OpenSource Connections
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I just came back from the National Veterans Small Business Conference and Expo. I was really impressed at the outreach that prime contractors and government agencies showed. They are making a good faith effort to live up to the 3% service disabled veteran owned small business (SDVOSB) goals set forth in Public Law 106-50 even though historically, they have had trouble meeting those goals.
I think that it is laudable that the government wants to give back to the veterans who gave their service to the nation. I applaud and admire the set asides not just for SDVOSBs, but for all disadvantaged groups. However, the government, first and foremost, owes a duty of responsibility to all of those it serves, which includes getting the maximum value for the tax dollars that we all pay to it. By not getting the best value out of money that it spends for the goods and services that it procures, the government is doing everyone a disservice.
How does that paragraph not contain a contradiction in terms? It is not when the companies representing disadvantaged groups offer goods and services at a fair value to the government and to the prime contractors who are trying to meet those goals. This does not include exhibiting an entitlement culture, as many of the representatives of small disadvantaged businesses showed during the Veterans Conference. Far too many times, I heard a question along the lines of when was the government going to start holding its people (and, by proxy, its prime contractors) responsible for hitting the goals that were laid out in 106-50.
Prime contractors are in business to make money and to provide value, not to pander to special interests. Rather than griping and whining about how the government is not providing enough of what amounts to be handouts, these small businesses should be going out there and demonstrating and providing valuable goods and services. If they provide something that people want to pay money for rather than a corporate shell which is demanding entitlements, then they will find that profits accrue. Prime contractors did not become large businesses through whining and begging. They got there through hard work and through providing value to others. They did it through the basic tenets of business: find a market niche where demand is greater than supply, and provide supply. Its not easier done than said, or else wed all run behemouth businesses, but, at the same time, no business is going to grow through the increased use of whining and begging and complaining to the government that its not giving them enough entitlements.
To those who attended the conference and went there to network, find opportunities, and create value, I offer applause and thanks that you represent the best of the veterans who have decided to go into business for themselves. To those who attended the conference to badger, harass, and pester government and prime contractor representatives about when they were going to increase entitlements and not provide taxpayers and shareholders with the best possible value for the money, I shake my head in disappointment. You did not ask your drill sergeants for a break or to not make you pass PT or marksmanship tests. Why are you asking for the free ride now?