🎙️ Government Contracting, AI & New Opportunities with Diane Carbo

🎙️ Government Contracting, AI & New Opportunities with Diane Carbo

In this episode of The Medical Equipment World & Healthcare: Get the Scoop!, Tara sits down with Diane Carbo, RN, caregiver advocate, podcast host, and founder of Caregiver Relief, to discuss her journey into government contracting.

Diane shares her recent successes working with her APEX counselor, registering as a vendor, exploring bid opportunities, and using AI as a powerful tool to help navigate the government contracting process.

Together, Tara and Diane discuss:

🏛️ Getting started with government contracting
🤖 Using AI to simplify research and save time
📋 Vendor registrations, certifications, and bidding opportunities
💡 Diversifying income and growing a business
🤝 Networking, partnerships, and subcontracting
👩‍⚕️ Opportunities for caregivers, healthcare professionals, and entrepreneurs
🌻 Why government contracting may be a valuable path for caregivers and widows seeking additional income opportunities

Whether you're a caregiver, entrepreneur, healthcare professional, small business owner, or simply curious about government contracting, this conversation offers practical insights, encouragement, and real-world experiences from two women passionate about helping others create new opportunities.

Connect with Diane:
🌐 https://caregiverrelief.com

Join our free community:
🌐 https://www.skool.com/secondchaptershub

Sponsored by:
🌐 https://www.cfsmedicalequipment.com
🌐 https://www.cfssolutionsdbs.com

#GovernmentContracting #SmallBusiness #Caregivers #Widows #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #APEXAccelerator #SAMGov #GovernmentContracts #HealthcareBusiness #CaregiverRelief #MedicalEquipmentWorld #TaraSlaughter

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Okay, Diane. So we're back talking about you guys today about the government contracting. And one of the and we're gonna try to kind of streamline it a little bit, but Diane is gonna share with us how her week went, and then I'm gonna share with Diane how my week went. Well, of course, I was swamped on the commercial side this week, but we did have our um our call with one of our contracts, so that was good, so we can get ready to get started on our particular one that we was awarded. So that's a that was a good thing, but we have been swamped on the commercial side this week as pretty much every week, actually. Um, but Diane, I want to hear, I know I saw you in the community talking and everything, and I saw you and Vernon uh kind of chatting and things like that. So uh that was awesome. So tell me what you found this week. How did it go?

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Well, you know, I I I had a lot, I do a lot of podcasts, so I was busy doing podcasts, but uh uh when I'm feeling tired and worn out, I got early on in the week, I got a message from my counselor saying, you know, uh it was she was very pleased with the paperwork I handed in. It was the best she's ever seen. And I'm like, thank you, AI. Yeah, between your recommendations and AI, I I pulled together and did it really well. She was happy with the um keywords, she just wanted some separated out, and um, you know, she gave me some really good recommendations. I changed things to um she wanted words changed, um, and I did that. Uh and I turned it back in. And I have an appointment with her on Monday.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Oh my god, that is so awesome, Diane.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Yeah, I'm excited. Yeah, well, I you know, I I'm I'm getting uh a feel for this now. And what I did was uh because we're in South Carolina, I'm in South Carolina and I've got the Apex uh helping me. I've become a vendor and uh I'm registered as a vendor in South Carolina now, but because North Carolina doesn't have an Apex group, we are allowed to also uh work with North Carolina. So I did that actually today. I signed up and I'm now a registered uh vendor for North Carolina. And I started going through things, and of course, I I don't I didn't know this. I'm waiting for my code, which I didn't know the cage code code, and I'm I said so that I could start bidding. Well, I didn't realize that the cage code is for federal and I can start already, and I'm like, oh man, I lost a week not bidding on things.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

You can be when you register for the state, the city, and the local municipalities, you are able to see things on there as long as you register properly and everything's in the system, you are able to bid on those solicitation and those offers there.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

So I'm seeing a lot, you know. I I the school systems are looking for OTPT and speech therapists. I'm seeing that. Um, I I the University of South Carolina is looking for a vendor for a whole year, a whole year contract on nice t-shirts um with their logo and stuff on it for all their events. And uh I thought, oh, I could bid on that, that's something. And then I'm also I've got several that are looking for emergency kits. Yes, yeah. So and that's something I can explore. So I, you know, I I I'm like, damn, damn, damn. I wished I'd know I I known I would have done them. But you know, I don't know if they're open or not now because it's it's been a week. Um, and today I did see some, but I think I'm gonna go in and and and start the process of bidding.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Yes, you need to just start. Just start. Yes, yep. Yeah, and you know, and and the great part about the community is just type something in there. If you if you know that you saw something and you weren't sure, just to put a message in there and we'll respond back to you. If it's me or some of my team members, we'll respond back to you saying, hey, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that way you can you don't have to wait till Saturday.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Yeah. Oh, you know what? I was just I was busy and I was so pleased with my my counselor. I was like running, I was feeling good about that. You love it. You know, if you know, I'm a 73-year-old nurse, you know, we don't get much attention or praise or anything, you know, and just a little pat on the head will get me good, keep me going for another year.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Well, let me tell you, you're doing amazing. Well, first of all, you know I love your podcast, so that right there is that you guys, hey, listen, Diane has one of the top podcasts in the country. You guys have got to go out and listen to it. It's called Caregiverrelief.com. She also has my mod my vital vault. So I want to just shout her out because I get something every single time out of listening to her podcast. If you are a caregiver out there or a family member, you guys definitely should check out her podcast because it is amazing. You, I mean, the things that you the people you interview, Diane, and the information that they put out is just unbelievable. Like it, I love it because I'm learning. I learned something every and what I love about it is because I can hear and listen, and then I get a lot of families that we deal with every day too. And then I'm able to share with them, like, hey, you know, I you know, go listen to caregiverrelief.com, it's amazing. Because you got when you deal with families every single day, everybody's situation is different.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

We got families coming inside, we're inside facilities, we're inside patients' homes. We get a lot of in a lot of different things, and so it's just be a blessing to be able to share with people the information and the resources. So I love it. I love what you do.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

I I'm I'm I'm bold, I guess because I've worked with doctors my whole life. I don't have a hard time approaching somebody. I've I've been doing podcasts for C uh with CEOs of the tech companies, you know, all over the world. And it's kind of and it's fun for me, you know. But uh, thank you for that. But you know, um, I'm looking forward to government contracting because it's gonna be a nice uh add-on to my business. Yes. And uh as I was looking at, you know, and I really want to go over what Silas taught us last week because if I'm gonna start bidding, I want to to I he made it, he made I I remembered it and I was gonna do it, and then I thought, oh, why if I can't bid on it? But I now I'm now I'm gonna do it tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Yeah, because online I was telling you, you don't have to wait. And I know a lot of times, uh, a lot of times people get caught up in, oh, that's not a part of what I do. Yeah, but it doesn't have to be a part of what you do like on the regular t-shirts isn't something I do, but I'm sure you have to find them.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Look, there's one, you know what I really want to bid on? There's one, they're an event planner for a doctor's conference, and I could so do that.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Yes, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

You know, it's hard, but I know how to do it. I've done it with in sales and marketing. So I'm thinking, oh, so I'm just having fun looking at what they have to do. And um, yeah, there's a lot that doesn't pertain to me, but when I went see it, I go, Oh, I know that I could do that. Then I say, no, no, wait. I thought I had to wait. Now it'll be okay, let me just give it a go and try. I want to learn because I'll I'll sure I'll make mistakes, but at least I try and I'll learn from my mistakes.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

You know what, Diane, I always tell people the I am a visual, I love to learn and touch. I have to touch both things, right? And I am a true believer that you cannot get better in anything unless you try it. Yes, you don't know what you don't know if you don't try it. So, how you how else are you gonna allow me? I could tell you things all day long. People can tell you all day long. You can read a book all day long, but I love to be able to put my let me try it first. And I was even when I went for companies, I used to always say, Don't let me do it, let me do it first. And then that's how I learned because you well, that's the nursing process.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

See one, do one, teach one. There you go. There you go. Yep, and and Silas was you doing that last week when he said, Let me show you. And I thought, yeah, now I need to do one, and then I want to teach one to somebody.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Exactly, and that's awesome. And that's the thing too. You pay it forward, right? So what you learn, all those things, we learn it, we figure it out, and then and that's one of the things why I love I wanted to bring this to people's you know attention to say you can do government contracts too. Yes, because it's uh it's out there, it's free, it's public record, it's not a secret. And but the thing of it is is one of the challenges, I'll like as I mentioned to you before, what we struggled at is we had the certifications, didn't know what to do with them, right? Well, we didn't know, and then unfortunately, sometimes when um you when people do tell you, they tell you just a little bit, and then you have to pay a lot to try to.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Yeah, I'm not doing that anymore. I I just I've done that for decades, and I have to, yeah, and you know, it's it's I I I I'm tired of that. I want to, you know, get it right and learn about it, but I don't want to have to pay a lot of big bucks for it. That's why I jumped on your program right away because I can afford it.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Yeah, well, you know what? That was the thing. The thing of it is I want to make it affordable for people, right? So we can do some things free that you can kind of get started to do what you got to do, learn the community. Is free, there's no charge for the community. Uh, we can talk about things, we can try to answer things best we can on there, and then we get on the what we call the growth member gov contract call, which is this call here. But is it I mean, and granted, I don't knock anybody out there who's charging what they're charging.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

No, if they can chart, if they want to charge and get it, that's fine. But I I don't get a lot from the some of those uh times, you know. I I it's one little piece of information, and they're charging maybe a thousand, two thousand, three thousand dollars, and but then I learn that it's it was just one little piece of information and everything else was fluff, so it it's frustrating to me. Yeah, that was when I was dealing with uh before SEO and stuff, trying to get your websites up and how to get out into the internet and stuff. So I paid a lot of uh big bucks.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Yeah, I think we all have. I mean, I even get into our website. I remember years ago when we first started, like it was crazy the money we spent on the website, and it produced absolutely nothing. It was didn't even work properly, it was just awful, and so now I'm more uh now I look at things on a on a different perspective of you know, I mean, not that it's people can do whatever they want to do. I just felt like for me, when uh we first got started, I just want to try to share information the best we can on you know, allowing people to be able to do what they need to do without having to spend a lot of money doing it and uh try to learn. And of course, look, if people want to go and spend that, because you could look, I pull something from everybody, right? Yeah, so if you feel like you still need to go and get more information off of somebody else and pay whatever, then go do that. I have things like dibbing and dabbing and a little bit of everything, yeah. Yeah, there's no limit to it. It there it's not like oh, you take you here and then you can't go there. No, I listen to uh all different types of people, so I don't pay for a lot of it sometimes because I kind of learn on my own now, and just by the experience and stuff like that. I uh this one guy tell you he is really awesome. His name is Desmond, and he really, really I did take a lot from his course. He used to have Monday calls and all that stuff. He was amazing, and actually, you probably have seen him pop it up on Instagram, but I really like it. He didn't have a lot of, he didn't have fluff, he was really the real deal. Yeah, he did meat and potatoes, it was some meat and potatoes, and that's how it's all crazy because we had everything set up and all this stuff. We had these certifications, we had all this stuff, but we didn't know what to do with any of this stuff. And when I took his course and did all that, then I was like, Wow, the simple profile. My profile was there, but it wasn't set up properly, just a few little tweaks, and that's when I did that, and then the rest is history because I got this email that I was like, Let me see who this person is that I called it.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Yeah, it's awesome, that's awesome, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:49

And then the rest is history, and so we've been doing it now. Actually, when I took his course, it was back in 2022, and uh, but after that, because it was like October 2022, so just learning and taking his course because he had a university at the time, so then that's when I just like okay, well, you know, we just kept learning, and around the 2023 is when we just um the it started, and we've been going every since, and now we know enough and have won quite a few contracts. We're doing all right on the contract side that we can share with other people on how to get started, and especially why what I really was um wanting to do was for caregivers and widows.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Yes. Well, I will tell you that is because I of my site, that is something that has over the last 20 years, that is the biggest request. How can I make money from home while I'm taking care of my loved one? They want income, they need income, yeah, and they're they're you know, they're open. So when you offer this, I thought, God, you know, this is something that is absolutely going to make a difference for caregivers because they are at home, and you know, yes, caregiving can be stressful, but it is also there's times early on. Now, if you're in the throes of late stage dementia, you're not getting sleep and stuff, yeah. I get it. No. But if you build a care team, if you build a caregiver relief support group that will provide practical assistance, you will get breaks where you can do this. Yeah, they just have to follow my plan to follow your plan.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

There you go. Oh, and I was just about to say you need to get on caregiver relief and follow Diane's plan because it is amazing. And it is very helpful. And the thing of it is too, is like for us, it we talk about you like is in your groups, and then for us too, we see real time what families go through. We've seen how families have given up their careers to take care of their loved one, and and then they don't really have, you know, they're like, Oh my god, I've given up my income. Like, what do we do?

SPEAKER_01 14:55

Well, not only their income, they've given up their wealth, their their well-being, their emotional and health, and they've also given up their friends because they isolate themselves because they provide care. And that's not the way caregiving is meant to be.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

No, it's not. And I felt like I said, okay, well, with the community, like, you know, even the whatever you start at, whatever you need to start at.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

But just being able to come to a community to say, you know, hey, I'm just gonna be on this community. Maybe they'll get some unction to want to do it, or just listen in, or you know, put a message in there, or just join the call. And you just never know, but but to know that there's something else that you you're taking care of your loved one, but in the evening time in those lonely moments, yes, right. Then maybe you can know, like, you know what, I gotta work on that contract. I got you know to give them something else to do. And you know what?

SPEAKER_01 15:49

It gives them something to do that will that can help them financially in the future if they stick at it.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Exactly. Yeah, it is it's it's out there, it's just that we a lot of times people don't know about it, or people get afraid to do it, but it's definitely that, and then also too, it's so crazy because I was thinking, like, okay, it was the caregivers, but then I forgot, I'm like, I'm about the widows too, because I have a lot of widow groups, and they have the people looking for income and they don't know where to get it at, and you know, what's out there that people can work at home or try to not so much maybe start over, but just add something else to what they have going on. So hopefully, uh those two groups is really why this was established.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

I think it's smart. I think it's smart, and I've been looking for something like this for caregivers for 10 years, and I have not come across anything. So when you when you presented this to me, I thought this is this is good. Yeah, because it's it's not a lot of output of financial financially, and it can make a huge difference.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Yeah, it can. And you know, the thing of it is too, is one thing that um you know, when it comes to like different types of contracts, you you know, financially you probably would have to have some money up front, but I have uh the secret for that as well.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

I'm interested. And you know what else? Oh, I want to I saw something about bid match, and I need to understand that as well. So how to bid, what it let's I guess we start with bid match, and then how to bid, what the process is that Silas uses, because I I'm ready to do that, and then tomorrow, next week, I'm hoping to tell you I've I've uh started the bidding process.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

That's right. Well, really, actually, Diane. So you talk about bid match and uh well, my matches my match is from Apex, and that's what I uh posted on our community. Okay, that comes from my match. So basically you can tell your counselor like to set you up based on your next code or your USC codes, which type of whatever your category is, right? Where you will get those every day sent to your email. Gotcha. Or you can actually go through and look at those to see if they, you know, I will ask her on Monday. Good, exactly, and you can do that now. It doesn't mean that you're not gonna go on sam.gov or into your state and look individually at things too. That's just meaning that you're gonna be getting certain things that's in a categorized for you. And the reason why I said that is because like we have things specifically for us, but we also do things outside of us, and that's where my team will go in and look for other things that may be pertaining to us that's just not there. So, like I'm working on one for a 24-hour uh call service, answering service. Oh, I saw that too on mine.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

There, yeah, yeah. So I have a company if you're if you are I you know what now that you said that I'll look into it and and and I'll I'll go talk to you and Silas about it.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So definitely so don't don't get caught with oh my god, this is not for me. You just never know. Actually, I have another one too that uh actually I'll share my screen and show you one that I'm actually that you're probably thinking, like, well, now that has nothing to do with UTAR. Yes, so but um hold on one second, Diane.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Well, I told you I saw one for event planning for a doctor's conference, and I thought I could do that. Well why not? So I'm thinking, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, well, now that I know, so yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

I have a million screens open, so please forgive me. Let's see, hold on a second. Oh, you do have a lot of screens open, Lord have mercy. My gosh, Diane, let me tell you. I um so then see if you see this, this is drapery and blinds cleaning and maintenance service, right? Uh-huh. So, I mean, would I go after this? Possibly. I would look for somebody who could do drapery and blinds cleaning and maintenance for this particular area. Gotcha. Okay, now when you look at this, you gotta okay, do they have the credit do you have the credentials? Because one I looked at the other day, it was a few days ago, and they wanted those prime, which is which we will be considered the prime, to have certain certifications, right? Right. Um, and now and then that situation, it's like, do I do that one or don't I? I passed on that because as a prime, I did not have those particular, which was like your permit to do like maybe some similar construction or something, right? Gotcha. So we didn't have that. So that to many, it's just nothing, it wasn't worth my time for that one, right? But the work to be able to sub it out, I know I could find somebody to do it, but then sometimes you may have to have that a permit or what have you, also. Gotcha, right? So that in that perspective, I did not move forward on that. Um so but again, when you look at these, it's pretty cut and dry. I mean, literally, it's telling you exactly, and I have so many windows open, Diana. So hold on a second. Let me see. Hold on, I got too many, too many windows open. Too many. So this probably won't open for me, but let me go back here. Titus tells me, why do you have so many windows open? So this is the e this is the state of California. So as you see, all of these solicitations. So what we normally do is I'll go in for us and I'll put in wheelchair. So it's already actually tab there. So it would search there, and then of course it's gonna bring up maybe things uh bus rental services. Okay, well, we've learned over the years that some things is just probably not going for worth going for, right? Now, could I find a company that does bus room that does busing and all that stuff? I'm sure we could, but where we are now, where we kind of narrowed ourselves down to, I wouldn't go now. In the past, I would have just been grabbing at that. But I wouldn't go after that now.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

And so pretty much you just for us in the state of California. California, we just go in here, like even with this, you could go in and register for the state, even though you're not in the state of California, you could go register, do the credentials, things of that nature, and then you could also you could be it as well.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

I think the two states I have right now is a good display, and then the federal.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

So exactly, exactly. And that and that's good because that's like for us, we kind of stick stay in our backyard.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Yeah, that's what I want to do. I would like to do that. I wanted to develop relationships and get to know people.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Exactly. There you go. There you go. So sticking with uh South Carolina is I think is a perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect thing. So uh because you were in what do you say, South Carolina? Let's and North Carolina. Let's go here. So this is my so never mind me on that. South Carolina. Doing business. Let's go. Doing business with South Carolina. Oh, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Is this yours here? Oh South Carolina registered agent. No, that is not me. No, no. I just have South Carolina uh vendor registration. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

There you go. That's the one. This is registration. So what do they have here? What do they got going on? So they got bidding opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Uh business opportunities is or bidding opportunities. There's a business opportunities too. He pulled it up last week and I used it this week. But yeah, just to go to the bidding opportunities one.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Let's check it out. Yeah. And then you got the submitting offers. I like you guys. I like this one too. This is pretty clean because some of them, when you go on them, they're pretty convoluted. Like I had registered, I think it was Washington. And uh, it was cool too. It was a pretty easy one to do as well. But hold on a second. My system is pretty slow because I there you go.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

That's the one. No, I go in here, uh, I went in here twice this week and looked at um at uh all the what the ones that I would most likely uh check out, which would be uh consult prof consultant professional. Okay, let's see what they got. I do do equipment.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

Okay, well let's look at the equipment they do too. Let's go, we'll go, we'll look, let's look through here first. So what do they what do we have here? Mirrors into business. Well, that's uh oh yeah, due date is on the 24th. That's for that one. So what are they asking for though? Seeking qualify a firm to develop and street scape plan for six. Okay, so we probably don't want to do nothing like that. Seeking qualify a firm to develop and primary design and enhance the walkability along with this area, and then the highway 17. Uh, let's see. I was surprised at all the things that they look for. You know, that is one of the things that we tell people that people cannot believe. Like when you see construction going on a lot of times in places, you're thinking that's just that's through the state or the county, whatever. A lot of times it's sub this work is subbed out.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

It's lawn services and cleaning services. I was like, oh my!

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Yes, exactly. Like you would be surprised with cleaning, cleaning the DMV, the street, the taking out the trash. I mean, you name it, they are looking for it. And that's the thing, like, because you just think about all that, Diane. The state, the county, the federal, all of these things are being put out that they need people to do. Yeah, I mean, you have businesses right now that do this stuff, but they know nothing about the government part of it. Exactly. You don't, and and some of them, and some people they struggle in business because literally, actually, I think is it 14 or less of small businesses in the United States, and I think what is it, 30 million or something businesses? Uh-huh. Don't quote me on that though, but it's up there, yeah. And only I think less than 14 make a hundred thousand dollars a year. Exactly. Yeah. And so when you think about that, you're like, well, why is that?

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Four out of five bit small businesses don't last five years.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And and for us, literally, you know, because and that's why we talk about we're so big on diversifying your business now. And we talk about diversifying, it's not adding on new businesses every second, but it's like, what are you what does your business offer? What do you do that you can add services to your business of what you do right now, right? And or adding something same or similar to what you're doing right now to help scale your business, or whether you're feeling like, oh my God, like I'm dealing with only consumers. Well, if you look at a lot of the companies, and the Silas mentioned to this last week, they literally have government contracts, a lot of them. All these companies, they do government contracting, they have government contracts, and so we have to, we as small business have to understand that there's other things out there that we can add on, not giving up what you do, but just add something on to that, maybe a service that you have. And that's what's so sad too, because a lot of companies are either closed or they're gonna close because they didn't know that they have something else that they could add on to the business, exactly, which is government contracts, they're the largest spender in the United States of America and the world, really, right? And so why not use that?

SPEAKER_01 28:01

Exactly. I tell you, and it's not fast money overnight, you're not gonna get you know fast money.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

But if you can be consistent and and uh persistent, um, you will make money, and you know, it that's the important thing, exactly, exactly, and taking and the thing of it is is not focusing on you know just making yourself so uh just oh, this one thing that I'm doing is you know is gonna be the benefit for me because I'm telling you based on experience, yeah, that we did that and it did not end, it was not good. It was not good. And 2023 government contracts helped stabilize our business. It was amazing, it really did. Like I because in the shift that we were shifting, we pivot, we were doing some pivoting and making some changes, but ideally, we were stuck in the pinning on one avenue, and until we were like, Whoa, this isn't good, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:11

Well, in healthcare, you have to diversify. I'm just telling you right now, it's it's the way of the world, yeah, with the changes in reimbursement and uh the changes in so many things in healthcare, it's just it's just necessary.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Oh my god, so necessary. That's what I tell. So now I am a true believer in another reason why I'm like, look, you guys out there, hey, if you can get onto government contracts, get on. There's enough to go around for everybody because you know, some people don't only want to deal in their backyard, some people want to do federal, some people don't do state. I mean, just there's different. I mean, who could do all this stuff? Exactly. I mean, you you look, you see it for yourself, like how many look look all these contracts, and this is this is in your backyard.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

This is not I know that's why I'm saying I don't need to go to another state, North Carolina and South Carolina will give keep me busy, yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

And and that's what we said too, like the state, our state, we we're good.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

We don't you're at California, yeah. That state is like two like South Carolina and North Carolina and another state involved in that huge, yeah, huge, it's huge.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

So, yeah, so basically just looking at over and seeing what you can do. I would definitely check out the one that you talk about, the t the t-shirts. Um sure that you can find a company down there. What you do is you take and you upload that bad boy into AI and ask it to get you three companies within that area or within that demographic of where you are. Because sometimes I like to look at someone who may be close to where they want it to look to. Yes, I think that's wise. Yes, you want to do that, and so I always say that I always do a rule of thumb of three, and I do that for everything, like even in the side, I do three, a rule of three, and sometimes four, um, but mostly three to make get your options there where you reach out to see if this is something you can do. Well, you know, you can do it if you can reach out and find the people to do it with for you, right? And so you know what?

SPEAKER_01 31:14

I did this as a care manager, uh-huh. You know, I had to find equipment, I had to find resources, I had to find uh um uh supplies, I had to do that for in in different states. And this is before they had uh we before the internet, or I mean I'm 73, uh, but it's also before they had manuals that you that the care managers use now to find those things, you know. So I I'm I think I'm I have the skills to do this.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Diane, you literally just named it. I mean, it's not rocket science. That's what I tell people. It's not rocket science. Think about it. When you need a dishwasher, you need a refrigerator, what do you do?

SPEAKER_01 32:03

Yes, you I I always look around. I check different places, I look at different things. Yep, yep, yep. You already got it. You already know. So I'm not worried, I'm not worried that I can't do it. Um, especially with AI, has helped me so much with, you know, I every time I fill out a form, I cut and paste it, uh, cut, you know, copy it and then cut it, paste it into AI and say, what are they looking for? But I've been working with AI for so long. I use chat. I'm also going to start Claude now too, but with chat, it knows my it it knows all my information. So it helps me. And if you develop that uh I I he calls it a copilot. I've got my chat co-pilot now, and it helps me. But it'll say, um, based on your information, you don't want to this, you don't want this. It even helped me discover the codes that I wanted to use. Exactly. Right. So it it's it's not, you know, if if I had to do this without that, it would have been a lot of hard work. I'm I'm telling you. Not that it wasn't hard because I I I just had you have to review things and read it because chat, any AI doesn't get everything right 100% of the time. It does not. And you know, you you just have so you have to be on top of things and pay attention. But it's it's uh possible to do these things.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

It cuts the time in half, and that's what I was for my team yesterday because I was telling them, like, look, you guys, just upload when you see something or you don't know, like, I don't know if we're we could do that or not, you upload that document into AI and you got to have, but you got to ask the certain questions to kind of you know to make sure that you get an appropriate answer. But once you do that, it's literally has cut your time down in half, right?

SPEAKER_01 34:00

It's like you go to the uh the the where it says download on and the uh links, the blue links at the bottom of each job posting, and that is the document. So you uh download that or uh whatever you need to and then you upload it to your um upload it to your your chat the chat. Yeah, you're right, and I always ask it to um uh I'll ask for this uh the questions I would ask is please make sure this is within my scope and and actually like with the t-shirts. I'm gonna say, you know, can you provide give me three wholesale providers of quality t-shirts in South Carolina um that I can use?

SPEAKER_00 34:52

Exactly. And the designers, like so because they want what is now what does that one pertain to, Diane? They want you, they want the t-shirts or they want them designed a certain type of way.

SPEAKER_01 35:01

No, they they want they want their t they they want t-shirts with their logo on it. There you go. I mean, uh that's easy, you know. Uh so I thought, yeah, I was and I was gonna bid on it, and I didn't. So if it's still open, I'm gonna I'm gonna make the effort and do that. I'll do that tomorrow morning. Um that's my first thing. Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

Yes, because like I mean, my goodness. Uh, and what do you do? It's like anything else. You get it, you look at the scope of work, you see what they want, and once you and you make sure to to ask it, hey, give me review the scope of work inside of this document. Okay, make give me, if you think I can do this, because let me say this too based on what you do and then what it knows, and it's been prompt to know you and what you do. Yes, sometimes, even though it's telling you, know it's gonna give you, it might tell you, oh Diane, you may not, this has nothing to do with these t-shirts, have nothing to do with you, but you don't have to stop there because what's gonna happen is you're gonna what you're asking it to, you know, give me what the the rules and regulations, what the scope of work outline and do. Can I sub this work out? Make sure to ask it for that. You know, is there any limitations on me subbing the work out to someone else to another to using a sub on this, you know? So those are the things you want to ask it. Tara, could you do you have a a place where this is written down? I uh inside of the inside of the the program.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

Inside of the program. Okay, I I I haven't looked at it in a while, so I will get that. It's inside of the program. Do it tomorrow because um uh I have a lot, you know, the school systems are looking for OTPT and speech therapists. Oh my god, right? I saw three or four school systems. Oh my god, it's crazy. Schools coming at getting coming to an end, but they're do it looking for it, I guess, for the next year.

SPEAKER_00 36:48

Well, you know what? We need to reach out to um, I just interviewed uh Chris Kurt Kuriston. I just interviewed Kirsten the other day, and you know, she does speech therapy. Uh-huh. Yes. So I mean, my point to that is that you know someone who could do it. I mean, like, I don't know if a cursten could do it, but you know, my point to that is you may be able to find someone who could do that.

SPEAKER_01 37:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:11

Who would be happy to do that?

SPEAKER_01 37:13

Yes. So, and and that's what I thought. So, I'm I'm just gonna reach out and and speech most speech therapists do work in this school system because that's with all the reimbursement changes with Medicare and stuff, they don't they're not utilized as as the way they should be. So, it's the school systems that that most of them end up in.

SPEAKER_00 37:35

Yeah, the school system is really awesome too. We work with the school districts um often too when it comes to positioning chairs and uh things like that's outside of government contracts, but that's a different um different but you know, so yeah, having the getting though, it's trying to find someone who could do that and give them exactly what they're asking for because that's what they're looking for. They need something. If you can get it and provide a good service for them, then that's what you do. And that's really that's really it. Like, I mean, there's of course there's more to it to that, but I'm just saying I think sometimes people overthink it, right? So it's just what do you want? It's like if you're looking for something yourself. Hey, you know, you need a car, you need to go look at the you need to understand the specs and what you're getting for the car, right? Yeah, you can just go buy one. You want to look at you, all these things, like when you get ready to get a refrigerator or whatever it is you're trying to buy, you look at what is what what is the benefit of it, right? The specs on it, all those things. So that's technically what government contracting is. Of course, there's other layers to it, but ideally, I don't want people to get thinking like it's so uh it's that you can't do it. You but some people are doing it already, especially if you think about a caregiver. The caregivers really doing it because they're multitasking all these things, right?

SPEAKER_01 38:48

Exactly. Yeah. Well, you know what? Most women, forgive me, I know men can do it too, but most women are used to number one looking for for deals or whatever. They're looking, they're used to reaching out and exploring their options. So I think this is something that is just intuitive for most people to do that if they shop and they uh run a household or uh and have a business, it's things you're already doing. You have the skills, and it doesn't take a college degree, it doesn't take uh uh teenagers could do this if they you know if there wasn't an age um specification.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

So no age specification. Anybody can you can create a business, yeah. You could do this business, get your license, do the thing, those things, you know, the basic credential things, which is in the program to tell you what to do. But you do that and you register in these portals or wherever you want to do business at and business with, and once you do that, then you start learning from there, yeah. And it's like I mean, I tell people which is a good movie, and this is what Desmond had told us go watch um War Dogs. Have you ever seen War Dogs? No, no, it's a movie called War Dogs. Now, mind you, everything in there is not, you know, a fact, just yeah, yeah, but it's a good indication on how government contract kind of works. It's a great movie, I love it. So when you get a chance, I will watch it. It's called War Dogs, and I mean it is you'll be like, oh my god. So pretty much, you know, it is it's giving you an idea on how it works, right? And it's really cool, it's really cool. So I know I was gonna talk about um is this uh is it in my industry? And we talked about that, right? Because is it in my industry? Maybe it's not a part of your industry. I sold Samsung phones, doesn't mean I do I don't do Samsung phones. You see that, but if I can get it at a reasonable price, and mind you, it's lowest price acceptable, and sometimes it's about being the responsible party as well. Because I think sometimes people think, oh, because they're the lowest price, yeah, but you also want to be responsible as well, and being responsible means you want to make sure that when you do be in on something in the pricing, you want to make sure you're not gonna lose your shirt exactly in the process of it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

And and that's where AI can help as well, correct?

SPEAKER_00 41:18

Yes, exactly, very helpful. We've used it in some pricing. Now, in the past, we did not, we just literally started using AI to you know to help with these things, but in the past we didn't use AI on any of this. Um, so yeah, but now it what it has done is cut down time and a lot of time in half, and you and you time is let me tell you, there's not enough hours in a day sometimes. Yes, that's so you definitely need the the time, any time that you can get back using these tools is a blessing. That's how I look at them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

Yeah, so I want to hear all about it this week, Diane.

SPEAKER_01 41:59

When you go Yeah, well, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna get the get in onto the course, get the questions. Um Silas showed me, you know, how to download it and upload it last week on the on the call. So um, and I have I'll I I just realized I have several I can bid on right now. That it it's just it's just getting over the fear, uh just doing it. And and you know, if you do it and you don't get it, it's it's still you're still learning, and that's the important thing.

SPEAKER_00 42:31

You're still learning. Then oh, I will talk about so right here, I'll give you an example. So I don't know um if Silas went over this in detail last week, but right here when you talk about the ad, that this is the title, right? Uh-huh. Then you have here, you have the RS, the RFP. So this right here is a solicitation number, right? So you this is very important because when you're doing your proposal, you're sitting over sending over whatever the documentation that they've told you to complete. You want to always make sure those that information is listed on there. You got the buyer's phone number right here. I know a lot of times people are scared to call a buyer. Now, you what you do is over when you read that outline of what they want. So let me just go. I'm just gonna click here. I don't know what it's gonna bring me open to, but here we go. View the opportunity. So, what I would tell anyone to do, let's see if it lets me if it gives me okay. So, here we go. So, this particular opportunity questions are due by May 26th. So, in other words, if you were gonna go after this, this is just an example. If you were gonna go after this particular solicitation, you want to make sure that if you had any questions about this particular solicitation, you want to make sure you look at you read through everything. One of the things I do tell people though, you want to make sure that if you're not a reader, if you're not a person who isn't detailed, you got to ask yourself, is this for you? Yeah, it is a lot of reading, it is a lot of attention to detail. Detail.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:01

Right. You have it's very a lot of attention to detail. And I think, especially with a caregiver, your attention to detail. Most people, most caregivers are. Yeah. They do a great job with the detail. But you want to make sure you always look at that. So what this is saying is questions due date. This is what it was open on May 8th at 2 o'clock. The questions were due on May 26th. So you have till the 26th of May at 2 o'clock your time to get whatever questions you want to send over to that particular buyer. Okay. And if you look where we were at earlier, the buyer's information is here. I think that was the same one I was just into here. Okay. So basically, here's a name of the buyer. This is a solicitation number. Here's a buyer's phone number. Now you, if you you're going to read through the solicitation before you make any calls or send any email. Right. Because some of them will say, do not call them. Yes. Right. And so therefore you want to email and you want to email them in anyways because you want it in writing. Yeah. But you can go back and reference yourself, right? So that's one of the things that we always say too. Like, make sure that you, you know, read through it first before you start calling or whatever. Excuse me. And that's good because a lot of them, you know, some of them don't have their phone numbers, as you see right here.

SPEAKER_01 45:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:24

This one doesn't have a phone number. Actually, quite a few of them don't have a phone number.

SPEAKER_01 45:29

Yeah, well, that's the government. They don't want to be employees. They don't want to be bothered.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

We got too much on our plate. So if you look, if you look through here, look at the ones. No call. Do you see how that says no calls? No calls. Tell you, do not call me. Just communicate through email. And that's fine, right? So you can email them, you can email them whatever questions you have. You can also ask them, hey, is there an incumbent on this one? And I'm not sure about because I haven't really uh looked through you guys' system, but sometimes you can go and find who had this particular contract prior. Okay. Okay. So you can go on here. Let's see what let's see uh if they have anything on here. That's publications, schools. Let's see here. Let's go home. Statewide terms of contracts, supplies and services contract search, daily fear of prices purchasing card. Oh, purchasing card. Now, when you talk about the purchasing card, I'm gonna kind of uh kind of go all over the place here, but on the purchasing card, what the purchase card is is meaning that just say they say, Oh, um, they got to know you down there, right? And just say they may need some pencils, and it might be worth five thousand dollars worth of pencils, without pens or pencils. Yeah, sometimes they will call you up and say, Oh, Diane, um, do you have any we need some pencils or whatever? And they can buy them from you right then. So that's why it's good to have your your system set up where you can do invoicing.

SPEAKER_01 47:08

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 47:09

Yeah, yeah. So you see, so they have they have cards, people purchase cards, but they can purchase things depending on the amount, they can purchase right on the spot.

SPEAKER_02 47:19

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 47:20

They may need to get some water, right? Bottles of water, certain type of drinks or something that they may, whatever. That's why it's good to you to communicate with them down there to make sure, like, hey, you know, I'm over here, you know, if you need anything, I'm right here. You know, if I can get that for you, I will, right? And so you just build up like you talk about those relationships, you build those relationships up, but yeah, you can definitely they'll can reach out to you. I've known people to do that. The what they have literally called them and said, now it hasn't happened to me, but they have called and they've reached out to people with a purchase order card and bought paid for stuff right over the phone.

SPEAKER_01 47:56

Now, in invoicing, do you do that through QuickBooks or do you use another system? I have different systems.

SPEAKER_00 48:03

Um we use QuickBooks. Well, I would use QuickBooks if I were you. And the reason why I would use QuickBooks is because QuickBooks is really good. And as I was told that the government likes uh QuickBooks, okay.

SPEAKER_01 48:16

I have a I I have a uh I have it, I just have never used it.

SPEAKER_00 48:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 48:22

So I need to get familiar with it, and yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

Yes, and and I can help you with that too, because I use QuickBooks. Um, so we're for invoicing you want that, and not only that too, you can have everything in there so that when you have to provide your PLs, your profit and loss sheets or your balance sheets, then it's easier for you to just print that bad boy report out and send it to whatever agency that may need it. Okay, okay, and so definitely your uh systems uh you want to have that because you never know because you and you want that because you need to invoice them. So, what you're gonna invoice them on, right? And then um, I know sometimes, like for us, we use Wix for our website, and within Wix, it also comes with invoicing a pay link and all those things. So we did we have different tiers, but we have different um, but then I have a POS system, which is a different system because that's whole point of service, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:15

I had that one, I had a store, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:17

Yeah, yeah. So that's so we have different ones, but as far as you just just keeping it clean, keeping it straight, keeping it reasonable, you're not paying out of pocket for all this stuff, but that's a whole different lane. But you only need uh QuickBooks is fine, okay. This is fine, that's all you need, you know, and so yeah, being able to invoice them, track your services and what you're doing, uh, and things like that. So definitely uh QuickBooks, but yeah, so just know the purchase card, they could they do that, and I love seeing that too. I like how they got it right there. The purchase card, just good. So, so that, and then of course, you get doing business with us, right? So, of course, as we saw, you've already registered there, bidding opportunities, and which we were just in, yeah. Um, awarded solicitations, okay. So, let me see how theirs work because I know on the state of California, you can actually go in and see who won. Uh, so is it interesting? So, for instance, you talk about let's see, t-shirts. We'll just try it. Okay. I don't know if it'll come up. Probably nothing comes up with that. Well, what an example. So, based on what you saw, so it says no solicitations found, but whatever it is that you saw the other day, right? Yeah that description, you can take it and put it in here, and go search because what's gonna happen is it may show you who won last time. Yeah, based on who won last time, you literally can give you an idea on what maybe the pricing was, who the incumbent was, and all those things.

SPEAKER_01 50:56

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 50:57

So, yeah, it's a lot of different strategies behind that. When we'll talk, I always, you know, I can share all that with you um offline, but ideally that is how you would track how they I mean this stuff is I mean, how would look how easy that would be, Dan? I mean, I say I'm not saying it's easy, but look at the information. Yes, yes, yes. Right? I mean, like it's just some people just can't believe it of what when they get into this, they're like, wow, what in the world? Where have this been all my life? Because that's how I felt. Yeah.

unknown 51:33

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 51:33

I was like, Whoa in the world, like this has been around all this time, and yeah, I know people who worked retired and they do this full time and they do very well with this. Do you see that? Oh, wow, yeah, mobile satellite station, customer service enterprise portal, cold storage vending machines, Diane. Let's see here.

SPEAKER_01 52:00

I I have several of those I've seen in North Carolina and South Carolina.

SPEAKER_00 52:06

The vending machines?

SPEAKER_01 52:07

Yeah, I know nothing about them, but I just saw that. I remember seeing that. And um I'm just what I'm just gonna do is just start to because uh I don't have a profit and loss statement because I have I I do need it. Yeah, well, I know, but I will eventually, I'm I'm assuming. So um I have to learn to set that up and uh the invoicing system. I'm not worried about that, too. I I I can learn how to do that. Um, but it it's gonna be interesting.

SPEAKER_00 52:46

Yeah, yeah, it is it's uh it's it's what you do when you're starting a business. Now, if a people don't have a mindset of business, then it wouldn't be for them because you do have it is a business and you have to set it up as such, right? Um, but you don't have to, there's not a lot of money you need to set up, you don't need to do all these things, you don't need to um actually here's the award right here for this person. I think I just went overboard on a clicking. Um, but here it is right here. Let's expand it some here. Let's see. Is it gonna let me expand? Probably not. Oh, there we go. Here's an award right here. What is it? This is the best value bid. Let's see what happened here. The solicitation number there. Issue was May 14, 2026. Is a procurement officer here, Brit um this is Greenway. Information, contact information there. This was for cold storage vending machines using government unit, SC Criminal Justice Academy. And so this is um submit offer by June 9th. Oh, this was not even this one's not due to June 9th. Oh, wow. Yeah, award will be posted on June 23rd. The award is solicitation and any amendment and any related notices will be posted on the following. Now, see, sometimes they do what's called an open bid. Oh, I think this is one of number of copies submitted online, online bidding preferred if submitting online and please submit hard copy instructions. So, of course, always read the oh, and that's another thing, too. I wanted to say every single time you get one, you want to read the instructions because sometimes they may have you need to mail it in. Uh-huh. Very rare we've seen that, but it does happen. Um, where they'll tell you to they want it mailed in and they want you to make so many copies. And you know, the other day when you talked about the font and all that stuff, yeah, they might say it need to be in a certain font and all that, but we rarely see any of that. I mean, all the contracts that we've won, I haven't had to do any of that.

SPEAKER_01 54:55

Uh, I mean, I saw one or two uh in North Carolina today because that's the one I was on where they want you to hand deliver it. Okay, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 55:04

So you already seen it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, and and that's fine. And I've done that too. We had one that we went for uh out here in a county with San Bradina County, and it was for um a company. We were gonna have them to clean the county building in Samberdin. Yeah, and they wanted the packet hand delivered, yes. We actually drove and delivered it. Yep, yeah, you know, so there is times when you wanna that you want to do that, and um, we didn't win that one, but that was okay. Um, you gotta be in it to win it. Yep, yeah. So, but this one here is uh, and then what they another thing too is sometimes they'll do open bids. Now I've won many where they didn't do an open bid, um, but sometimes they do do a have give you a link where everybody can get on there and they'll go over the highest or whoever, oh, CFS was at 300,000, you know, or you know, Diane or whatever your company name is, is was at blah blah blah blah. And uh it's really interesting because you're sitting there like, oh my god, you know, so it's really uh it's really I I love it because I'm like, oh man, it's I was like, we gotta get on the call. So you know, it's really uh, I think it's exciting. You know, some people may not think that, but it is very uh, yeah, it's I I like it, I really do. So, but this is one right here, and they're kind of telling you what's gonna happen and all that good stuff, and how to go about doing it, how to feel it out, all those things. It looked like a lot, but it's just like anything else. That's why I love AI so much because it's time and half, yes, scope of the solicitation, and then sometimes you see just different words like scope of solicitation, scope of work, yeah. But it's all the same and similar thing. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 56:55

Any questions, Diane? No, right now I I basically what I have to do now is just do it and to learn it. Yes, and um, that's what I'll start tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 57:08

Exactly. And if you get on there, you see forms that you need an example, like, oh, I gotta feel like this packet, you know, or you feel like you get stuck on it, what have you. That's what the community is about. That's when you can reach out and say, Hey, you know, do you have time to jump on a call real quick? I want to show you something real fast, or um, you know, just ask questions and we continue to answer all of that.

SPEAKER_01 57:31

So you're not I think I'm gonna I'm gonna do be working on this all day tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see what I come up with. All right then. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 57:40

I love it, I love it. I'm excited to see what happens and those good things too. So, and then we'll talk about and then next thing we'll talk about is about funding because I think a lot of times people want to know, well, how does that work? Because yes, example, if it's um say it's you need to you need ten thousand dollars. Can you can you afford to pay that amount to get those products up front?

SPEAKER_02 58:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 58:06

Um, and so we'll talk about that too. Um funding and factoring companies uh that people can use a lot of times. They want you to be at about a hundred thousand dollars or more uh when it comes to certain types of deals, or they want it to be only of certain states, so all those things we'll get into all that too, but that's in inside the program, also.

SPEAKER_01 58:27

Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 58:28

Okay, talking about that. So, but anyway, if you don't have any more questions and uh we're gonna tie it on up. Yes, thank you so much. You are welcome. I will talk to you later, Miss Diane. Okay, Miss Tara. Talk to you later.

SPEAKER_01 58:43

Have a good weekend. You too, sweetheart. Bye bye.