Your credibility

Can you prove you know what you are doing?

1. The government’s risk aversion: The government is highly risk averse, and a new vendor is riskier than the company that has been providing products and services to them for years. And this is a huge barrier for new businesses
2. The government worries that new businesses:
   1. Don’t know what they are doing (they can’t deliver the promised product or service)
   2. Can’t manage their work
   3. Can’t comply with the government’s regulations
3. New businesses don’t have track record: New businesses don’t have:
   1. Successful projects and contracts that demonstrate that they know what they are doing
   2. Happy customers to reference
4. Validating your credibility: Since your company doesn’t have reference-able work experience you will have to leverage your, and your cofounders experiences, and other validators that you know what you are doing

Things that build your credibility

• Past performance: Projects that you have done at other jobs, preferably jobs where:
  • The work was similar
  • The customer was similar
  • The size and complexity was similar
  • You had a leadership role
• Corporate certifications: Any relevant certificates your company has (e.g. ISO 9001, or an approved accounting system). Typically, new businesses don’t have these but if you do it’s great.
• Employee certifications: Any validators that you and your employees know what they are doing:
  • Years of professional experience
  • Relevant degrees
  • Relevant certifications

If you aren’t credible you probably shouldn’t start that business

• This is “Table Stakes:” Most customers and partners won’t work with you if you don’t check some of these credibility boxes:
  • If you don’t deliver the customer wont be able to complete their mission
  • If you don’t deliver the prime will look bad in front of their customer
  • There are lots of other companies out there that are credible
• Your Initial Primary Offering: When selecting your IPO prioritize products and services where you have the strongest credibility. Remember:
  • You can add other products and services later
  • Your first three contracts are the hardest to win
  • Once you have momentum, relationships and staff thanks to you initial wins everything else becomes easier

What to do

• Look at your list of options: Look at each of the options you identified in the last exercise. There may be products and services on your list that you did once, or that were a small part of your professional background. Even if you really enjoyed those projects or want your company to provide them we strongly recommend putting those options on the shelf for now
• Create copies: Open your workbook, go to the page on credibility, and create a copy for each of the options where you have at least some credibility
• List your credibility factors: List any projects, degrees, and certifications that you have related to the product or service you are considering.
• Down select: Review your options and we recommend choosing the three where you have the most credibility
• What happens next: We are going to evaluate your high credibility options to explore:
  • The federal market for each
  • How you can differentiate yourself from the competition
  • Select the best one to be your IPO

Example: