The 35-day government shutdown cost thousands of small- and mid-size businesses nationwide that supply services or technology to the federal government $2.3 billion in revenue and forced tens of thousands of layoffs.
As once-furloughed federal employees and contractors begin the slow business of reopening government, the cold reality is that another shutdown looms if a spending deal is not reached before Feb. 15.
It’s a time of “uncertainty” for contractors, according to David Berteau, who represents hundreds of companies as head of the Professional Services Council, and some contractors “may be in a holding pattern” while they wait and see whether the government shuts down again. In the interim, Berteau is advising contractors to proactively seek backed government invoices for money owed, sniff out new solicitations and bid on as many opportunities as they can.
Yet amid all the doom, gloom, and wall-to-wall news coverage, the longest government shutdown in history brought about pockets of optimism, innovation and strategy and teachable moments the contracting community that could serve thousands of businesses and 1 million-plus individual government contractors moving forward through future shutdowns or trying times.
Nextgov spoke with two small government contractors about their strategies for handling the shutdown and lessons learned.
Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2019/01/how-some-contractors-successfully-weathered-shutdown/154568/
