Five Ways to Tell if Government Contracting is Right for Your Firm

[ While a lot of our readers are already heavily involved in government contracting, there are a good proportion who are contemplating making the leap. Today’s guest blogger is an expert on the topic, as well as a great person to know! — LWF ]

Guest Author: Judy Bradt, Principal and CEO of Summit Insight LLC

America evidently wants change. With a new administration on the way, there are going to be a lot of emerging opportunities in the federal government for professional services firms — opportunities that could offset a cautious commercial market.

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Four Words You Should Never Say During a Recession

By Lee. W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

There are some words that should never be uttered in a business context, especially during a recession. On two occasions this past week I’ve heard a phrase that I believe belongs at the top of that list. “We can’t afford it.”

What’s wrong with these four little words? After all, when times are tight or cash is low nobody should be wasting money on unnecessary expenses, right?.

Yes. But… If an investment is truly worth making, you should probably find a way to finance it. Decisions based on short-term challenges can seriously impact your firm’s long-term prospects.

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Making Your Wiki Work For You

By Beth J. Bates, New Media Special Correspondent

While Wikipedia has become a household name over the past seven years, the use of the Wiki as a practical business tool is still emerging. First, let’s define Wiki — a Wiki can be a web page or group of pages that allows anyone to add or edit content. Content can be in the form of text, images, multimedia files, documents, etc.

While it may sound a little risky (anyone posting anything on your website can be a scary thought), companies have found that Wikis can be helpful, cost-effective and efficient tool for collaborating and sharing information. Business Wikis can be used for:

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Cutting Costs in a Recession

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

I was having a conversation with one of the CEOs I work with on the topic of cost cutting during an economic downturn. It seems that this is a topic that is on a lot of people’s minds. When faced with declining leads, falling utilization and massive uncertainty, it is the only sensible way to proceed. Here’s my take on how to proceed:

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Good Help is Just a Tweet and a Link Away — How to Recruit on the Web

By Beth Bates, New Media Special Correspondent

I’ve talked to several service professionals lately who are having a difficult time finding quality employees through traditional avenues. But a new recruiting channel is proving to be quite effective.

Social networking is becoming an increasingly important tool in the recruiter’s tool box. Social media is a form of networking, so why not use your existing, growing online network to locate, vet and potentially hire new employees or contractors? Here are a few tips for using your network to hire new recruits:

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Study on How to Get a Premium Valuation for Your Professional Services Firm Released

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

I’m excited to announce that we have just released a study entitled Top Dollar: How to Achieve a Premium Valuation for Your Professional Services Firm. The idea arose from our observation that when firms are sold, most of them receive an “average” valuation. In other words, they are priced at a multiple of their earnings very comparable to most other firms in their industry. Yet, there are some firms who receive a premium valuation—that is, their worth is several times more than their peers. The obvious question we set out to answer is… why?

We interviewed two groups of firms. The first was acquirers of professional services firms. These are large companies such as IBM, SAIC or CACI or private equity firms.

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