CLEAR Path to Contracts: Where Readiness Meets Opportunity
Download MP3Yeah. It's Sarah Harris. Turn the mic up. The power power Welcome
Speaker 2:to the Black Power Hour. I am your host, Sarah Harris. I am excited for this show, and we thank you for continuing to listening in and supporting the Block Power Hour with Sarah Harris. We have an amazing show today because we have multiple people here in the studio. And so it's gonna be my first time navigating between our guests, and this is an important show.
Speaker 2:But before we get to that, I again want to thank everybody for tuning into the Block Power Hour. We have been having some dynamic conversations and today will not disappoint either. We want you to continue to support the show. It is sponsored and presented by the Black Business Association's media division, which is Elevate Media Collective. You can find more information at bbala.org or go to Instagram and follow us at BlockPowerHour and that's B L O C Power Hour.
Speaker 2:So for today, like I said, it is an important episode. This one is not just a conversation, it is a launch pad. At the Black Businesses Association, we spent years working with entrepreneurs who are capable, committed, and ready, but too often are locked out of real contract opportunities. And not because they're not capable, but because the system is fragmented. Training exists in one place, opportunities in the other, and support somewhere in between.
Speaker 2:So we asked a different question. What would it look like to connect all of it? We wanted to be able to bring everything together to be able to provide maximum support for small businesses. And so that's what led to the creation of Clear Path to Contracts, BBA's signature program designed to bridge readiness with real access. And so for my guests here today are our partners who helping to build it.
Speaker 2:I am so happy to present in the studio. We have the CEO of Haven, which is the tech and sourcing support for Contracts, mister Mackenzie Kim, and we have the CEO of Southern California Virtual Business Center, which provides the training, and that is miss Kimberly Kelly Roth. And then we also have the CEO of Venturous Click Ventures, which provides that critical missing part, which is the support. We have missus Patricia V. Click in the studio.
Speaker 2:Welcome, you guys.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having us.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 4:Thank you, Sarah.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you. I cannot tell you how much I've been so excited to be able to have you in the studio. The Block Power Hour was created to advance issues and opportunities for economic mobility and of course this fits right there in that sweet spot. And, of course with all kind of opportunities coming up, especially with, major games and the Olympics in '28, it's more time than ever that contract opportunities are abounding.
Speaker 2:And so I just want to again say welcome to the Block Power Hour. Mackenzie, how do you feel?
Speaker 4:I feel fantastic. I feel fantastic. Thank you for having me, Sarah.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Okay, Kimberly.
Speaker 3:I am excited to be here. I've been looking forward to this show, so let's bring it on, Sarah. Let's bring it on. Let's tell the people what they are in store for. We know it's a big treat today, so let's do it.
Speaker 2:Love it. Love it. And Pat Klick, Patricia Klick, which I call Pat, so I'll be calling her Pat today. She has been my right arm in terms of for program development at the Black Business Association for a number of years now. And so of course, being our support partner in this new program, so happy that she's a part of it.
Speaker 2:So Pat, what'd you say?
Speaker 1:I say I'm really excited. I'm really excited about the role and responsibility I have working with Mackenzie, working with Kimberly. It's gonna be a learning educational for myself. Mhmm. So I look forward to it.
Speaker 1:Let's get going.
Speaker 2:Let's get going. Let's get going. Okay. So before we get into the meat and potatoes of everything, I do want our audience to have a little glimpse into each of you and how you started with your particular venture. So I'll go back to Mackenzie.
Speaker 2:Tell us what led you to start Haven and give everyone a brief description of what Haven is about.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. Thank you, Sarah. Where do I start? I mean, I've spent most of my career in startups, both as a builder and an investor, but I've also spent a number of years working closely with businesses and specifically government contracting. I led corporate development for a contractor here in Los Angeles, helped scale that business to tens of millions in contract value across federal, state, municipalities.
Speaker 4:I currently serve as a procurement advisor for an SBA business center. But most, I guess, personally I'll say is I come from a small business family. So I witnessed my dad build his engineering business from the ground up. I feel like I spent weekends at his office.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 4:And so it kind of all of that brought everything together, you know, and for me, I'm now building Haven and over the last, you know, I'd say decade, you know, realizing, you know, the system that we're in, in the contracting space, it's not short on effort, but it's really, you know, short on structure and that's where, you know, Haven kind of led me to building ultimately Haven.
Speaker 2:Oh, awesome. Okay. And Haven is a platform where small businesses, small business owners can come and source contracts, right?
Speaker 4:Yeah. So Haven's really simple. We wanted it to, you know, businesses to enter Haven and for it to be, you know, very simple and focused from the get go. So businesses onboard into the platform, they tell us about their business, typically they'll have, you know, experience, we work with a number of contract ready businesses, but we also work with businesses that have experience in the private sector. So they'll tell us about that experience and then we ultimately match contracts with those businesses and give them, you know, actionable steps forward.
Speaker 2:Excellent. Excellent. So now Kimberly, you help businesses to become contract ready, which has been the crucial element for everybody to be able to get contracts. You can get certified, you can have everything in order, but if everything is not coming together to where you're considered contract ready, it's just not happening, It's
Speaker 3:not happening.
Speaker 2:So tell us briefly about what your journey is and what you do.
Speaker 3:Wow, so I've been an entrepreneur since I was 13 years old. And so I know the struggles of small businesses. I know the challenges that they face. I went from one business This is actually my third company. And, we started out, with an accounting firm.
Speaker 3:I started training small businesses just initially to grow my accounting firm. And with that, as I started getting more experience with contracting, I didn't realize as I was signing up to train these businesses that I was operating under contracts. And once we got there, we kept moving forward in these contract opportunities and we ended up winning our first million dollar contract. And at the time, we were just a mom and pop operation. And so people began to ask us how we did it.
Speaker 3:We started sharing with people how we did it because we were our office was being inundated with calls asking how did how did how did a little mom and pop shop get to the point where you won a million dollar contract? Well, we told our story and people wouldn't let us stop from there. I ended up developing more training. I was a professor at USC and during that time we developed a training program to be able to support small businesses, to be able to get ready for contracts. And with that, we were approached by NBC Universal, to help, their businesses, and more and more companies started reaching out to us.
Speaker 3:We started taking on more contract opportunities, and then we started realizing we had a formula that could truly help small businesses to thrive and grow. And so from there, the next thing I did, because again, I was a professor, so I wanted a book to go along with what I was teaching. So I wrote Capacity, the roadmap to secure corporate and government contracts. And we took our formula, we took our courses, we took our books. And to date, we've helped small businesses to secure over $500,000,000 in contracts.
Speaker 3:Woah.
Speaker 2:What what was that? That was 500. What? $500,000,000 in contracts.
Speaker 3:So we continue to sort support small business growth and to prepare you to get ready for contracting because while you might've been a business owner for a long time, you've gotta be ready for contracts. So that contract readiness piece is a game changer.
Speaker 2:Game, game changer. Game changer. And so, Pat, real briefly in terms of your journey, which has been, just tell them, extensive in terms of the whole procurement and support field.
Speaker 1:So, yes, Sarah. I I worked for a major corporation and for several years, forty one years. And during that that tenure, I was I was able to learn a little bit about procurement and see how it from a corporate side. When I retired in 2015, I decided to open my own business and I wasn't sure exactly where I could add value. And then I realized that people, small business owners needed help to get their business started.
Speaker 1:They need to get their back offices in line, and they need to be confident and feel secure on the journey. So I'm really excited about that. Also, I'm from a family of entrepreneurs. You know, my mother owned a school. My grandmother owned the cleaners.
Speaker 1:My father liquor store. So it's a lot of entrepreneurs around me, and I just I'm excited to be in the space and be able to serve as I work with with clients.
Speaker 2:Yes. And and as I said before that, Pat has been instrumental in terms of the program development with the Black Business Association and we've had timely discussions regarding that, which led one of the reasons led to ClearPath contracts. We have so much more to talk about. On the other side, we will delve into more. This is the Block Power Hour with Sarah Harris.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the block power hour. This is your host, Sarah Harris. We are back in the studio with, our guests, Mackenzie Kim, CEO of Haven, and, Kimberly Kelly Roth, CEO of Southern California Virtual Business Center, and miss, Patricia V. Click, CEO of Ventures, Click Ventures. Sorry about that.
Speaker 2:Well, this is the Clear Path to Contracts team, that which is a signature program for the Black Business Association, and we are talking about opportunities, contracts. But first, we wanna start with the reality. Right? There's no shortage of programs to help focus on capacity building, but many businesses still struggle to secure actual contracts. So to you all, what gaps did you see in the current procurement ecosystem that made this partnership necessary?
Speaker 2:Who wants to jump in first?
Speaker 3:Okay. I will. Okay. Kimberly? So and the reason I I wanted to jump in is because I work with small businesses every day and I hear their challenges.
Speaker 3:I know their challenges because being a small business owner myself, I know what that journey was like. And so when I first got into contracting, honestly, I knew nowhere to start. I had no idea. And that's what we see with a lot of small businesses. One, they may not know where to start.
Speaker 3:And then you got some small businesses, they've been kind of like running these businesses like it's a hustle as opposed to really making sure that they have the foundation and the structure in place. And they might be successful, but then when you cross over into contracting, you actually have to make sure that business is structured like a serious business. So there was a lot of, Ts that needed to be crossed, Is that needed to be dotted. And so one of the things that we recognized that it wasn't a natural transition for small businesses to go into contracting because they had to learn not only the business side of their business, but they also had to understand the business side of contracting. So that transition was going to be one that needed to be guided.
Speaker 3:And contracting is not easy, you know. It's not rocket science.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:But, you're serving a much larger client that expects you to be an expert. And so you have to go in with your knowledge and expertise in hand and be ready to solve whatever concern, problem, issue that that company that you're working with under that contract is in need of.
Speaker 2:And there's different levels of readiness. Think that you're ready.
Speaker 3:Not
Speaker 2:quite there yet. And but Kimberly will definitely help you to get focused so that you know that you're ready. So, well, Mackenzie, so tell us what gaps did you see?
Speaker 4:You know, I think back to the very beginning days of Haven and ultimately, I worked for a contractor for a number of years and the amount of time that I had wasted scouring ten, twenty portals just to find hopefully a contract that I thought made sense to me, Really that pain point was something that I wanted to address right away. So the first very version of Haven, you know, was able to provide value in that sense. I think, know, taking a step back, it really depends on the stage of the business. And I think back, you know, as a founder myself, as a small business owner myself at, you know, at one point, I think familiarity is the general kind of concept that builds confidence. You know, big businesses are just ultimately more familiar with things.
Speaker 4:So when you talk about procurement, you know, think there is, to your point, Sarah, you know, a lot of awesome work that's happening preparing businesses today, you know, training certifications, advising. And that part is ultimately moving in the right direction where I think, you know, it tends to break is what happens next, right? Once a business is ready, you know, we're still stepping into that very fragmented world that I mentioned. So, you know, even the strongest of businesses are spending time chasing the wrong opportunities. And that's, you know, that's ultimately what we're trying to solve here.
Speaker 2:Yeah. They're bringing back that time that is better spent and the time that you lose, that is wasted, that is really is making it more efficient of your time is what we're talking about here with ClearPath. So Pat, tell us your experience in terms of that you see, because this is really the crux of it. Like, you're talking about their back office and everything, helping make sure that they're ready. What what are you seeing?
Speaker 1:So I've been working with small businesses now for over ten years, and most of them are at the beginning stages. You know, just starting off a business and some have been existing. But as we're trying to develop them, we wanna make sure that they stay focused on on the right thing. Make sure that their back office is definitely in place. Make sure they have the right certifications, that they're registered with the state or federal any registration that they must have.
Speaker 1:Those things are very important. Understanding your story, having some type of capability statement. So when you do engage with someone that you can share with them who you're about, what you're about, and never be afraid to go into any room and have that conversation. Being confident about what you're trying to present because people can tell when you're not feeling comfortable.
Speaker 2:Makes a difference. And confident.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Same thing in responding to RFPs. It can be tell told in the way you write an RFP and respond to an RFP, your confidence level.
Speaker 2:Okay. Okay. Both in the kind of the the beginning, middle part and the end towards the end, I want people to know how they can reach you. So I'm gonna ask you now and later on towards the end of the show. Mackenzie, tell people how people can reach and connect with Haven.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely. I'm on LinkedIn. I wish I could check it a little bit more than I do. Havenproject.io is the website, and I'm happy to share like I said, if you connect with me on LinkedIn, I'm happy to share more details there.
Speaker 2:Mackenzie Kim. Okay. And Kimberly?
Speaker 3:If you wanna reach the SC Virtual Business Center, you can go to scvirtualbusinesscenter.com. Again, that's scasinsoutherncaliforniavirtualbusinesscenter.com. You can also call us toll free at eight eight eight seven seven 08:09 seven eight. Again, that number is (888) 778-0978.
Speaker 2:Wonderful. And Pat?
Speaker 1:Hi, Kaye. Patricia Click. So you can go on LinkedIn and you'll find Patricia Click, Ventress Click Ventures, v e n t r e s s, Click, c n I c k Ventures. And you can find out what we're all about. Also, my phone number is (951) 288-7003.
Speaker 1:My email.
Speaker 2:Oh, email.
Speaker 1:Okay. PPVClick@bcvllc.com.
Speaker 2:Okay. Business Support Services Queen. Yes, she is. Okay. So we will reiterate what the contact information is at the end of the show, but I just wanna make sure that it's not lost for whenever you're listening to this show.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so we've pretty much kind of set the, you know, what it looks like, right? In terms of the normal procurement process. And so we want to now talk about what we've put together and say that is the perfect kind of program and way that it should go. So if we talk about, we're gonna introduce CLEAR and we're gonna connect this ecosystem. Well, CLEAR Path is more than a program, it's a system, right?
Speaker 2:And so it connects recruitment, it connects training, access and execution. So when we started, when we came together on this, and first of all, let me kind of tell a little bit of backstory because first of all, again, it did start with Pat and I talking about what we saw about all of the problems in landfills in the whole process. But then I was invited to, and this is how it's just interwoven, I was invited to a breakfast forum session from Kimberly, okay, to come to USC and we were invited with other people and resources in the procurement space and I met Mackenzie there, right? So Mackenzie told me about Haven and I said, What? This is what we've been missing.
Speaker 2:It's a whole platform to source contracts and the onboarding, I'm a let him tell you more about it, but the onboarding process is like supreme because it's tantamount to basically like if anybody knows in the contracting space is your capability statement, right? So the platform can be able to match you with contracts and you also have the opportunity to search and source them yourself. And so the light bell went off for me and it was a way for the BBA to now have a customized built admin portal that we can be able to help our members, the cohorts who we bring on to have more of a hands on approach to be able to provide that support system. That support system, right? Well, just tell real quick in terms of, because we will have to come back and continue this, but Mckenzie, tell just a bit of our process when we met up, I told you how excited I was and it was a year in between and then you came back to me.
Speaker 2:Kind of just tell what the experience was that for you.
Speaker 4:It was awesome, Sarah. I mean, all of us here know, you know, small businesses don't ultimately lack, you know, capability. Right? They ultimately lack clarity and access. So, and no single organization I think solves that alone.
Speaker 4:Sarah, when we met, I remember even just thinking about, you know, the first time we met, how passionate you were about solving a problem like this. It felt very aligned, you know, to what we're building, what we're doing on the tech side. We always, you know, encourage multiple parties to try and solve big problems like this. So, you know, our side, we're just super grateful, excited to be supporting, you know, the infrastructure around a program like this. Speaking to the admin, I think, you know, it's a fair point.
Speaker 4:It's an exciting, you know, position to be in because, you know, BBA has clear visibility now.
Speaker 2:Clear visibility, and I'm so excited. We're going to come back on the other side to kind of break down this clear path a little bit more. And so this is the Block Power Hour. Come back, we got more. Welcome to the Block Power Hour with Sarah Harris.
Speaker 2:I am your host. I know that you are enjoying this conversation. I know that you're getting something out of it, especially if you're a business owner. You have, interest to be able to get contracts. This is right up your alley.
Speaker 2:I am so happy for our guests here today. This is the ClearPath to Contracts team. We have Mackenzie Kim in the studio with Haven. We have Kimberly Kelly Roth with SC Virtual Business Center and Patricia Click with Venturous Click Ventures. Yay.
Speaker 2:We are talking about contracts and opportunity and the Clear Path to Contracts program that the BBA has initiated. We wanna also to thank our sponsors. This program wouldn't have been possible without one of our major sponsors, the US Bank. And we also are so appreciative to the, coach Wendy, the purpose partner as, sponsoring our shows too. And she can be, contacted at wendy gladney dot com.
Speaker 2:Alright. Back to our show. We are going to delve into the technology side of this this project, which combines between Haven and the BBA. So Mackenzie, we were talking a bit before the break about how this all came about and a little bit about how we met. And of course you saw my excitement.
Speaker 2:I did. Thank you. And I continue to remain excited. So let's give people a little bit more about what is and does.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So, look, I built the beginning stages of Haven, as I mentioned, because of a pain we felt. And talking about the reality, if a small business wants to do public procurement or public contracting in California, you know, they're dealing with dozens of portals, federal, state, municipalities, special districts. You know, they're mostly coming in as a subcontractor, so they're dealing with hundreds of prime contractors as well. And the main reason is because there's over a 100,000 buying agencies across CONUS USA.
Speaker 4:So right off the bat, you know, the small businesses who's already, you know, technically behind from a large business, they don't have the same resources, it makes it that much more difficult. So that's the pain that we address through the technology. The platform brings together over 20,000 buying agencies, you know, and actually is able to kind of scan through all of that data, all of those contract opportunities, and then through the onboarding process because we get to know the business, we understand, you know, where their capabilities really lie, you know, potentially where their gaps are and then effectively matching those contracts with the business.
Speaker 2:All right. And so with that, cause I had an opportunity to delve in and look around again about the onboarding process when businesses enroll into the platform, you basically want your description, for those you know, your NASIX codes, your certifications and all that kind of stuff like it. You really take great steps, big steps to be able to match contract opportunities with businesses.
Speaker 4:Right. Well that, I mean, thank you for bringing that up. The onboarding process I think is a differentiator of where Haven's technology really lies. I think if you're familiar with contracting, you're used to getting inundated with notifications from every agency across the board around things that you ultimately don't do. So many of our businesses are used to getting construction matches when they're, you know, completely in accounting or something completely irrelevant.
Speaker 4:And, you know, it is difficult, but, you know, where we came from is saying, okay, well, there are multiple touch points in deciding whether an opportunity is a good fit. Let's dive into that a little deeper. And so in partnering here, you know, we're ultimately leveraging that technology we built off of our own, like I said, our own experience and giving the BBA team ultimately visibility into which contracts are being matched, which ones are being pursued, which eventually allows, you know, the the CLEAR program to track those outcomes, not just participation.
Speaker 2:So now is the good stuff is that I spoke to you when, what made me so excited was to be able to have the opportunity for the Black Business Association to actually have a portal, an admin portal, where we could be able to see the activity and matriculation of the business members that are onboarded through our program so that we can be able to have more of a hands on approach to supporting them through the process. Because in our dashboard, as they are, what is it, they're prospecting particular ones, we can then also see if that particular bid is moved into, they're actually bidding on it, and then we can see if they actually, if they won or lost, right? The award. So we take the journey with them, in other words. And of course I had so many wishlists for our custom portal, right?
Speaker 2:But Mackenzie was like, Sarah, let's take this one step at a time.
Speaker 4:No, there's amazing things we can do once we have this, you know, this foundation. And historically, Sarah, to your point, that layer just hasn't existed. You know, like I said, there's amazing programs that are happening, but across the board, you know, I've personally had hundreds of conversations with businesses, hundreds of conversations with, you know, government agencies and tracking those outcomes, being able to actually dive into, you know, the nitty gritty. One of the things that I think, really excites me about this program is just a pragmatic approach of, Hey, we're here to support you. So that layer hasn't existed.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And so we are innovating here and so that's what I'm excited about. I'm also excited about just the peer opportunities. So it doesn't mean for people, those who know already or you don't know, for opportunities with the city and especially like with the Olympic stuff, you need to be registered registered on on ramplarampla.org, right? For the federal ones, sam.gov.
Speaker 2:Many of the other platforms that you need to be registered to be certified, you still need to be registered there. But how does Haven complement or supplement being with those other platforms? Yeah, the easiest way to explain it
Speaker 4:is a layer on top of everything. So, you know, I'd be remiss to not mention LA County, think.
Speaker 2:LA County.
Speaker 4:You know, any business out there that's interested in selling to any of the big events that are coming up, definitely make sure that you get your local small business enterprise certification with LA County. What Haven does is really leverages the public, you know, information, the public data that's out there, and we layer on top of that. So we're able to then combine both the interests of the business with the interests of the government and ultimately make that bridge much more concrete.
Speaker 2:And does it give the small business like a combined view of multiple different types of agencies in one portal, one place for you?
Speaker 4:Exactly, yeah. Exactly. So, you know, typically you'd have to go into, you know, if I wanted to sell to the federal government, I'd go into sam.gov, I'd search my capabilities, I'd probably use my NAICS code, NAICS code to be able to search. If I wanted to sell to, you know, LA City, you know, to your point, you go into ramp. So what Haven does is it can bridge, multiple verticals of contract portals.
Speaker 4:So if I want to just see the landscaping opportunities within, you know, a 50 mile radius of where our headquarters are, I'm able to do that.
Speaker 2:It's a step to simplify. Exactly. Make it more efficient process for you. So, okay, I said, I want some numbers. I want some pout, come on.
Speaker 4:Well, it's nothing like Kimberly over there. But no, we've kind of gone into this whole thing with a thesis I'll just mention. Like there's fantastic businesses out there, capable businesses. Many of them have spent years committing to being, you know, contract ready. They're just not seeing the right opportunities.
Speaker 4:So our matching algorithms, our technology has to date been able to successfully match and award over $50,000,000 in contracts.
Speaker 2:See there?
Speaker 4:Yes. 50,000,000. Big number. We're really proud of that. And more often than not, these are businesses that would have never found these opportunities if it weren't for that.
Speaker 4:So again, everything is the kudos goes to the businesses that are out there, and we're really excited to see the impact that we could do with banding together, all of us.
Speaker 2:That's it. The other element of the Block Power Hour of Uplifting in addition to economic mobility is the power of collective action. And so that's a demonstration of what we're doing here today. Okay, so we have more to talk about. This is on the readiness side and Support side.
Speaker 2:We're going to have some insights coming as we get on the other side with Kimberly Kelly Ralph and Pat Klick, Patricia Klick with Ventures Click Ventures. But this is the block power hour. We thank you for continuing to listen to us. Check us out at block power hour on Instagram. I'm your host, Sarah Harris, and we'll be right back.
Speaker 2:Alright. Welcome back to the Block Power Hour. I am your host, Sarah Harris. I am so excited to bring these conversations to you every week. It has been my honor and thrill because we are uplifting.
Speaker 2:We are about economic mobility and the power of collective action that also supports community, culture and community. And so it's just so great to be here. Thank you everybody for listening in. This conversation is on the clear path to contracts from readiness to real opportunity. And our guest in the studio is Mackenzie Kim, CEO of There you go.
Speaker 2:Love the energy. And we also have our guests, Kimberly Kelly Roth, who is CEO of SC Virtual Business Center. Yay. And miss Patricia v Click, CEO of Venturous Click Ventures. Alright.
Speaker 2:In our last segment, we were talking about the tech side of it and so happy in terms of the BBA's new customs admin portal. Yay. Give me a round of applause. Yay. So excited for that.
Speaker 2:That just gives us access to a whole another level of opportunities to provide service. And so now what we want to talk about, we want to break down readiness because this is the crucial element in terms of people being at the table and have those contract opportunities to be awarded to them. And queen of readiness, who wrote the book on capacity, go get that book you guys, it's capacity. Okay. Miss Kimberly Kelly Roth, talk to us about, you know, break down readiness.
Speaker 2:Like really what does it mean to be ready? Because we're setting some criteria around here about who can actually be onboarded into this program and because we wanna make sure that you really will actually be able to benefit. We want to convert, right? So kind of break down, what does readiness look like? Yes.
Speaker 2:Okay. So I know we only have a little bit of time, so I'm
Speaker 3:gonna try and look, I'm gonna try and squeeze a bunch of stuff Just in here
Speaker 2:Squeeze
Speaker 3:a little stuff in here. Okay. So contract readiness is a big deal. It's so interesting because oftentimes businesses think, oh, well, I've been in business for so long. Apparently I'm ready.
Speaker 3:No, it doesn't work like that. So in terms of contract readiness, one of the things I always try and encourage business to do is when you're looking at contract readiness, you wanna think you wanna make sure that your business is ready, you wanna make sure your financials are ready, and then you actually wanna be contract ready. So with those three items, it's looking at your business under a microscope to essentially say, do I have everything in place that I'm supposed to have? Is my business registered? Are we filing taxes?
Speaker 3:Are we, are we, do we have our business bank account? Do we have our our our, our business in order? And so that's kind of the short version of it. And and obviously, you know, I go a lot deeper into that, but that's sort of the business readiness piece. And then when you think in terms of your financials, have we filed our taxes?
Speaker 3:Do we have our tax ID numbers? Do we have all of the things that essentially position our business so that when we do secure that contract, we can actually get paid. Okay?
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And then finally, let's talk a little bit about being contract ready. McKenzie gave a little bit of insight when he talked about your NAICS codes Mhmm. When he talked about, making sure you have your capability statements. So it's things like that that you definitely need to have in place. And then let me go back for just a second to the business side because I see a big mistake that I that businesses often make.
Speaker 3:They might have a website, but they don't have a email that's at their company
Speaker 2:Good dot point.
Speaker 3:When you apply for contract opportunities and you don't have an email that's @yourcompany.com, I'm I'm not a Yahoo, not a Gmail, but @yourcompany.com, companies don't take you seriously. So if you wanna be taken serious, your business has to be serious. That means you have to have the proper structures and things in place. So those are sort of the that's sort of the short version of being contract ready. And then, you know, I have a whole another piece where we wanna make sure that, as a business, you understand what the insights are in order to be contract ready and and really to be able to grow your business with contracts.
Speaker 3:And that's what I call my six secrets that I call TRACE. What that it's under my acronym acronym TRACE.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:So I won't go into depth here, but what I will say, tell you is what that acronym stands for. TRACED essentially is your ability to be able to not start from where you are, but to be able to pursue these contract opportunities based on the knowledge and the expertise of those who came before you. So we get you ready. We get you trained so you understand that as a business owner, you need to have traction. You need to make sure that you are out there building relationships.
Speaker 3:Your company aligns with the contract opportunities that you are applying for. And then the big C that I call capacity that I wrote the book on, capacity, the roadmap to secure corporate and government contracts. You need capacity. What is capacity? Capacity means that you have the team, the systems, the controls, and the resources to be able to connect.
Speaker 3:We wanna make sure that you also have the ability to deliver on your value proposition, what you have told people that you can do. I know that's a whole lot
Speaker 2:That's a whole lot.
Speaker 3:In a little in a little bit, but jump into our training because as we train you, you will understand that TRACED acronym fully.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And then once we train you, then we'll hand you off to Mackenzie and Mackenzie will get you matched with the contract opportunities. So this clear path to contracting, it is truly clear because you've got support, you got training, and then you've got an expert that expertise that comes from from Pat that's gonna make sure that you stay on track.
Speaker 2:A whole a whole ecosystem a whole ecosystem in one.
Speaker 3:Yes. An entire ecosystem. And and I look. I didn't even talk about the BBA component, but hey. Hey.
Speaker 2:I'll I'll talk to BBA. I'll talk to BBA. I just want I'm here constantly from week to week. I keep talking to BBA, but I wanna make sure that people know about what you guys have to offer. Of course, they will learn about how they can follow-up with you shortly because evidently there's so much that can be said that's here, but we don't have time for that you need to be able to take the time and invest in yourself, invest in your business and to be able to have these opportunities.
Speaker 2:So Pat, the other crucial part is that support that is needed. Yes, we're telling you all everything about being contract ready and in your capacity and building that capacity and all that kind of stuff, but we all know that businesses still need that one on one, either the hands on, that kind of level of support to still guide them through. So just kind of talk about what we were discussing in terms of what was missing out of this whole part and what we're looking to solve.
Speaker 1:Okay. Well, Sarah, first I have to say, I received the phone call from the night she met you, Mackenzie. She came home and she called me up. She says, Pat, you're not gonna believe this. And I said, oh my god.
Speaker 1:What's going on? So she she was excited. I heard about it. I says, no way. Something like that exists?
Speaker 1:And she said, yes, it does. Follow me. And so here we are today. So I just wanna say, great observation, Sarah, and and hooking up with McKenzie. Also too, I wanna mention last night as I was working on the, going on the website, Haven website, in my own company, I was kind of working with it because I'm only working with clients.
Speaker 1:So again, to familiarize myself with the screen and navigate through everything. I found an opportunity for my own company. Oh, that's
Speaker 2:awesome. Wonderful.
Speaker 3:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:So all
Speaker 1:of a sudden, was doing one thing,
Speaker 2:and the next thing I got distracted. Got distracted.
Speaker 1:And I found an opportunity. And so which was good about that because then I was able to navigate that opportunity and see where it was located and how to get to it. And it's it's very simple. It's intuitive. But, again, you need you need practice.
Speaker 1:You know? You need to understand what's out there. So what we're gonna do at Ventures Click Ventures, we're gonna kinda walk side by side with the clients. You know, a lot of times we go to classes, we get a lot of information, and we take good notes. But when we leave the class and we get home, we go, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:How how was I supposed to apply that? So what we plan to do, a phone call away, email away that we're gonna be there for that journey. How do you get set up? Let's let's double check-in with you to see how you're doing, if you have any questions. So that's where the partnership is going on.
Speaker 2:And then moving into the actual bidding. Right.
Speaker 1:The actual bidding. And why did you win? And then also too, and I think Kimberly will cover this in her program, bid or no bid? Mhmm. You know?
Speaker 1:Should I bid? Should I not bid? Yes.
Speaker 2:And a
Speaker 1:lot of things that Kimberly mentioned, you have to consider Mhmm. Prior to bidding for any opportunities. Right. And a lot of people are not confident. They they they have a fear of procurement.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:They have a
Speaker 1:fear in responding. Not sure of it back.
Speaker 2:Well, having that level of support will help to alleviate that. Right?
Speaker 4:Exactly. And that's not just small businesses, by the way. Okay. Everyone's having decision problems right now. Yes.
Speaker 2:Okay. So we're we're not alone. Right?
Speaker 4:Yep.
Speaker 2:Oh my god. This went so fast, so fast. So before we close out real quick, give how people can contact you, Mackenzie.
Speaker 4:LinkedIn's probably best. Mackenzie Kim. You can also visit haven directly, havenproject.io. And I will also share all my contact information personally as well.
Speaker 2:Okay. Again, that's havenproject.io is the website. Okay, Kimberly.
Speaker 3:Kimberly Kelly Roth, scvirtualbusinesscenter.com. Again, you can go to scvirtualbusinesscenter.com or you can reach out to us at (888) 778-0978. Again, (888) 778-0978.
Speaker 2:Okay. And
Speaker 1:Pat? Patricia Click, Ventures Click Ventures.
Speaker 2:You can
Speaker 1:go on the website. I'm also on LinkedIn. My phone number is 951288.
Speaker 2:Real quick.
Speaker 1:7003.
Speaker 3:I I take
Speaker 1:a long time
Speaker 2:to write
Speaker 1:things down, so I want to give it
Speaker 2:to you. But the show is about to end. Oh, but you can, reach us at the Black Business Association at b b a l a dot org to learn more. This has been the block power hour with your host Sarah Harris, an amazing show. Come back again.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 4:Thank you. I'm so glad you shared it.
