, responding to RFPs with the state of Missouri through their office of administration. And, uh, one of my contacts over at the SBA said, "Hey, man, ever heard of the DA?" And I was like, "No, what's the DA?" And so, you know, it just kind of opened up another door to federal contracting because I found state, state agencies was a little bit difficult to kind of get in. You know, I got involved in like the NBE, uh, participation programs with the state of Missouri at the time. And some friends were like, "Hey, you might want to consider federal contracting." And I was like, "Okay, let me just kind of dive into that." So, the SBA again had the seminar, learned about the DA, and that's when I just, you know, just went all out. Now, mind you, I was an engineer at the time. And so, um, you know, trying to figure out my lane with the DLA because that's when I was introduced to Dibs back then. By the way, the website is still the same.

That's it's terrible. It's a horrible experience.

It's, it's crazy. I mean, I'm sure you've noticed. You're like, "Wait a minute. They haven't even changed the homepage. It hasn't even changed the banner. Everything's the same." And, uh, and so I, I decided to get involved with, uh, looking at opportunity solicitations on, uh, on, uh, on Dibs. And from there, you know, I had to kind of figure out, okay, what do I want to sell? So, back to my experience working in the plant at AB. There were a lot of vendors who were selling like, uh, motors and pumps and, you know, uh, uh, electrical systems and panels and all that kind of stuff. Basically, uh, equipment we were putting into the plant. So, I kind of had an understanding of what that type of equipment was. And I, lo and behold, I found the same brands, the same type of products and solicitations on, on Dibs. And so, one thing led to another where I was like, "You know what, let me call that vendor that was that took me to lunch last week and find out if I can get my hands on this stuff." And, you know, lo and behold, I was able to get my hands on a catalog, set up an account with them, and this was something that I was doing outside of being an engineer. And, uh, started bidding on Dibs contracts based off of, uh, you know, access to some of that equipment that I knew everything about at the time.

Now, um, that's very fascinating. I, I'm looking at your LinkedIn profile and it says you went from Annheiser Bush, you went over to Boeing.

Uhhuh.

And so, uh, were you doing it prior to going to Boeing or during that time?

During that time. Yeah. So I, I would burn the, uh, the, uh, candle at both ends. So the midnight oil, you know, um, just I was a pretty much a serial entrepreneur, man. Anyone that knew me back in the day when I was really young was like, "Yeah, this guy is about his business, you know." So I'm working during the day in corporate and at night I'm trying to put together a company. And what I liked about Dibs at the time, it's 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So you basically can start bidding on contracts at any time that you have time. You know, there wasn't like at 5:00 the website shuts down. I mean, so I'll be up at 1:00 in the morning like bidding on on Dibs solicitations and trying to understand and getting pricing, working with vendors. And back then, man, we had to fax RFQs because email wasn't really a thing back then. So, I never forget putting together like faxes and sending out RFQs and receiving the faxes and all that kind of stuff, uh, in my home office at the time. So.

So, you're doing this. What year are we talking? We're talking like 1998, 1999.

No way.

Yeah. Yeah. See, I graduated from college in 1996, you know. So.

I was 21 in '96 and got my first job out of college. So, you know, again, two years after that was when I was working in the in the plant at AB and putting it, you know, put pulling this all together.

Wow. So, you've been doing it since the late 90s.

Yes, since the late 90s.

Oh, man. Man, so you supposed to been had a YouTube channel.

Man. Yeah. I, it's just like it was over my head. I had no idea that YouTube had this world, you know. I learned about it literally two years ago.

Did you really?

Yeah. I mean, a lot of folks just don't spend a lot of time on social media, you know. I just, you know, I knew YouTube was there, but I just never knew that you can make money and and do things on YouTube like that. I just.

Yeah. Wow. I didn't. So, you just learned about YouTube two years ago about for this kind of content-wise, right? You know, I, I find that fascinating. Um, when I'm speaking out, I tell people that, um, the reason why I do events now is because the 50 and older crowd doesn't use YouTube for these type of searches.

And so, I've literally segmented that I've learned that that demographic of 50 and up, they're not on YouTube looking at this kind of content. So, I'm like, all my honest typically ranges in the 18 to 35 year old range, uh, as the majority of the mo audience because they, that's what they, they, their startup go-to is YouTube.

Yes.

Where they start.

Right. So they don't start off going to a conference or an event to learn.

No. No. They, that's not that doesn't make any sense. They start at YouTube.

Yeah.

And then now the kids that are the next generation, like the teens, they're starting on TikTok with their searches.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, the old farts like me, we start at the local SBA office. Like, what do you, what the, who office?

The local, that sounds like a phone book, right?

Yeah.

I mean, I get it. I look, I started there as well. I didn't, there was no YouTube when I was coming up and learning this stuff. So that's fascinating. Tell us about, uh, first of all, you didn't introduce yourself. So go ahead and introduce yourself for people listening.

Uh, yeah. Yeah. So my, my name is Ki Hendris. I'm the US government sales manager with the National Material Supply Company. And, uh, we've been servicing, uh, the US military by way of the DA for the past 20 plus years. Uh, as well as a host of other federal agencies. And, um, a couple of years ago, I decided to get involved with, uh, consulting in and supporting other small businesses that may be interested in doing business with the DA. Uh, so I coined the name the DA Guru. And you can find me on YouTube at the DAG Guru, the @ symbol, the DAG guru. And I launched a YouTube channel a little over a year and a half ago. And, uh, we broke about 2,000 subscriber mark a couple of weeks ago. And, uh, it's been great because I get a lot of feedback from folks that are like, new to government contracting. And they've kind of heard, they've been to the local SBA office and and learned a little bit, a little bit about DA. And so they reach out to me and they're like, "Hey, you know, maybe we..." And, uh, you know, I think I guess they're consuming the content because we're approaching about 100,000 views of the videos. And I got a couple, I got about maybe 200 videos or so in my catalog. So it's just kind of building it while I fly it and having a great time meeting people and trying just to empower and inspire folks about doing business with the, uh, with the Defense Logistics Agency.

What have you seen has been, uh, I mean, one of the things you said the website's the same. Um, has there been any changes in in doing business with DA from when you started to today?

Yeah, I think the pandemic really, uh, kind of rocked the DLA as well as, you know, the country in a way because a lot of, uh, what we were doing prior to the pandemic, it seemed like the DA was, was just a little easier to access. You can literally call a contracting officer, get their voicemail, and get a call back within 48 hours. You know, you could send an email and get a response back. They were pretty, you know, they were in the brick-and-mortar, uh, arena. So, there was probably more accountability that was going on prior to the pandemic. But then, you know, with the government's move to everyone kind of telecommuting, working from home, I, it seemed like there was a little bit of a degradation and, uh, the responsiveness that you would get when you had questions regarding solicitations or issues that you may have with contracts. So that's the only thing I kind of noticed, um, you know, like kind of like post-pandemic. But I believe January of this year, the DOA is now moving back into the office. So we start, we we have seen a little bit of an increase in responsiveness. So that's a good thing for those of you who may be interested in getting involved with the DA. Uh, they, they do support, um, uh, small business. And I think it's a new directive for the DA. They're kind of retooling and getting back on track, uh, to make sure that they have the necessary vendor base in place. Folks that know exactly how to do military contracting, know how to do the packaging, labeling, and, uh, understand how to adhere to the terms and conditions of those of those, uh, product supply contracts such that they can support the war fighter and their efforts on, on a global scale. If you're wondering what to do now that Trump is in office, get a free 15-minute assessment call with one of our coaches. Visit govconeric.com/hall to sign up today. Get a free diagnostic of what you and your business should be doing in 2025 to start winning. Now that DEI is gone, all the sets are debating challenge. Figure out where are all the opportunities and what you can do under this new administration to win in 2025.

So, uh, let's talk about some of your content. Um, you know, what are some of the pitfalls that people have when starting with the DA? What are some of the good things, right? Why do you prefer DLA versus SAM? Let's just.

Yeah. Well, you know, believe it or not, the biggest, like I'm starting to kind of collect data points as far as folks that are emailing me and my email address is fed.contracting@nindmsupply.com. But I get a lot of emails coming in saying, "Hey, I'm locked out of Dibs. I'm locked out of Dibs." And that's probably like the number one, like pain point for a lot of vendors. And I don't know, maybe there is a lot of hacks or cybersecurity issues going on with the DA. Uh, folks just trying to get in and kind of shut down the, uh, the war fighter supply chain, you know, potentially. I, I, I don't know exactly what the, what the reason is, but it seems like a lot of folks are having issues with just accessing Dibs. And so, you know, I typically say, hey, just make sure that you answer their questions, check all the boxes, don't try to cut corners because, you know, you will get blocked out, you know. So, I think that's kind of, you know, an issue that's going on. Uh, I, we, as a company, have not experienced any issues. You know, our company's above water, you know, as far as, you know, making sure that we have everything in place, uh, to support, uh, the the war fighter. Uh, so that's one thing that comes to mind.

Uh, tell me about your first contract that you won with DA.

First contract, uh, it was actually for Dayton Motors. And so this takes me back to when I was a, a lowly engineer, uh, working for AB. And, uh, Dayton Motors were all over the plant, you know. So that was one of my jobs was just coming up with the speeds and feeds for conveyor, conveyor systems. So I literally had to size motors and conveyor systems to move the beer from point A to point B. And, um, I had a rep that, uh, worked, uh, with Dayton Motors. And actually, the rep was working with, he was from Granger, you know. So, uh, AB at the time were buying all the Dayton Motors from Granger. And so I had reached out to the rep and saw some opportunities for D, uh, Dayton Motors with the DA and was able to, you know, get pricing, get a great price, and I put a markup on it and, and, and responded to a DA association and got my first award for some Dayton Motors. And it was kind of cool 'cause I knew exactly what the motor was. I knew the part number. It was one that we actually had in the plant. So I knew a lot about what the DA was buying. So I felt very comfortable about selling that to the US military. So yeah, that was my very first contract.

How did you finance it?

Uh, actually through a line of credit, a line of credit with Granger at the time. Granger was kind of giving out accounts, you know. So, like if you had a small business, and of course, I had a few contracts under my belt with the, with the, um, with the state of Missouri. So, I did have some like past performance and things like that with other vendors. But at the time, I remember reaching out to Granger and I think they gave me a line of credit like $5,000, which was a lot of money back in the 90s, man. You know, it's a lot.

Sure.

Um, and so had the line, had the net 30 terms. So I was able to, you know, buy it on, on credit basically and get it shipped. And the deal at the time, you know, they paid net 30. So it just kind of worked out. I got paid. Granger got paid. Everyone's happy.

Oh, nice. Nice. Nice. You know, how did you continue to progress along that path, right?

Yeah. I mean, so from there, it's just more or less looking at more opportunities because the DOA, they, at the time, I mean, even to this day, you know, they have so many solicitations and so many different requirements. And right now, the DA awards over 10,000 contracts every single day. So, there was just kind of this huge, you know, array, I call it a sea, the DAC of opportunities. So I, you know, I would just cherry-pick different types of motor, uh, contracts and just going after anything that I knew that I could, that I had some understanding of, like actuators, you know, I started getting into valves and pumps because that's kind of what I was doing working at the plant. And so there was just a, a wide array of those types of opportunities that the, uh, DA had on Dibs at the time.

Nice, nice, nice, nice. You know, now you're bidding on DA Dibs. Uh, have you used any other platforms to win DA contracts, or is Dibs the primary only platform?

Yeah, Dibs is the only place that I've gone as relates to product supply. Now, of course, you can go on SAM.gov. Yeah, you mentioned that in your first question about SAM.gov. Yeah, the DOA is very active on SAM. You know, you can find, um, a lot of service-based type contract opportunities on SAM.gov. The DOA is always doing research and development, uh, working with different military customers. So you may find, uh, some opportunities, uh, uh, sources, sought type opportunities on SAM.gov where the DOA is the requestor. Uh, but we, uh, traditionally have not pursued those types of opportunities on the SAM.gov array. So our company specifically focus on, uh, uh, focuses with the DA on Dibs.

Okay. All right. So what are some of the, uh, common questions that people ask you about?

Uh, they always ask, "What product can I sell to get rich?"

All right. Let's go.

Hey, man. Okay. All right. Yeah. So, that's that's one that's a real common question. I think everyone is just kind of looking at the GovCon space because there's a lot of information that's floating out on YouTube and like TikTok and all the different social media platforms that says, "Hey, you can become a multi-millionaire overnight, you know, doing government contracting." So I think people look at, you know, the DA spends about $51 billion a year, you know, that's kind of like their annual budget and they spend it, you know, and so there's, there's a lot of money going through this agency. So folks are always trying to find the path of least resistance. And so that's a lot of questions that I get from a consulting perspective. What products do I recommend you sell? Um, and it's, it's hard to kind of say like what product I recommend, um, because, you know, like you may have a requirement this year where the military may, may not have that requirement next year. So I always look at ways to, instead of thinking about getting rich selling to the DA, I always say try to find a path where you can support the DOA and support the war fighter. So, uh, the, the DA's motto is, you know, "War fighter always," you know. So if you kind of have that type of, uh, frame of thinking, frame, you know, mind frame, I think that you're going to find ample opportunities to support the DA, but you got to come at it, uh, from the the right perspective. Um, now, as it relates to industries that I think that are very, that could be very lucrative for small businesses, I think if you can get into the manufacturing sector, you know, so the DA has two types of products. They have commercial off-the-shelf type products, and then they have custom-built products. So the commercial off-the-shelf is great, especially if you have great relationships with some of those brands, uh, where you can get like tier one pricing. Um, fantastic if you, if you have, you know, those connections into that world. But the manufacturing, custom manufacturing, uh, uh, uh, arena is one that's teeming with opportunity because during the co, during the pandemic, um, there was a lot of in, uh, that industry, just there, it got decimated, you know, a lot of mom and pop manufacturing companies are no longer, I mean, you may have had key people in those organizations that ended up, uh, passing away from, from, you know, um, getting sick and things of that nature. So, it just really rocked the industrial base for the DOA and the US military. Uh, the last I checked, uh, Eric, I think that they lost over 33% of their industrial base. And that's, that's a bad thing for the war fighter. And so, they know that this is kind of priority number one. How do we stimulate the US economy and find, uh, opportunities for companies to get back into manufacturing? And so, you know, that's part of what we do on our channel. I talk a lot about, um, you know, companies taking on the plunge and getting involved from a, either rapid prototyping or, um, or, uh, 3D printing, 3D, you know, that, you know, that, you know, uh, th those types of arenas where you're able to take a look at what the war fighter needs and see if you can build it versus trying to go buy it, you know, so that make versus buy kind of scenario. So, I think that if you're able to kind of get in that lane, uh, you can pretty much write your ticket.

So, you said there's two lanes. There's commercial off the shelf and then there's manufacturing, right?

Mhm.

Okay. All right. So, how would someone go into getting to either of the two lanes? What's, what would be the path?

So, the path, so let's say that you're, you know, you're interested in commercial. I always recommend folks to always get involved in things that you know about. Like for example, my first contracts, again, I knew about pumps, motors, actuators 'cause I'm in the plant and that's what I'm doing. I knew what the brands, I knew what an actuator was. A lot of folks are like, "What in the world is an actuator?" Well, you got to know what it is in order to sell it, you know, kind of thing. And so, um, that's what I recommend. Get involved in commercial products that you know something about. Uh, I get a lot of student clients that say, "Hey, I'm interested in doing medical supplies, but I also, you know, I want to do ammunition and I want to do this." And I'm like, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. One, does it support the other, you know?" And so, you know, I always say focus in on what you know, and that way you'll have just kind of a lane and you won't have analysis paralysis and just be overwhelmed. Uh, now from the manufacturing, uh, uh, sector of it, I think you have to partner with companies that have the ability to produce products. And so you have to have kind of what I call a sourcing hat to find mom and pop manufacturers who may be in your backyard. I always recommend student clients, if you're in Florida, there's no sense in you trying to like, you know, marry someone that's all the way in California. You know, you want to look in Florida, find out what the industrial base is there. See if you can bring some value to companies that may not know anything about government contracting, may not care about government contracting. And so you are able to be a value-added partner by understanding who the customer is and then bringing opportunities to those particular partners to see if you guys can create, uh, um, uh, create a, uh, a relationship that can support the war fighter.

I like it. I like it. What are, uh, some of the common missteps that people have when approaching DA?

So, com, the common missteps is not really well, one being afraid. I think a lot of folks think it's US military, everything is military grade. I don't want to make a mistake and send the wrong thing and end up in the federal penitentiary somewhere. I, so I think people are kind of afraid of it. And it can't, and I can see why. You know, it's the US military. You know, you always think, yeah, you don't, the worst thing you can have is a helicopter flying over your house or something, right? Um, and so that's one misstep. You know, you shouldn't be afraid. You know, one to, you know, the DA does great with their office of small business programs. Uh, you can reach out to the office of small business programs, let them know who you are, let them know you're interested in whichever command that may be, you know, Land and Maritime, DA Aviation, DA Energy, uh, DA Medical. And reach out to them and say, "Hey, we're a small business. We're new to the DA. This is our capability statement. You know, we're interested in learning more about how we can support." Uh, the very first question I think that I, I, I recommend student clients ask the office of small business programs is, "Hey, what areas is the DA lacking? Like, what types of products are no one bidding on? Let, let me take a look at the no-bid list." You start there and then see if the no-bid list jives with what you may offer. And that way, you may find a path to support the war fighter in their effort as well.

And they'll give you that information?

Yeah. Yeah. The office of small business programs. Yeah. They'll definitely get it. Now, it, it depends on which office that you're talking to because a lot of them, I'm, I'm hearing they say, "Hey, call Apex. You don't call us, call Apex." And so, they're kind of leaning on the Apex Accelerators to kind of support them because I, I imagine these guys get inundated with emails and phone calls. And so, they're just trying to delegate and spread the, spread the work around a little bit. So, if you get, if you're lucky enough to, uh, get referred to an Apex Accelerator and they're in your region and you got a, you know, great team, um, that supports, uh, the, you know, the local Apex Accelerator. Yeah, you, you will definitely get your hands on the information, uh, as it relates to what, how you can help the war fighter.

So, all right. So, what are my first steps? I get registered in Dibs.

Yes.

Okay. Um, I determine whether I'm doing COTS or manufacturing. So, I've got some supply relationships. All right. I've called them. Let's say they gave me the list. Yes, these are all the things that we're falling short on. Uh, you know, how do we, what do you recommend next?

Uh, recommend next, one, uh, well, you're going to get a huge database of things that are falling short on. Keep in mind, there are over 100,000 solicitations at one time that may be out in the, in the deal on Dibs. And again, they're awarding like 10,000 contracts a day. So there, there's a lot of activity going on. So you can get a little bit overwhelmed with the amount of information that's there. So, I definitely recommend seek coaching, seek consulting, you know, seek, uh, folks that have been in the space that might be able to help you kind of, um, dumb it down and to, to basically put it in layman's terms for you versus you kind of bumping your head and skinning your knee and trying to figure it out on your own, especially if you're new to the space. Because there may be solicitations or or national stock numbers where there may not really be demand for the item and that's why no one's bid on it or even folks that have bid and didn't get awarded because the war fighter no longer needs it. So, you have to have someone that has like the Dakota ring to kind of help you understand if there really is a strong demand for that item before you decide to kind of tool up and get involved in manufacturing for that item. But you kind of need some, someone to kind of give you some assistance, um, versus you trying to figure out on your own. So, that's what I recommend.

One thing that you mentioned earlier was you mentioned a couple names like, uh, DA Land and Maritime and some of the other, uh, regions within DA. How does someone know which one of those to choose to work with?

Yeah, because each one of those, uh, commands will purchase a certain type of product to support the war fighter in that arena. So like for example, DA Land and Maritime, they're focusing on land, uh, land military assets and maritime, that is anything that floats on water. And so if you are, um, you mentioned COTS, you know, commercial off-the-shelf type items or manufacturing items, if you have some background in understanding, let's say for example, I have a student client that focuses on Ford motor parts, you know, Ford has a lot of military contracts, you know. So if you're able to have access to Ford at a level where you have a relationship with distributors that work with Ford, or you may be able to buy directly from the OEM, then the D8 will be a great customer for you because there's a bunch of products that link back to Ford manufacturing, you know, whether it be part numbers or whatnot. So that way you can look at on a, on a COTS perspective, you know. Now, if you're getting into like manufacturing, there may be products where the OEM no longer supports that, you know. Uh, I was talking to a student client this morning and for example, you know, Boeing, Boeing has programs or products that they may produce for the military and they may have like a, a 20-year contract where they may produce so many birds, you know, for the first 10 years and then they'll support those birds for the next 10 years where they may have spare parts and things like that. So after those programs kind of, uh, deescalate and, and so where, you know, uh, Boeing is no longer supporting it, those particular assets are still out there in the field. You know, the military is still doing overhaul. They still have those, those types of assets still in, you know, still active. And so then they look on the small business community or the DA to go after buying the spare parts that they may need in order to keep those assets going where they don't look at Boeing any longer because Boeing doesn't do, let's say, short runs. So now they're looking for manufacturers that can produce short-run, uh, opportunity, uh, uh, products to support those, those platforms.

Why would, um, going back to your example of Ford, why would Ford not sell directly to them?

Yeah. Yeah. Perfect example. Because it may not be, uh, it, it may, it may be what's considered short run, you know. So, uh, Ford may say, "Hey, look, we, we build, um, and there's economies of scale, you know. We're not going to just build 10, uh, 10 hinges that go on a, on a, on a particular military vehicle." But you may find smaller mom and pop shops that are, that's what they do. They do short-run production, you know. So they're, they're set up to be able to retool easily. Whereas a bigger company, it's, it's really costly for them to change their tools and their dyes and things like that in order to bring on a short run. It's just not profitable for them. So they, they dump their nose at it. And the DA is very, very small business-centric. And so a lot of times when you go on Dibs, I think like 80% of their procurements are made through small businesses. So the DA is really one of those agencies that wants to find folks that are able to do short-run manufacturing, hence small businesses. You know, the larger, the bigger boys, they don't, they don't operate in that, in that arena typically.

Just going back because you brought up Apex Accelerator. Uh, is this an area where Apex Accelerator can help people?

Uh, it depends on what region of the country you're in.

What regions can they help people in? How about that?

Probably Florida. I'm sure you're down there in Florida.

I don't know about, I don't know about them people.

Why would you sue Florida that they can help?

Well, it seems like there's a lot of content creators like yourself and, you know, bigger content creators are kind of like coming out of Florida. I'm like, "Wow, Florida must be teeming with opportunity." And.

What does that do with Apex? How does that relate to Apex?

Well, you know, Apex, they help small businesses or medium, you know, they're there to support, you know, government contractors, right? Right. So, I kind of think that, you know, maybe there's a, a great community down there because there's so many folks that are doing big things down in Florida. Uh, whereas if you're like in smaller areas of the country where Apex may not have really quality consultants or folks that really don't know what they, what the heck they're doing, you know, it doesn't really, you're just chasing your tail a little bit there.

Guess you're assuming.

Now, that's just an assumption.

You're assuming, right? Like, I don't know. You can say, "I don't know." It's.

Yeah. I don't know. I, I don't know a good answer. These.

My Apex Acceler, uh, Apex, they're the reason why I started a YouTube channel because they didn't exist.

Wow.

So the opposite is actually true. Places where they have great Apex Accelerators, you don't need content creators making content because people know what they're doing.

Ah, okay.

Think about that standpoint. You got to come out here and make it because the people don't know what they're doing because there's no one giving information. So someone has to come out and provide that tools. Places where people are giving access to great information probably has far less people doing it what I do because they don't need this information because they already have it.

Ah, interesting. I didn't think of it that way.

Yeah. See, you're looking at the cup half full instead of half empty. You were trying to be very positive, which is admirable.

Yeah.

But no, um, we've, we, um, we haven't had a great accelerator experiences here in Florida. In fact, that's the reason why I do my conference now in South Florida because there, the lack of information to government contracting, federal contract in particular, it's so sparse down here that we have this huge industrial base that could help support the war fighter, but because they don't know how to do it, because no one's paying us any attention. Um, that's the reason why I decided to bring my annual conference to the Miami Broward area because I want to inform all of those people and I want to introduce the government decision makers how to come and work with us because we have not only just the South Florida community, but now we have all the financial communities moving here, u because we've got the private equity funds, the wealth managers, and all those guys that control a lot of the monies coming to South Florida, and they're buying tech, they're buying, um, all the innovation. And so again, if we could just help bring the government piece to that, we can help accelerate and solve some of these issues that we're talking about.

Okay. All right.

That's why I did it because it was, it was a gaping hole here.

Gaping hole. Wow. Well, you guys.

It was a sinkhole that we're trying to fill.

You know.

So, I'm giving the, I'm giving the credit to the wrong, to the wrong agency.

Right. Right. Right. You're like, "Oh, yeah. They trained you guys so well that you go push it out there." No, they didn't exist to the fact that, uh, one of my friends won SBA, uh, award down here in Florida. And when he got there on stage, he said, they said, uh, with all the SBA people, he goes, "You know, I'm so happy to finally meet you guys. I, I haven't talked to you since I got started the program." [Laughter]

Got it. Got it. Got it. Well.

That was that was his speech on stage.

Wow. Wow. Yeah. So, all right. Well, lesson learned for me. I mean, my experience with, uh, the SBA has been fantastic. I mean, here in St. Louis. And we have an office here in St. Louis and in Dallas, Texas. So, I'm in St. Louis, uh, for the spring and out here. I have just had great contacts whether it be through the, uh, ADA program because I, we were part of the ADA program from 2009 to 2018, really. And my, my point of contact was fantastic, uh, here, you know, helped out with a lot of, uh, the opportunities that came across our desk. You know, never really gave a lot of pushback. And if I had some issues and needed some support, he was always a great place to go and get access to information to support our company. So, you know, I'm, I'm speaking from a perspective that if you got a great office, you will, you will shine, you know. And so if you don't have a great office, I think it's going to be more difficult. But you created the office, which is awesome. Um, now Texas is a little different. You know, I did have some conversations with some Apex Accelerator folks and it was not a very good experience. And I was like, "Okay, yeah." And so, you know, I think there may be some opportunities to have your team come to Texas.

You know. Well, that's why, you know, again, I was, I wanted, uh, to give a plug to some people that were doing good jobs. And, um, you know, you then try to give credit, some credit where it was not deserved. Uh, so I was trying to like, "Okay, tell me the good people because I, that's a question that people ask me all the time. Um, they're struggling having finding good help and decent assistance out there. And clearly, we can't serve everyone. Uh, so I want to steer people towards some of the better places that you've run into with those experiences because I'm not all over the world. I don't know. So if someone else say like, "Yeah, well, I've had a good experience," then that's kind of what I want to do because everyone says, "Go there," but no one has actually had the experience. So then they can't tell you whether it's good or bad. I'm looking for someone to say, "Yes, we had a great experience here. This is a great place to start." Because sometimes what I find is that a lot of times, particularly small business and minorities in general, they are self-defeated before they begin.

Yeah. Yeah.

And so we can't, if, if some people are going there and they're getting a bad experience, they're like, "This doesn't work. I've already talked to them. These guys don't want to help."

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So, I'm trying to get people to go into some places where, um, that they could get some of that encouragement, support that, that it's needed, right? Because there's people that's boots on the ground. I, you know, so we can only do so much from, from our prayer view up top. But if there were some great resources that I could forward people to, I would love to hear about them. And that's kind of what I was looking for.

Okay, cool. Well, hey, well, Missouri is definitely a state to to consider. Put that on your radar screen.

Missouri for SBA people. For SBA.

All right.

For SBA. Yeah. SBA and Apex. You know, I've talked to some Apex Accelerator folks as well. Um, and, you know, once you get your account set up, you know, they are there to support, at least they've supported our company, um, from, you know, just kind of contacts, you know, they're able, they do a lot of networking here in Missouri as it relates to that.

Yeah. No, that's great. No, that's good. So, let's, uh, I'm looking at one of your videos two months ago. It says, "Top five reasons to dropship through DA and Dibs."

Let's run through that.

All right. Cool, cool, cool.

Talk to me. Oh, so you direct thought you had a question about it.

Yeah, that's, tell me what, go through the video. Talk to me about it.

Uh, okay. So, man, I have so many videos. So, uh, let's see. I guess.

I mean, it doesn't have to be that. I mean, I don't, whatever. What are some of the top five reasons to to dropship through daily and Dibs?

Yeah. Uh, some of the top five reasons. One, uh, bec, Okay. So the reason why I came up with that and if I recall right, that video, uh, there are a lot of folks that are kind of, uh, in that, that Amazon, um, you know, industry, you know, where a lot of folks kind of got working with Jeff Bezos and his team for the past, you know, 10, 20 years and supporting Amazon from a dropship perspective, you know, the Fulfilled by Amazon program. And some folks are getting a little disgruntled, you know, about what's happened. You know, Amazon has be, has, you know, corporate America, it's become corporatized, guys. And, um, and so a lot of folks felt like there's a lot of pressure. Uh, it's really competitive. They're competing on price and they're not really competing on value. And so they're kind of moving that model and saying that, "We like this dropship model, but we need some new customers that we can potentially work with, uh, because it's just been saturated in the Amazonian space." And so I, I, I, I recommend that folks that are in like pure dropship, they understand that model from warehousing, taking the product from point A to point B, to consider government contracting. And I think government contracting could be kind of the next bit, the next area, the next boom, um, as Amazon was, you know, 15, 20 years ago, but for dropshippers. And so the DA is pure. It's, it's, it's a great, uh, organization that, that's all they care about is products. They want you to basically in essence dropship products, but of course, you have to meet certain criteria, um, because, you know, we're talking about military-grade products. There's military packaging, labeling requirements, and things of that nature. But they don't need you to show up to their warehouse. You know, they basically, you get it shipped to them, and the DA takes care of it from there. So, um, that's one reason, you know, I think it's just, uh, an emerging opportunity where it's teeming with opportunity, uh, for folks that understand that that type of business model. Two, um, it's the federal government, you know, it's a gift that keeps on giving. It's recession-proof, you know, so you don't, the, the federal government must feed, they must buy in order to kind of keep the economy going. So, you got a customer that's always going to be there. Uh, there's always going to be requirements. You never, you're never going to go on Dibs and see, uh, a lack of opportunity on Dibs. And, and it's always, uh, it's a dynamic platform where right now the DOA manages a database of about 5 million.

National Stock Numbers. So anything that you find on DIBS is linked back to an NSN, which is basically almost kind of like a UPC code would be to a product. It's a unique product identifier. And so this database of five million, in a sense, is dynamic, meaning that in a sense, are coming in and coming out of it. You know, as products are decommissioned or the military no longer needs it, they're being removed. And as the military is buying new technologies, new types of military assets, they're adding more, in a sense, into it. So it's always going to be this database that's kind of breathing. And so if you have access to the knowledge and you understand this customer and you know how to sell to this customer, you you'll forever have opportunities to support from a product drop ship perspective, uh, to, uh, to the DLA. So, you know, that those are two that just come off the top of my head. And of course, you know, it's a great community, uh, for you to build a business. You know, like a lot of what we've done in our company over the past 20 years, you know, I I've put together, uh, internship programs where we work with local universities, and this is something that anyone could do in their backyard as well to to have have community.

And so what we do through our internship programs is teach young people about government contracting. So, I have them actually come in my office, learn about selling to the DLA, learn how to build, you know, uh, relationships with vendors. Vendor management because vendors, you know, they're here today, gone tomorrow. Companies come and go, you know, and so knowing how to communicate with, uh, and building your vendor base as well as building your internal team is definitely a pro as it relates to selling to the DLA. So, it's just not only just selling the products, but if you're really about building community, building building something more than just you, um, the DLA is definitely an awesome customer for that as well.

"Nice, nice, nice. Uh, you know, people who says it sounds really hard, what do you say to them?"

"Yeah, it is. I would never tell anyone that it's easy and it's not a get-rich-quick scheme. It's, you know, it's a marathon, you know, not a sprint. It's government contracting. You know, you want to make sure that, and I don't recommend you sprinting because, you know, we're talking about people's lives. You know, you're talking about military folks and, you know, you want to make sure that they're getting what they need and that that product performs because it could be, you know, life or death for a soldier, you know. So, I don't think that you want to rush into this. You have to have the It's hard if you kind of think I'm going to get rich overnight. It's going to be hard. But if you kind of look at it from down the line in building community, building something where the military can look at you as a subject matter expert and then they begin to send you RFQs versus you finding RFQs, you start to get, you know, cap um what they call market research surveys that come to you straight from the DLA. That's when you know you're doing something right, you know, and so um that's why it's hard. I think people have the wrong focus, the the wrong mind frame as it relates to government contracting in my opinion."

"Well, you know, it's interesting that you say that because I think a lot of times um what I've seen is that people come in, they say, 'I'm a woman. I'm a veteran. I'm a, you know, STFC. I'm a hub zone.' Um, how does any of that apply to DLA?"

"Yeah. So, DLA loves socioeconomic distinctions. I mean, I don't have um I guess the cross-section of how many DLA solicitations are set aside for socioeconomic uh distinctions or not, but I know that they they do about 80% of the procurements are done with small businesses and then I guess from that 80% you can then kind of cut that up into woman-owned, veteran-owned businesses, hub zone vendors, ADA vendors, and things of that nature. But yeah, the DLA is very centric to socioeconomic factors, uh, as it relates to it. I If you go on DIBS, you'll see that they'll show you like there's an icon next to the solicitation that shows you what what factor, uh, or distinction it has been set aside for. So set-asides are a big thing with the DLA."

"But um you still have to buy the products, ship the products, deliver the products, right? Um so what advantages I guess does a person have um for the socioeconomic? Is it just the fact that it like no one else can bid it?"

"Yeah, it limits competition. So, you know, like it it doesn't necessarily block out competition, but what it will do is give preference. So, let's say that you are a veteran-owned business and you go after a veteran-owned set-aside, but your price is 400% higher than someone who's a non-vet who may be bidding on the same opportunity. Because just because it's a set-aside doesn't uh remove you from being able to bid on it if you don't uh have that that set-aside status. Um, and I don't know how the what range the DLA will allow an overage of like what's considered a fair market price because you're a vet. But my my the way that we teach our our student clients that come in through my master classes is, you know, bid your best price. Always bid to win. You know, bid that's going to benefit your organization. But the fact that the DLA is even putting a socioeconomic slapping that factor on it means that, hey, they they would really love for this opportunity to go to like check that box for whatever their um uh their uh participation goals are, you know. So, uh, long as you're not trying to charge $1,000 for a hammer, you you'll have a shot at winning the contract, right? And so um yeah, again, I think the DLA has definitely proved well for us. You know, for example, we are we're a hub zone company. And so we do find that we win um a considerable amount of contracts um to support the hub zone program um with the DLA. And I'm not going to say that we just focus myopically on hub zone, you know, because DLA is is huge. I mean, we we bid on woman-owned set-aside contracts as well because, hey, we may have a better price than than a woman-owned business and it may meet whatever criteria that the DLA has in has in place to say that's a fair market price. we're going to go ahead and go with the non-WSB company because it it benefits the taxpayer or benefits the war fighter in a better way."

"Okay. So then non-woman-owned businesses can can bid on those contracts?"

"Yeah, of course. Yeah, you can. Yeah."

"Well, you say of course, that's not what people assume when they look at that."

"Oh, okay."

"Well, that's why I'm here to educate. Remember, we're here to educate. If I saw something that said woman-owned business and I said, 'I'm not a woman-owned business,' I would not bid it."

"Oh, yeah. Okay. You can bid it. Yeah, you could."

"Does that make sense? Like we assume that it's only for women-owned businesses."

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, because a lot of times too, keep this in mind that a woman-owned business may not bid it. All right. So even though it's a woman-owned business set-aside, there may not be a woman-owned business that has the ability to procure that product, but a small business comes in and they can do it. So the DLA is then going to say, 'Hey, we'll go ahead and award it to the, you know, a non-woman small business uh partner.'"

"How often does that happen where uh people are not bidding these projects? Do you know?"

"Uh, I think it's a huge number. Uh, I don't know exactly what the number is, but I if you look at Yeah. I mean, the last time we pulled one of the and I think this was Landon Maritime, we pulled their no-bid list, there were over 10,000 solicitations that were on the no-bid list. Like 10,000. It was like, 'Wow, this is gonna take a long time to go through all this,' you know, you know. So, yeah, it's it's a it the DLA needs help. It it definitely needs help. And that's another reason, uh, Eric, why I launched my channel because I wanted to get the word out. I didn't think the DLA was doing a very good job in marketing who they are. I I don't know if you've looked at some of their content. I mean, I think last I checked, the DLA has an official YouTube channel, and I think they have like less than 500 subscribers on the channel, you know."

"Really? This is a Yeah, go ahead. Log on there. Look it up."

"It's like I'm like, why in the world is the DLA not promoting this stuff more? But believe it or not, man, two years ago when I kind of got into the space and started kind of dibbling and dabbling and got really serious about a year and a half ago with it that the DLA wasn't doing a whole lot. Guess what? They have an Instagram page now. I I think I kind of shook some stuff up over there, man. You know, like, 'Who is this guy? The DLA guru.' Oh, no. We can't let him outshine. They now have 4,000 subscribers."

"Oh, now okay, it's jumped now. All right. Last I checked it was like 500 subscribers though. But"

"But I mean the content"

"I mean"

"How many videos do they have in their catalog about"

"Uh, 1.3K."

"Okay. All right. So"

"Yeah, but I mean they're talking about all kind of things. They're not it's not how to win contracts, right? It's like, you know, supporting the force and like it's not has nothing it's not necessarily winning contracts."

"Yeah."

"It's about the operations. It's about their, you know, it's about the people working there, stuff like that. Uh, like award shows. It's not about actual contracts."

"Exactly. Yeah. Last time when I checked, it was like 500 or something. And I remember that it was like, wait a minute, these videos are talking about, you know, like, 'Congratulations on 30 years of service.'"

"Yes. And I was like, yes, that's what it's talking about. Yeah. Not how to do business with DLA. No."

"Yeah."

"Interesting. Um, no, that's that's uh wow. So again um going back u you know, we talked about the different parts DLA, we talked about uh national stock numbers, DLA um right, building up uh a database C versus manufacturing. What other things that you want to share people um who are considering doing this?"

"Yeah, some other things to share is, hey, you know, government contracting is a huge arena and and I know Eric, you talk a lot about, you know, service-based contracts on SAM.gov. A lot of folks are are always kind of like vouching for past performance and I always say, hey, DLA is a great bar. The barriers to entry are so low that you can get involved in DLA and sell some products that you can literally go down to your local Walmart and resell to the DLA to get some past performance. It's it's so much low-hanging fruit. Now, you got a federal agency, one of the largest in the federal contract community that you can say, 'Hey, I actually performed on a contract with the Defense Logistics Agency. Here's my contract number. Here's the period of performance. I have I have past performance uh in as a federal contractor, you know.' So, I I recommend folks look at the DLA as a great source just to kind of get involved and understand a little bit more about it and and you know, benefit is you'll get some past performance along the way."

"I like it. I like it. No, I like it. I like it. That sounds good. I um No, that's I like that. I like what you're doing. It's interesting because um, you know, I only know a couple people that are working into the DLA and so um I'm always fascinated by it. Uh, what what what was the hardest thing that you had to overcome um on a DLA project that you performed on?"

"Hardest thing to overcome is uh sometimes you get yourself uh a little bit not understanding what the true requirements are in the contract, you know. So, uh our company um from time to time will get contracts where we're doing O-rings, right? So, to support some of the aircraft out there. So, uh the DLA uh is really meticulous about how they want things to be packaged. I remember one time we had a contract with like 5,000 O-rings. And they wanted each O-ring to be individually packaged and individually labeled. And so, you know, it's like, wait a minute, 5,000 O-rings. And the O-rings were like the size of a dime. So, just imagine the amount of labor that goes into literally taking one O-ring, putting it in a bag, heat sealing it, putting a label on it, and then, you know, shipping this thing out. And so, we kind of lost our shirt on those, you know, early on, you know, those types of contracts. Not really understanding the labor cost, the overhead that goes into just doing the the the packaging of it."

"And um and so that's where you can kind of shoot yourself in the foot and not really understanding that. So that's what you know I recommend folks take a look at you know content uh take classes to really understand it where folks are giving you giving you the the I guess the the 101s so that you don't get yourself in a in a pickle and lose a ton of money uh going after DLA contracts where you don't really understand what the requirements really are."

"I like it. I like it. I like it. No, that's good. That's good. Well, um, as we're approaching on time here, why don't you go ahead and, uh, close people out. We're going to have all of your contact information, all your socials, everything on the platform. Um, but I always like to leave people with some positive words, uh, giving them hope, uh, that this is possible. And, you know, because again, it's difficult, right, when you're sitting down, you're trying to figure out what do I do? Do I go here? Do I do this? Do I sell this? Um, you know, it's just it's really challenging for a lot of small businesses. and I understand um what that's like and I know and um like yourself, it's been a long time since I started from zero so I so it's hard for me to put myself back in that driver's seat but um, you know, I'll let you go ahead and close people out with a message from the DLA guru."

"Yeah, thanks thanks Eric, fantastic man. And u yeah, one thing to support your your comment there and as to close out, I've I'm working on creating a a DLA vendor network. So over on LinkedIn, and you were checking out my LinkedIn page there. Uh, if folks are interested in just kind of being a part of the DLA vendor community because I think it's so disjointed in this space that no one really knows who's doing what. You know, a lot of questions going here, there. And I think if we're able to kind of create a community effect, not only on YouTube, but some of the other platforms where we can start to kind of share notes, company capability statements, this is who we are, this is where we're located. You ne you never know, you may have some companies in your backyard where you guys might be able to sit down and break bread and go after larger DLA opportunities because you're forming partnerships. And so um I would say, yeah, definitely take take a look at my channel, reach out to me, fedcontractingsupply.com, get involved in learning more about the DLA and how we can create a a huge DLA vendor network."

"That's awesome. Well, Ki, listen, so much for coming on today. We appreciate you sharing your information as always. Um, you know, again, we need more people out there making content um about some of these opportunities because uh what I found is that a lot of times we just don't know it exists. Kind of like what you said to me before, you didn't know YouTube existed, uh, and then you were able to see someone that looked like you on YouTube and so you're like, 'Okay, I can do this.' Uh, same thing I think with DLA, right? As we see more and more uh people that are in this space that are successfully doing it, and also we know we have some people that we can turn to for help if we get stuck or get in a pickle. Hopefully um you turn to people for help before you get into that situation, but I know my people, they'll wait till they get in a situation to turn for help. So that's okay. I'm okay."