GovCon Life

Did you think you were done?

Jennifer Namvar — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 16:08:36 GMT

So, you won the contract. Hurray! Time to celebrate! But did you think you were done? Not yet.

New Levels, New Devils… What are the stages of growth for Federal Contractors?

Jennifer Namvar — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 16:08:35 GMT

It is intuitively obvious that at each stage of growth as a federal contractor from start-up to large business, there are sure to be challenges. The daunting part is—just like in life, as soon as you overcome one set of challenges, new ones always pop up—new levels, new devils— as they say. In this article I share my observations on some of the key indicators and hazard signs at each stage of the journey from my experiences working for the largest federal contractors to the smallest of start-ups.

What I’m really thinking when I meet with small businesses…

Jennifer Namvar — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 16:08:34 GMT

As a long time capture manager for large business, I meet with small businesses all the time. On every Prime contracting opportunity I’ve ever worked, I’ve teamed with small businesses as subcontractors. On occasion, I’ve even subbed to SB Primes.

Can your passion for serving actually serve you in government contracting?

Jennifer Namvar — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 16:08:33 GMT

If you look for it, you’ll find examples of individuals and communities taking action to end suffering, do good, and participate in movements with massive impacts in the world. We are hard-wired for connection with other humans. People with a purpose and a broad and informed worldview are INTRIGUING. As fellow humans, we find shallow people boring and we generally dislike them. A shared purpose MAGNETIZES people together.

What they don’t teach you…

Jennifer Namvar — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 16:08:32 GMT

You can learn a LOT online or at a day-long training session or conference about Capture/BD/winning contracts. But for those of us in the know– who’ve actually done this for a few years, we realize that when it comes to winning, large strategic contracts, they skip a few lessons in the text book. Here’s what they DON’T teach you how to handle in a classroom, breakout session, or textbook…

Creating the conditions for success

Jennifer Namvar — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 16:08:32 GMT

Have you ever tried cooking in someone else’s kitchen? And you couldn’t find the cutting board or knives? And you couldn’t find the right ingredients in the pantry or the fridge? Or the pots and pans? Trying to cook up a masterpiece in someone else’s kitchen is frustrating as heck for these reasons. Chefs and expert cooks usually choose to cook in their OWN kitchen. Because they’ve created the conditions for success in their own kitchen to make a delicious meal. They know where everything is. They have their high-end knives, cooking utensils, and pans. They know where that extra replacement ingredient is stored, just in case they forgot something at the store.

3 ways office politics will destroy your P-win

Jennifer Namvar — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 16:08:31 GMT

Human beings are political animals. So, office politics aren’t going away anytime soon. You might as well come to grips with that reality. But did you know that left unchecked, office politics can ruin your win probability (P-win) on captures? I’ve seen some bad situations in my day and here are just a few ways that office politics can tank your P-win.

A robot has been trained to do 80% of your job. What’s your next step?

Jennifer Namvar — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 16:08:30 GMT

Have you noticed an ever-increasing shift toward automation, promising to make our lives simpler?

Machines will do what humans once did…

The promise is: you can free up your time — no longer working on lower-level, mundane tasks and instead work on higher-level challenges…

At the same time, we are obsessed with becoming more productive.

Productivity hacks — how to get more done in a shorter period of time…

Do these 3 tricks and you can accomplish in minutes, what once took you hours!

This all sounds nice and dandy.

Please sign me up for less mundane tasks and getting stuff done faster. Where is the sign-up sheet for that?

However, I don’t think we spend nearly enough time now thinking about what we do AFTER that.

What do we do AFTER we automated to the point where we don’t have to do pedestrian things anymore? What do we do AFTER becoming so productive we do things in minutes versus weeks?

Should we work even more? Play video games? Watch Netflix?

I’ve talked to older sales guys who reminisce about the days before the mobility era.

They talk about how nice it was going on the road completely untethered from the office and home.

Similarly, older office workers in general talk about how on the weekends, they unplugged. There was no email or cell phone to check.

Is the point of ever-increasing productivity to WORK EVEN MORE?

It seems that up until now, the answer to that question has been YES.

YES, now that you have more tools, go work more.

I think more people are questioning the wisdom of that philosophy.

As Americans, from a health perspective we are more stressed, suffering from more anxiety and depression, and fatter than we have ever been. From a personal finance perspective, we are broker than we have ever been.

Considering how technology has changed our lives for the better and made it easier to do work, it appears we do not have an approach to life that changed with the times.

It’s time to start consciously deciding how you want to live in this new age of information, automation and productivity.

With the future of work going this way, it’s essential to think about the value and impact you can make with your human mind, body, and soul.

Embrace the future, don’t be afraid of it.

You can’t change it. You can’t cling to the traditional ways that worked before. Those aren’t relevant anymore.

There are grand challenges all around us that we can solve as humans, using artificial intelligence (AI). It requires developing new skills, thinking about life differently, and adapting our lifestyles.

Also, the point of all this technology is to make life better, not worse for ourselves. That means having the ability to unplug from work. That means spending more quality time with loved ones, traveling, and experiencing new things. Work to live. Don’t live to work.

Here are my questions for you:

If you had more free time because of technology and productivity, how would you use it?

How would you change the way you worked and lived?

Please leave your comments to this article to begin the dialogue.

They may not understand you…

Jennifer Namvar — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 16:08:29 GMT

Do you ever feel like your team just doesn’t get it? You’ve communicated it and explained it several times, in several different ways, but they still don’t get it? I know this happens to me all the time and it can be super-frustrating. I’m like, what is wrong with these people, they just don’t get it, yada yada yada.’s

A little secret about the small businesses that get it right…

Jennifer Namvar — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 16:08:28 GMT

In my email last week I talked about the top 3 things on my mind when I meet with small businesses, as a capture manager. 1) Do they have their stuff together? 2) Do they have a story? and 3) Can I envision myself working with them?) I also threw in some of my major turn-offs for good measure. 🤣If you didn’t open that email, I would recommend going back a week and checking it out. I’ve found that it’s ALWAYS a good idea to understand what your customer is thinking. And even though a capture manager is not your end customer, we are highly influential decision-makers within a corporation and you want us on your side.