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I'm afraid I don't have much input on your questions since I'm not there yet. Since it appears you've had quite some success getting leads I'd like to ask you

by tgflynn 13y ago

I'm afraid I don't have much input on your questions since I'm not there yet. Since it appears you've had quite some success getting leads I'd like to ask you a few questions regarding your last HN post: 1) Did ariba work out for you ? If not how did you get the opportunity to bid on large company RFP's ? 2) What did you have to do to demonstrate that you were a credible supplier for these clients ? You mentioned having done work as a subcontractor. How were you able to valorize that work as representative of your own capabilities ? Were these publicly visible projects, even if your name wasn't on them ? 3) Did you have to jump through a lot of administrative hoops to be considered - ie. DUNS, business insurance requirements, etc. ?

EMRo 13y ago
Still not at big co RFP level, a good deal of it is subcontracting. Ariba didn't work out so well, the projects are usually pretty old and you find much bigger companies tossing their hat in the ring. I wound up breaking into big company stuff by working with an agency to start, doing a good job and then the Tech Director started hooking me up with other Tech directors/projects to take me to the next level. Similar to above, the projects were big and public but the key for me was word of mouth. Every piece of work I did yielded me multiple new clients and repeat work. Yep, usually need 500k-1m of general liability insurance. Some require even more which I don't yet have. I don't have a DUNS number but that hasn't hurt me yet. You do need to be an LLC or Corp and have your books in order/no skeletons. One problem is I don't have a long history to point to. Some RFP's require you to show longevity which I don't have yet.