IAM1071- Founder Helps Established Firms Win Competitive Contracts

Jennifer Schaus runs a successful consulting firm in the heart of Washington DC. Jennifer and her team started the business almost 20 years ago with the passion to help businesses understand and navigate the complex market of federal government contracting. In short, the firm helps established firms identify opportunities and secure the right tools in order to be successful in winning these competitive contracts. Clients include major Fortune 500 firms, publicly traded entities, and a host of product, service and software firms from around the globe. Jennifer has compiled a vast library of of over 450 complimentary webinars on public sector procurement. Pre-COVID the firm curated and hosted networking events for government contractors at the notable John F Kennedy Center and other fashionable venues.

• CEO Hack: Striving to listen to the customer and keeping things in check
• CEO Nugget: Stay the course
• CEO Defined: Being the face of the business

Website: https://www.jenniferschaus.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYvCaZcAvSYYEAZCqj2CQ9g/feed
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferschaus/

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Transcription

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[00:00:22.19] – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. GRESTS values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO podcast.

[00:00:50.00] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jennifer Schaus of Jennifer Schaus and Associates. Jennifer, it's great to have you on the show.

[00:00:59.29] – Jennifer Schaus

Hey. It's great to be with you today, Gresham. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:01:02.79] – Gresham Harkless

Super excited to have you on. Before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Jennifer, so I can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Jennifer runs a successful consulting firm in the heart of Washington DC. Jennifer and her team started the business almost twenty years ago with a passion for helping businesses understand and navigate the complex market of federal government contracting. In short, the firm helps establish firms identify opportunities and secure the right tools to be successful in winning these competitive contracts.

Clients include major Fortune five hundred firms, publicly traded entities, and a host of product service, and software firms from around the globe. Jennifer has compiled a vast library of over four hundred and fifty complimentary webinars on public sector procurement. Pre-COVID, the firm curated and hosted networking events for government contractors at the notable John f Kennedy Center and other fashionable venues. Jennifer, great to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:59.20] – Jennifer Schaus

I am ready. Yes. So let's rock and roll, ready to share my story.

[00:02:04.59] – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Let's do it then. So to kinda jump into everything, just as you said, I want to hear a little bit more about how you guys started what I like to call your CEO story.

[00:02:13.19] – Jennifer Schaus

Sure. So, again, appreciate the opportunity to be here. And, I think I knew from a young age that, I wanted to have my own, quote, unquote thing, which then, evolved into a business. But you have to start somewhere, and you have to have, knowledge, of how to do something, or you have to have a product. And paired with that, you also need the customers. So those are the two biggest, pieces of the puzzle for starting a business, in my opinion. So I started out working for some companies that were, selling services to the federal government, and, that's what people in DC do. You either work for the government or you're somewhere, selling to them or somewhere in that mix.

And, I felt that there was a gap as far as, some of the midsize and smaller companies that were kind of scratching their head and didn't know the the way around Washington and how to navigate within the agencies. And so I picked up that knowledge through, being a full-time employee with some companies, and, I felt that would be a good piece of intelligence to package up and sell. Through attending trade shows and networking hands, I started to build a little bit of a pipeline and, had some customers on the side until I felt confident and strong enough to cut the umbilical cord with the employer and, then launch my own, business.

[00:03:47.59] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, I appreciate you, telling us a little bit more about how you got to where you are. And I love too what you talked about so I think so many times when people start businesses, they think people would just wake up and are born and then decide to start a business, but seeing how you were able to have those conversations in that government, space, in the government contracting space, sounds like it provided some, I guess, stepping stones for you to be able to to start your business.

[00:04:11.90] – Jennifer Schausx

Yeah. Exactly. And I didn't want the model where I just, was going to quit a job and get a bank loan and rent office space. I wanted to piece by piece build it and shape it exactly how I wanted to without being tethered to a bank to pay back anything. I'd rather live a little more debt-free and, really just hunt for customers and continue to build, services and products that, were based on what they were telling us, their needs were. And that's how our offerings grew over the years. It started as really just, helping government contractors get onto, I'll call it, a vendor shortlist, very similar to, say, Amazon, eBay, or any of these online marketplaces where there's, like, you type in whatever it is you're looking for.

So in the government, scenario, it might be a bulletproof vest. It might be fighter jets. It might be Xerox paper. And so they would go to this specific website and get a list of vendors that were prequalified. So we would help companies get onto this prequalified list. But then we learned that they also needed help, that our customers then also needed help with proposal writing. Because when the government, buys anything, they're going to have to put out a solicitation and get three quotes and come back and compare the pricing and the quality and and everything else before they make a decision.

So, again, our service offerings expanded based on what we were hearing our customers' needs were. And while we don't wanna be everything to everybody, we focused on the pieces that made sense, and that's how I decided who to bring on as far as, employees and, you know, who was best suited, to help me build the business and people that were qualified, but also invested in really wanting to provide high-quality service to our customers.

[00:06:20.19] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That's huge. And I love how you said that final piece about providing that high-quality service to the customers. Because I love how you've been able to build and grow the business. Because I think so many times we forget that, you know, you can set and create the business in whatever way you feel is going to make that most impact and have that most, I guess, high level of service that you're providing to your clients. But I think as you said so well that so many times when you do take on bank loans or investments or have maybe even other people that are, providing capital to your venture.

Sometimes it takes a lot of the ownership away, and at the heart of it, sometimes takes us away from where and how we want to see our business. So I love that you've been able to kinda grow it and see and stay in tune with your clients and understand how you can best serve them. I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce, and it could be for yourself the business, or a combination of both. But what do you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:07:14.39] – Jennifer Schaus

I'll say, that is, somewhat of our I'll say secret sauce or what makes us unique is that high quality. Of course, we have competitors, who doesn't? But, I'm a I'm a foodie. I'll admit. I like a nice restaurant and high-quality service. Who doesn't? And I don't mind paying a little bit extra knowing that that's exactly what I'm going to get. So I like, for us to be us meaning the services and products that we're providing as well as how we deliver, the products to our customers. I like it to be all use the food analogy here, Michelin star-type service. We wanna be a Michelin star type organization.

[00:08:05.50] – Gresham Harkless

I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and, I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:08:17.80] – Jennifer Schaus

Sure. So I think always, striving to listen to the the customer. And for me as a CEO, that can be, the folks on my team, their interactions with our customers, their interactions with each other coming up with ideas or new ways to, approach business or internal organization and tracking or all of the different, moving pieces of the the the business. Then, there was the CEO of Southwest Airlines, Herb Keller, I believe his name was, and he had written a book. This is, gosh, probably going back, twenty years ago. But, the premise is basically, or the cliff note or the cliff sentence in a nutshell is to listen to your customers and let them drive your business.

What are their needs? What is the gap? And fill it. And so I try to, remind myself and focus on that. Sometimes I come up with ideas and, oh, let's try this. Let's try that. And then I just have to check myself and say, is this something that is going to be valuable? Is it needed? Can we generate money by making offers that are valuable or do they need it? Is it going to help them? So I think just always keeping things in check, having a sounding board internally and externally

[00:09:52.70] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. And so I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice, something if you have to do a time machine, you would tell your younger business self.

[00:10:02.50] – Jennifer Schaus

You know, stay the course. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it, and everybody can't be a leader. So, if that's the path that you're going to choose, then that's great. But if you decide at some point that, it's not for you, then then check out. But there are so many resources that are out there, SCORE, which provides mentorship, and they're they're funded through government grants.

So there are people there that you can usually find, within your industry, that will provide advice, be a sounding board, be a cheerleader for you, but then also not just be a cheerleader all the time and tell you, if and when maybe you're doing something wrong or some other things that you may wanna consider should you hit a hiccup or what you think is maybe a rough patch.

[00:10:57.79] – Gresham Harkless

Appreciate that nugget. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:11:09.79] – Jennifer Schaus

I think that's, part of being a CEO is, using these resources that you shouldn't be the one sending the invoices. You should relinquish control and, have a a bookkeeper. And the more that you can get off of your plate with administrative tasks, the more successful you'll be because, ultimately, as a CEO, you should be the face of the business. You should be out there shaking hands, looking at prospects eye to eye over, breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or whatever it is, a golf game, a tennis game, networking event, whatever it is, to build the business, explain what it is you do, what's your value proposition, why they should work with you. People work with people at the end of the day, and people work wanna work with people that they like. So if you're behind the scenes working on, invoicing or the marketing plan. I mean, all of these things you certainly need to touch and be involved in and oversee. But, again, those should be the pieces that the CEO should be, relinquishing control of.

[00:12:20.20] – Gresham Harkless

Jennifer, truly appreciate that, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find about all those things you and your team are working on.

[00:12:34.70] – Jennifer Schaus

Sure. And thank you, Gresham. I appreciate the opportunity to share time. And I would say I mean, I'm a woman typically of few words, so I'm just gonna say stay the course, but also don't be afraid to adapt. But make sure that you're not just having knee-jerk reactions. If something goes wrong one day, you may think the sky is falling and suddenly you're ready to give up on your business and you wanna be a full-time employee somewhere else. That's not always, the right answer.

I mean, sometimes it might be for certain people, but good things and bad things are gonna happen throughout life in both your business and your personal, life. But, for the business side just stay the course and, be confident in what you're doing. Believe in what you're doing and do it well. As far as getting in touch with me, the website's very simple. It's just, my name. So jenniferschaus.com. And, we're based in downtown Washington, DC, but, happy to talk to anybody from the US or, anywhere on the planet. So, again, thank you all for your time.

[00:14:01.50] – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. We thank you too as well, Jennifer. We will have the links and information then shown to us as well too so that everybody can follow up with you. But I love that last piece of advice as well too because I think it could be sometimes a frustrating, marathon or a journey. But when we do hit those roadblocks or those speed bumps or potholes sometimes, it's so important to make sure that we stay the course. We don't lose sight or get tied into how we're necessarily doing something, but we do wanna stay in line with our vision.

And if we know as we learned probably during this past year and a half, sometimes we have to adjust and change how we're doing something, but the mission and vision are still there. So I appreciate that reminder tremendously, and, of course, your time as well too, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the the day.

14:45 -Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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