How to Land Lucrative Government Contracts with Susanne Mariga

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Welcome to She Sells Radio if you have been a listener now for any amount of time then you know that I am obsessed

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with you not just making more money but also becoming more profitable and prosperous as you do so today I am

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bringing you a guest who is an expert in both making money in the 7even to eight figure range as well as how to generate

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more profit out of that money because at the end of the day that is what actually matters in your business so my guest

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today is Susanne Mariga she’s a CPA and fractional CFO specializing in high net

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worth strategies for seven and eight figure entrepreneurs using the profit first system Susanne is the CEO of the

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maica group she’s the 2021 profit first professional firm of the year which is

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incredible as well as the author of profit first for minority business enterprises so we’re going to be talking

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today about all things profit I want to find out how the top 1% are maximizing their profits as well as

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we’re going to be talking about how to expand into creating really lucrative government contracts which we’ve never

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discussed on the show before but suzan is an expert in and I was like I want to learn more about that too so I’m excited

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to dive in because I know I’m going to be learning a ton along with you Susanne welcome to She Sales Radio I’m so

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excited to have you here and I know we’re going to talk about all the things and it’s going to be really really powerful for our conversation so welcome

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well thank you Elyse I’m excited be here and to be able to talk about my favorite conversation too of increasing profits

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yes oh my gosh yeah I can’t wait to dive in um and also just to have your perspective we were connecting a been in

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the pre- chat you’re a mom a lot of our listeners are moms and they’re running their businesses while also taking care

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of family and kids and so I just I love having the perspective of someone who gets it and is like in the game way that

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you are so here’s what I would love to know though just in terms of your backstory and what got you into this

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work work Susanne so before founding your firm you were working at both Arthur Anderson and KPMG I believe right

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um so I’m just curious did you always know that you wanted to get into this

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type of work was this something that was on your heart from the beginning or what what led you down the path to be doing

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what you are now you know I actually thought I never would become an entrepreneur in fact um I remember when

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I was interviewing for Anderson I was in the Chicago office for Arthur Anderson and they asked me what was my Five-Year

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Plan 10year plan I was like I’m GNA become a partner at Arthur Anderson right that was my plan and um you know

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there were some things that happened to the folks here in Houston I was in Chicago office but um I think everyone

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heard of the famous Enron case um that happened here in Houston and um all of

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us in Chicago ended up having to change our plans um because of some things that happened with Enron and um you know

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luckily you know I was able to um be absorbed in another firm which is KPM mg

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and it really wasn’t until I had my daughter I literally was flying from

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Houston to Toronto I had um at that point moved down to Houston and um I was

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in charge of all the Canadian operations and I remember being on those planes you guys probably remember these planes

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these old planes where they had like the one seat on one side and like the two seats on the other and I was so happy

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because I had gotten one of those private seats on the one side and I remember sitting there and I was about

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probably about six months pregnant at the time and I was trying to put down the um the chair you know the arm on the

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chair and I was like not pointy pregnant but I was wide pregnant and I could not

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put down that armrest for the world and and and it hit me because first of all I probably shouldn’t have been flying at

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that point it was officially the third Tri trimester but nobody asked me how pregnant I was so I didn’t volunteer the

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information but it hit me that my life was going to change like literally I could not be flying every single week

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all around the world right and that’s where it hit me that okay I need to kind of revamp my life figure this out

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because I was about to have a new baby girl and and I needed to see her right I

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needed to be her mother and it was interesting because I went on attorney leave I interviewed a bunch of of of

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daycare centers and I just could not imagine leaving my little pretty brown baby um and in a daycare I just couldn’t

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I just couldn’t imagine it and so hence you know my my accounting firm was born

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right um with that and and you know just like like many mothers out there I remember bringing my daughter to like my

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meetings initially because you know we couldn’t afford babysitting at the time right and so she became like the mascot

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of all these like women business organizations and I was just hoping she wouldn’t throw food and um and it was

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interesting because you know we ended up growing pretty fast um we ended up

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getting some government contract contracts because when I was at kbng I had um city of Indianapolis and some of the larger

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government contracts and um and then we also grew with our small business practice too and so you know within like

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I want to say like five years or so we were like Goldman Sachs 10,000 and um we were just everything

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was just storming and forming after that my gosh wow okay there’s so I actually

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want to ask a question just Mom to Mom and woman Toom too because so many of

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our listeners are probably wondering so you started your firm with your baby

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daughter there right how were you doing the Sim I’m going to give like a little transparency into my life right now and

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maybe it’ll make you laugh our listeners will they get it but we just moved to a new state I have child care for our

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three-year-old every day I don’t yet have child care every day for our um six-month-old so I usually have clients

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I have some client calls Tuesdays Thursdays and I don’t have child care those days right now so last week I brought my little guy do a client call

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um with a group a group coaching program and I was like H like it went fine but

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it was still one of those things where as a mom you’re so torn and conflicted because you’re like I got to be there for my baby and I got to show up for my

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clients and so I just want to hear from you like I love how you were Unapologetic about I’m bringing my

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little one with me making it work what was the what was the mindset that you needed and how did you approach time as

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a mom of a little one also launching this new business you know I think I was

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lucky because in the beginning there were no clients right it was just me and my daughter Florence that was at and I’m

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I’m telling you best years ever in business because the story does change drastically um by the time my son was

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born um I remember looking at him and I was like I wish I could spend more time with him and feeling that heartful

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because his Nanny was raising him so completely different story just a few years later but but um but you know it

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it is a it it was it was different you know because first of all you know you there was this I think the world is better for it now but there was a sense

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of self-consciousness that I had to get over um and so luckily a lot of my initial clients were women-owned

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businesses so they too had gone through this they had experienced what it was like and so you know they were just

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looking hey if you can do the work you can do great quality you got the credentials you know we’re going to take

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a chance on you um and then so so that was a lot of my early clients with that

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and obviously as it grew you know eventually was bringing in a college student that may not have had classes

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during the day she went to school at night she was able to watch my daughter um during the daytime and so it was

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learning to adjust as we we grew the revenue making decisions I think one of the biggest things that made it rapidly

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grow in the quality that I wanted it to grow as a firm because as mothers we do need child care right especially in that

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early phase when they’re when they’re just so needy right um was making sure

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that I charge a fair price meaning that you know just because you’re a mom just

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because you may be home officing those first years right don’t discount your price don’t don’t don’t discount your

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ability by discounting your price make sure you are charging a fair rate for the work that you’re doing yeah which no

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doubt you work with your clients on and profit first right it’s even just doing a level set are you charging enough for

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what you’re doing how does somebody know if they’re charging enough right and because I know the conversations behind

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the scenes with a lot of my clients are like especially when a woman is first starting and launching a business there’s the who am I to charge this much

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and we tend to undervalue so what’s the mindset that we need to adapt in order

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to charge a fair price and then how do we how do we know when we’re there so first of all it depends on the type of

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business right because a product based business or manufacturing business is going to be a lot different than a

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service based business so I’m going to make some assumptions here I’m going to assume service based and we can talk about manufacturing um at least if you

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feel like the audience um would benefit from that but from a a service based business one of the first things you

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want to do is look at what you would be making if you were doing the same thing for somebody else what would your salary

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Sal salary be back that into an hourly rate and and this is important because

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you have to think about what if I’m not in this position anymore doing the work what if I’m hiring somebody else to do

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this work because I can no longer do it and so you want to know what is the reasonable salary what is the reasonable

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hourly rate for replacing yourself and and I always tell people you are your MVP you’re your most valued player the

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day you step out the business stops and so you got to make sure you’re paying yourself a reasonable salary and then

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what I want you to do is I want you to multiply that rate either by three or by four now a lot of people when they’re

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stepping into that you know it’s kind of like tiptoeing right they’re like okay let me start with a 3X of my time right

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but I actually want you to push to a 4X and the reason why is there’s going to be one to cover your your hourly rate

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when you’re actually doing the work right you’ve got to cover benefits right um and if you were hiring an employee

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you would definitely need to cover their alley rate and benefits you’re going to have overhead you’re going to have to buy a computer for that person if you’re

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um in a a service type of business right eventually you may have to get benefits for that person right and then that

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extra 25% that’s there right that’s going to be your profit there for that

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so you’re covering the salary you’re covering the benefits the overhead and then you’re building and profitability

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with that so I love a 4X um we can’t get a 4X let’s start with a 3X that’s okay

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um and then gradually build from there okay I’m so glad you said multiply it because at first when you said I was like yeah it sounds good but I’m not

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gonna be making enough so love it okay I’m I’m tracking with you there so we talked a bit I think this has been

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really powerful because especially this part of the conversation is going to be great for for someone who’s maybe earlier on in their journey I know your

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specialty is helping seven and eight figureure entrepreneurs so here’s where I think this is going to be so fun to

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get your perspective so what are the what are the secrets what are the things

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that the top 1% are doing to maximize their profits that most people just aren’t even conscious to so I want to

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get into your brain a bit with this I think this is going to be good so first of all um the the biggest thing that I

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think that that we realize is that profit is intentional right it’s it’s

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not a random byproduct um I think too many times in Business Schools we focus on that accounting equation Revenue

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minus expenses equal profit right but obviously that’s not working right if only 1% of the population is is building

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the wealth that accounting equation is not working and so what happens is is

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that they intentional lie profit right we talked a little bit about pricing and not holding back knowing your value with

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that but my clients particularly they use something called the profit first method and and what profit first is is

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it’s exactly what it says it’s pay your profit first okay and and and I tell you

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a lot of people struggle with this it sounds like an obvious no-brainer but I remember when I first started my farm and I first got my office face and I had

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this client that walked to the door and he brought me a shoe box literally a shoe box like that

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serial typical I’m going to see my account I’m going to bring a shoe box and I remember he plops down at the

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chair right in front of me and he kind of pushes the Sho box to me and and he goes I don’t want to pay any taxes and I

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remember unraveling the receipts and I get to the bottom of the shoe box okay luckily hopefully only new shoes went in

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the shoe box at least but I get to the bottom of this The Shoe Box and there’s a prop and law ston that’s kind of

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bundled up or crumbled up and and I look at it and there’s a big r negative

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number and I’m like well don’t worry sir you’re not going to pay any taxes because you didn’t make any money and he

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Chuckles he walks away he comes back a couple days later he gets like earned income credit he thinks I did a great

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job I think I did a great job too he didn’t have to pay any taxes next year he comes back shame same old shoe box

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okay um he goes whatever magic you did last year do that again this year I still don’t want to pay taxes I get the

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shoe box I get to the bottom of shoe box crumple p&l still got a negative number and I said don’t worry sir you’re not

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going to pay any taxes again this year you didn’t make any money third year third year at least he comes back same

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old shoe bo but this time is not funny okay this time when I get to the bottom of the shoe box and I see the negative

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number it’s not funny because I’ve watched this man get older I’ve watched him call me in the middle of night

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because he can’t answer my questions during the day because he’s working I seen everybody on payroll get paid but

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him I’ve seen that he doesn’t own his car he’s on a payment plan he he doesn’t own his house he’s paying rent and

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literally what he’s doing is he’s hurting the government but he’s hurting himself okay and and so you know you

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can’t hurt the government and hurt yourself right that’s not why we’re working because that means we don’t have any profit at the end of the day and and

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that’s why I ran a profit first it’s it’s such an important concept and and profit first is a little bit different it’s kind of like the Dave Ramsey’s

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envelope system a lot of your audience probably have heard about Dave Ramsey and how you have envelopes for for food

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rent um movie theater night right um we do this in profit first that we do it

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with bank accounts so literally we set up bank accounts for our purpose so money goes into one big account it gets

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collected and then twice a month we transfer to different bank accounts and one of the accounts that we transfer to

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is the profit account so we literally fund our profit first based upon a set percentage and then we fund our owners

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pay right because again at leise you’re the MVP right you’re the MVP of your business you guys are an MVP today you

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step out nobody knows how to run this company so we’re going to set up a salary right and we’re setting up that

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salary to pay our MVP and when they stay out when they step out we’re going to use that money to pay that CEO that they

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hire and then that last the other account we’re going to set aside is a tax account because we’re making profit

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we’re making owners pay the other side of success is a tax account right if you’re driving at nice Bugatti that

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means that we’re going to have a tax liability and so we’re going to put away that money for taxes now we’re gonna use

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some really good tax strategy because we’re talking about the top 1% right and we’re going to be and we can talk about

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that but we’re going to set aside for taxes just in case we need to use it and that last bank account that’s for

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operating expenses that’s all that’s left and so you’re going to make different decisions based upon what’s in that bank account right um it’s it goes

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back to something called Parkinson’s law the more you have of something the more you use of it it’s kind of like going

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out to eat you get a big Plate at a at a buffet and you eat a whole lot but if you go to order of dinner you get a

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smaller plate you’re going to eat a lot less same way it is with money the more money you you have you know mama just

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got paid suddenly she needs a new computer right but if she’s pun at her profit

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she’s pun at her owner’s pay you know may maybe that computer isn’t quite affordable on this check right and so

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what’s happening is you’re creating this illusion of scarcity we’re creating intentional profitability because we are

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making these transfers and we’re prioritizing really our fruits of our labor that’s what they’re doing

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differently is they’re creating intentional profitability interest yeah keep keep

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going this is good I’m I’m tracking yeah was there something else you’re going to add on so that’s really important the next thing is tax strategy too right

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because obviously you know a lot of our c you know the way profit first works and I’m going to leave your guest a gift um

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at profit.co they’ll be able to see what a healthy company looks like from a

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commonize percentage standpoint to see where they stand Benchmark themselves against a healthy company um and one of

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the things that happens in our clients because they are s eight figures because of the percentages they may be at

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$500,000 adjusted gross income or even a million dollars adjusted gross income right and so tax strategy becomes very

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important but you want to be careful right because you go to your average typical accountant what is he gonna tell

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you go out and buy a truck right and you’re like I’m a consultant I don’t need a gas guzzler I’m a medical office

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I don’t need a gas guzzler and and you’re absolutely right listen to your intuition you don’t need a gas guzzler

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don’t listen to that accountant and so what we do with our clients is we go okay how do I build your net worth while

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at the same time getting a tax deduction so let’s say you’re you’re a startup company let’s say you’re a we talked

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about the mom that’s out there right who’s he’s trying to balance a bunch of things and let’s say I don’t have a lot

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of employe employees at this point I’m a closely held company right and so one of the things that I can easily do is I

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could look at something called a kog plan right which is like a 401k for self-employed persons did you know at

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least I can put $66,000 away in that 401k I did 66,000 and if I hire my

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husband we just put away like 120 something right you said it’s called a kog plan A kok P um or you call it solo

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401K that’s 41 exactly and what I just did there is I just passed money from my

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left hand to my right right I’m I’ve got a tax deduction because I contributed to

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my employees 401K right I did the profit share but now what’s happening is I just

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reduced my taxes I didn’t the money didn’t go away I just shifted it from one hand to another yeah that’s all that

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I did and by the way you can put loan Provisions in there but I don’t recommend that you do that got it so so

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that’s that’s an easy thing you can do now as my children have gotten a little older I noticed that they can do some

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work right they can answer phones they can do social media you know they can do some bookkeeping you know for those that

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are accountants out there and and I can hire my daughter and if I pay her less than a standard deduction which is like

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13,000 $13,900 now guess what that’s that’s a

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deduction for me it’s income to her but because she’s less than a standard deduction it’s taxfree a nice and I got two of them now

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so now I’m like talking like I’m saving like $27,000 plus I’m giving them great experience so you can see what did I

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just do here I just increased my net worth passed my wealth down to my children and I just created a tax

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deduction now my children can take Mommy to Disney World um you know they can pay for some of the household things they

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can pay for their clubs that they belong to right um and now I’ve got an amazing tax so again I’m looking at strategies

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of how do I build my net worth how do I get a tax deduction because I’m I don’t want to pay 37% of my earnings into the

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IRS right and I’m building my network so again it’s thinking about how does the top 1% think right it’s not the shoe

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boxes it’s how do I build my netw worth while creating a tax write off yeah oh

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my gosh which ties in exactly to what I was I was going to ask you next and I just want to say um for our listeners

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too I’ve been utilizing implementing profit first for gosh I don’t know years

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now um and it’s been transformational and I was someone who was financially

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avoidant I didn’t want to look at my numbers I had a lot of fear around it shame guilt all of it it didn’t matter

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how much I made I still felt like I just still felt disempowered around it and so I found that the system that Susanne is

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talking about is so empowering to just know like to have the percentages and to feel on top of it and to know where

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things are going so I just want to um affirm what you’re you know what you’re saying here and teaching here now I’m

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curious because at the end of what you said you talked about mindset and that’s something that we’re so big on here in

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the community and on the show and you talk about this psychology right of the

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top 1% think how they think why do you think that learning psychology like

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knowing psychology is as important to profit goals as actually getting the right tactical things in place what is

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that psychology that’s so important you know it’s interesting because you

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know it’s always the things that you know sometimes I think people think that the hardest part you know they always

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ask what’s the hardest part about profit first and and and I laugh because I’m like the hardest part is just getting

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started that’s really what it is and I’ll see people they’ll spend it they’ll be like thinking about how do I start

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Five bank accounts and then they’ll never start any bank accounts you know that type of thing and and really the

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reason why something like profit first works or or even wealth build works is

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you have to make it easy right you have to make it easy and and I talked about Parkinson’s law right Parkinson’s law is

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you know if I go to the buffet they make it super easy for me to eat more right they just give me unlimited plates

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dessert bar salad um like unlimited times up there they even clean my table

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so I don’t build a sense of Shame right um and and again it’s how do you create

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systems that make it easy for you to be successful you know right now profit first has a relationship with a bank

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called relay bank and it’s free bank accounts first of all because a lot of people are like I don’t want to start Five bank accounts because it’s going to

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cost me right $20 account well now relay Bank who has a relationship profit first has free bank accounts right you could

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have up to like 10 free bank accounts which is wonderful um not only that but

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it’ll do the transfers for you seriously set it up like what do what do I want my percentages going to each bank account

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you can name the bank accounts it’ll do that for you easily and again it’s creating less work it’s working with

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your natural tendency if I wake up in the morning I got a deposit by night time it’s it’s transferred out I’m G to

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be more successful right yeah yes that’s awesome that’s so yeah the ease of use

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um making it simple and then again thinking like that that top 1% I and I

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think when we learn to stop and ask like how would someone who is top 1% in

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earnings or how would someone who’s really empowered around their money think we start to make different decisions and show up differently but I

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love what you’re talking about in terms of just what are the easy systems for Success so we don’t have to over complicate it we don’t have to think

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about it so um exactly yeah yeah was there anything else you wanted to add to that because I want to ask about these

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government contracts too but before we pivot I want to is there anything else that you think is important for our

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listeners to know I know there’s hours of things that are important for them to know but anything else you want to add onto the profit conversation um before

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at least we could talk about this all day we could I I know load I say a big thing that but

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sorry I’m Ling my voice today you’re fine but I would say that the biggest another big thing that top 1% does is

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you know they don’t run their business randomly and what I mean by that and I don’t think anybody runs it randomly is

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you know they they’re checking their numbers they’re checking their numbers and and I mean financial statements so

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when it comes to like this operating expense account if they find that they have to make decisions cuz that’s the whole point of profit first right is is

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is looking at how do I shift my numbers so that I can fit within my my my allocations right um they’re looking at

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their p&l and they’re deep diving

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into and they’re deep diving into their expenses so they are literally looking

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at okay so what is making up my office supplies what’s making up my my my

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subscriptions right what can I do to get this down even further and they make it a game like how do I increase profits

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how do I shift my margins whether it be a price increase or a change in my expenses what do I need to do for that

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to be done so it’s a game of logic and and and goal setting

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really I love it and the one thing I would add too and I’m sure you teach your clients this as well but um I feel

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like the energy in which we do with thing is so important to the outcome so when you’re doing it do you I don’t know

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how much you work with your clients on like scarcity versus abundance mindset I know you said before you create intentional scarcity but from that

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energy of we’re creating more abundance right so like taking I guess I’m just thinking out loud here if I were doing

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this it would be really important to me to be in the energy of abundance and plenty and how do I create more when I’m

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making these decisions rather than any sort of fear or lack energy is that would you have anything to add to that

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absolutely as you’re watching your personal bank account grow you’ll definitely be appreciating the abundance with that um so so that is not a problem

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I think if energy and profit versus to make it more of a game like how do I stay within those allotments how do I

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have fun with this how do we bring out that Ingenuity and and how do we creatively think about how do we get

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this done with less cost and more ease and and be able to achieve our goals

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quicker love it I love it so let’s talk about I’m just speaking know make it a game which is great um let’s talk about

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these government contracts and I think this is really interesting too because one of the things we’re so big on with

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our client in our community is what is the easiest fastest path for you to get

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to where you want to go and so obviously there’s more clients right there’s charge more or there’s looking being

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really strategic and intentional with um getting in front of customers who may

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you know perfect clients for you but you’re not aware they’re there slash they have decent sized budgets to work with you as well so this is something I

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think just to start really basic here if someone is listening and they’re like I don’t even know what a government

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contract is what is it what are they out there for like give us just a basic

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rundown of this and then I want to kind of build on the conversation from there so Government Contracting is is a very

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interesting animal um you’ve got your federal contracts you’ve got your local cities you’ve got um even your counties

26:47

might have a program or even your water districts can have a program and you know a great thing about government

26:53

contracts is um is that they pay they may pay late right so you want to have profit first build your retain

27:00

earnings be able cover those days but they always pay and and it’s interesting when with Government Contracting you

27:07

have to be careful of some things you know one is it’s it’s definitely a great way to smooth and especially when you’re

27:13

entering Economic Times that may have some uncertainty with it right um

27:18

Government Contracting is a great Avenue to look at um but you have to be careful

27:24

with some things because first of all a lot of government contracts are based upon something called an RFP which is a

27:29

request for proposal and if you’ve ever kind of dipped your toe in it one of the

27:34

things that you realize in RFP is the person that’s selected is the best value

27:40

and best value is usually meaning the lowest cost provider right so it’s a race to the bottom so you have to be

27:46

really careful first of all um with determining if go going after government contracts it’s something that you should

27:53

be doing right and so I always tell people that if you are an highly commoditized area and I’m talking

28:00

janitorial um I’m talking about services that has a lot of competition right

28:07

Government Contracting even though you are potentially looking at larger contracts that are in the

28:13

millions because of the way that they are Bid and the price I have seen $50 million companies run at million dollar

28:21

losses wow and so you really have to be careful of knowing really and realistic knowing

28:28

what is the cost that’s involved with performing this service because again

28:33

Millions doesn’t mean millions and profit it could mean running a loss substantially and so really

28:40

understanding having those really good accounting systems to know what is it really going to cost me to deliver this

28:45

service the companies that I see that do best in this area are soul Source

28:51

services and what it means is that I have a particular expertise or a particular experience

28:58

that isn’t readily available whether that be a certain software like we found

29:03

that niche in the government side because you know I had come from you know when I went to KPMG I had done some

29:10

Government Contracting I had done manufacturing also I had done financial services and Anderson but I had done

29:16

Government Contracting and and they have a completely different accounting right they have gasby right which is

29:22

governmental accounting and so that created a soul Source environment and then one learned the local softwares

29:29

that really created a soul Source environment where you could demand your price and you’re not necessarily bidding

29:35

for the lowest cost providers so first of all are you in a commoditized area um or are you in an area where it is a

29:41

higher expertise where it’s harder to replace you right it’s going to be extremely important and I’ll tell you

29:46

one of the most powerful words that you can do and learn and Government Contracting is the word no bed no bed

29:53

passing on that right and and that’s going to be really important for you there so that that’s the first thing I

29:59

want to say with Government Contracting um the next thing is is you know always

30:05

say start to collect friends you know start to collect friends in Government Contracting because you never know when

30:10

you’re GNA need somebody you know I always tell people you know you know when you join things like WBA which is

30:16

like The Women Business Enterprise Alliance or Houston or the the minority business councils that’s those type of

30:22

things um they put you in a room with people that are procurement people but

30:28

they’re not necessarily the decision maker okay and so what you want to do is

30:33

you want to make sure you’re networking with people that provide your service

30:38

okay not just procurement people so for example in accounting you know I would go to controller conferences right I

30:45

would go to um governmental Finance conferences right where do you need help at is where I would look at and so look

30:53

at where does your person that’s equivalent in the government where do they need to shop at so if you’re HR um

30:59

maybe I need to go to a HR conference right to meet the the decision makers because if you’re looking at procurement

31:06

they got a big umbrella and they’ve got hands to shake and and they’re not going to be any end decision maker so those

31:12

are just some of the things that I would consider when doing Government Contracting being so Source knowing when

31:18

to say no and walk away and third collecting friends interesting okay I’ve

31:23

got a couple followup questions on that so one where do you find these is this

31:29

is I’m remembering I don’t remember where it is but I feel like there’s a website where you can go right or is this like a state by state basis or

31:35

federal basis what how do we find them so um every state or every city will

31:42

have a listing of contracts usually it requires that they list those um before

31:48

they accept a vendor um it’s usually based upon dollar amount but they’ll require an RP that goes out there um so

31:55

that’s the that’s the easy way to find them but I’ll be honest with you by the time they go out to bed they already know who their players are so you really

32:02

do want to make sure that you’ve networked that you’ve met the decision makers ahead of time because a lot of

32:07

times when they’re going through RP process they’re not even allowed to talk to you right um because it’s it’s a closed bed right at that point so a lot

32:15

of times you want to make sure you’ve already created those relationships before it even goes to bed ah interesting okay so create the

32:22

relationships ahead of time by the time it’s there on the site it’s sounds like not even worth the time to put it in um

32:31

how much of this is done online these days like you’re talking about going to live networking events which is great but if someone is maybe they’re a mom

32:38

travel is tricky right now whatever I don’t Mom Dad I don’t care uh how much

32:43

is LinkedIn how much can we do online in terms of networking and building relationships what have you seen work there I think linkedin’s a great place

32:50

to start again it’s having them follow you right um through Linkedin if you build out for that reach out for that

32:56

relationship now they’re watching your feed now they’re watching what you do which is really great so LinkedIn is a

33:01

great way to network if you can’t make it to those conferences um even if you do a coffee chat you know just say hey I

33:07

just want to do a coffee chat on on Zoom that’s a great way to to meet people um you know I I remember like I would

33:14

actually just go and set up a meeting hey um I’m going to be downtown can I talk to you and I know it’s not out for

33:19

bid yet but I just want to meet you and show you what I do and leave you some paperwork you know I’ve done that um the

33:25

other thing is you don’t always have to as a prime contractor you can come in as a sub and so who is the Prime on this

33:31

contract right who is who’s going to be the lead and then you know for me I came from KPMG right so I I knew the partners

33:39

you know like hey what are you bidding after do you need a sub I can do that so so who did you used to work with that

33:45

maybe does some Government Contracting and can you create that bridge by maybe serving as a sub there interesting okay

33:52

that makes sense and then one other detail question again I’m just I’m putting myself in the shoes of everyone

33:59

listening SL I’m interested myself and learning more about this so you said find where the people who are actually

34:05

making the decisions or spending their time you me I want to know like what are some of the specific titles and ways we

34:11

should be searching for people who would be making the decision so I’m really big when I do prospecting in corporations

34:17

and organizations like I’m big on LinkedIn I know the title of who I’m going after what would be some keywords

34:23

or things we should be searching for you mentioned controller I think but what give us some more context on that and

34:29

what well that’s going to be for accounting that’s going to be for accounting right fin people so it really depends on the industry so um if you’re

34:37

selling like um maybe like um I’m just going to go go very simple let’s say

34:44

you’re selling like bags of logos and and merch right you’re you’re doing

34:49

merchandise um so maybe they might be going to recruiting events right so maybe I want to talk to director of HR

34:56

and say hey um I’ve got some great things to help you with your recruiting um some merch um can I you know can I

35:04

leave you some samples or or or show these to you so you can take a look at those um so again it’s who how might

35:11

they be using what you’re needing and then kind of creatively kind of backing into

35:18

that okay so if I am doing a a cleaning contract right I’m going to go to the

35:23

facilities manager too and and say hey Who currently is doing your cleaning

35:28

what happens when your people aren’t here who steps in maybe we have people on call again I’m just trying to get the

35:34

to door right exactly exactly what would you say because we have a lot of consult

35:40

this is going to sound like it’s a completely selfish coaching session for reels I’m learning but I know our

35:45

listeners are going to learn too if someone is in coaching Consulting because we have quite a few of those who

35:51

listen in as well business Consulting it to me it seems like that would be a relevant industry where government

35:57

contracts could come into play but what would you say to that and what would be maybe a a title of someone in the

36:03

government who you think would make sense to reach out to so Consulting and coaching are big big umbrellas right

36:09

because you can be called Consulting on energy you can be Consulting on finances you can be Consulting on a variety of

36:16

different things so again it’s peeling it back right um if it’s if it’s if I’m

36:21

talking about energy Consulting I’m going to go into the right Federal arm right that that’s maybe the EPA

36:27

enironment Protection Agency or or someone that might be dealing with that or um from that standpoint um you know

36:35

again State commissions on utilities that type of thing um is where I’m going to be at and and always you know read

36:41

the minutes you know you’ll be surprised going to the website you know they list the the keyboard members they list the

36:49

department heads and and find who would be your ideal buyer at the end of the day that’s that’s where you want to

36:55

Target awesome say which is sales 101 right just different applications so

37:01

thanks for going in depth with me there because I think this is fun and it’s just again we haven’t talked about this on the show before so I think it’s

37:07

useful for someone who’s listening to have some context for it as well yeah and if you’re teaching sales maybe I

37:13

might go to um I I might go to like the small business administration right I

37:18

might go to the city um Administration where they have the entrepreneurship program hey have you thought about

37:24

hiring a consultant to teach your um the people that you’re certifying how to

37:29

sell and do this so there there are a lot of opportunities again it’s just spinning it creatively to to kind of

37:34

figure out where your buyer is amazing that’s perfect I know that’s going to apply to um so many of our listeners so

37:42

uh putting a note there speaking of sales two questions and then um we’ll R

37:47

this has been great and thank you for being so generous with your information so this is she cells radio right so I

37:53

love getting to talk about all the different topics and and um really going in depth here to not just how to make

37:59

more money through contracts but then also how do we stay profitable and grow our profit I am curious you have built

38:05

and scaled very successful organization yourself what would you say Susanne is your biggest sales superpower and how

38:13

have you cultivated it so I think my biggest sales superpower is I don’t see

38:18

myself as a salesperson I see myself as someone that changes the lives of others

38:24

is how I look at it and so you know it’s it’s you know it’s it’s not holding back

38:30

when it comes to helping someone and then today I had a call with someone and they wanted me to um Implement profit

38:36

first with them and and I I did their numbers I’m like you’re already there buddy you know you’re doing better you

38:41

know you’re at 50% o owners benefit between profit owners pay without profit

38:47

first but what I do see the opportunity for you is what are you doing on the tax planning side how are you making sure

38:52

the government’s not taking 37% of this and so really looking at um what is the

38:58

real need and making sure that whatever you provide to your customer is going to give them the ROI needed to take them to

39:05

the next step yeah beautiful I love that um share with everyone suzan again this

39:10

has been great and you can just someone can tell listening and how generous you are how much you want to help share

39:16

again please about the freebie that you’ve got and then any other places where someone can go and connect with you I know you’ve got your book you got

39:21

a podcast so if you want to take a moment and just shout out all the things we would love that

39:27

thank you leise so first of all to kind of know where you should be in terms of benchmarking against a healthy company I

39:34

have a free resource it’s called profit.co and you’re going to be able to download a table that shows what your

39:41

percentage of profit should be your percentage of owners’s pay should be um

39:46

compared to your Revenue level and again every Revenue level is going to look a little bit different just because their

39:51

stages of business looks a little different so definitely get that free resource I have an amazing book so if

39:57

you guys like the tax strategy people are like yeah tell me more um you know I

40:02

have a book even though it’s written from a minority perspective non-minorities read this book like I’m

40:07

serious they send me their emails and they’re like thank you for this book and I’m like you’re not even a minority but they they love the book so get the book

40:14

um but it’s called profit first for minority business Enterprise it’s part of the profit first family it’s written in collaboration with Mike mwit so

40:21

definitely grab a copy of that book you can get it anywhere books are sold um so definitely grab it profit person or

40:27

minority business enterprises so those those are kind of like the my my two I would say most impactful resources that

40:33

you can get amazing thank you so much for coming on I love and just appreciate your perspective and what you shared

40:39

especially as a fellow female business owner a mom um all of it so thank you so much for sharing this and I highly

40:46

encourage all of our listeners to go check out Susanne get her book get the freebie we’ll link it in the show notes

40:52

as well and um this is just it’s such an elevation to how many of us are thinking about our businesses not only making

40:59

money but saving money as well so thank you again so much for coming on and for everything you shared well at least

41:05

thanks for having me it’s been fun yeah it’s been so so great to you my listener as always I appreciate you

41:12

thank you so much for tuning in to She Sells Radio. We’ll see you on our next episode. Bye 

41:17