2005 in Review

2005 was one of the busiest but also exciting years of my life. Early in the year I was in the final stages of filming Hooking Up. (I can’t believe that it has already been a year since I filmed the last episode that aired! ) While filming, I landed a systems engineering subcontracting deal for my company with the Department of Defense; my first government contract. I had a steep learning curve since government contracting is very different than contracting in the private sector, as my company had done before.

No sooner than the excitement had set in, I learned that the prime contract was up for recompete- meaning that the contract was at risk since it was open for bidding by any company. All in one month, as I was working with my client (the prime contractor) to write the contract bid proposal, I had to also juggle working on the project for which they had hired me, securing business liability insurance required for the contract (a challenge because my company is small, technology based, and has a government client), developing ventureheart.com, hiring a programmer for ventureheart.com’s online professional community, and doing television appearances such as the View and ET. Hands down, it was the busiest month of my life.

After that, the pace didn’t slow down much. Hooking Up aired and there was the associated launch party and viewing parties. I had about a month to catch up with life (things I had put on hold during the year) then it was off to Texas for nearly two months to test a system for my client. While there, I went to the National Minority Supplier Development Council Annual Conference to network for more business opportunities and attend workshops (I promised to write a blog about it! I will…soon.)

As soon as I got back from Texas, I uncovered an opportunity for more business with my client which required hiring another person. I had established my business as family owned and basically only had my brother and father working up until this point. Bringing on a non-family member posed a whole host of other challenges where I had to pay much more attention to labor laws. I had to learn what felt like almost every labor law and construct a competitive offer in about two week’s time, all the while, working on the most demanding aspect of testing the system for my client (the analysis) and trying to keep up ventureheart.com and my blog.

My potential new hire had offers from three competitors, two of which were billion dollar companies. Knowing that our prime’s contract was up for recompete, rightfully, she didn’t want to sign with us unless we had a secure subcontract. A couple of long, nerve racking weeks later, I got news that prime contractor was awarded the contract - which meant our subcontract was stable for several years to come- and all of my hard work paid off when she signed with us. I threw a first annual company holiday party to celebrate our achievements and set the direction for the year to come.

Although 2005 was prosperous, it was also the only year that I didn’t travel outside of the country since 1999. That is going to change for 2006- I have already booked my trip.