'Center of the Universe' for Business

It was apropos that the latest BRAC Business Initiative (BBI) meeting was held in what was once a dairy barn in Columbia, since the goal was to milk as much business from the Base Realignment and Closure initiative (BRAC) as possible.

The BBI's April meeting, which took place at , concentrated on support available from the United States Small Business Administration (SBA).

Speaker Michael Jackson said the SBA's goals are to facilitate starting new businesses and to "help take your business to the next level."

The SBA concentrates on capital, counseling and contracting. Although it does not offer grants and loans, it does guarantee loans for those qualified, said Jackson.

As district international trade officer for the SBA in Baltimore, Jackson also encouraged business leaders to take their products and services global, and he noted that there is a push to double U.S. exports in the next five years.

"We grossly underperform in the aspect of exporting. But there's a huge opportunity to help you prosper," he told the audience of business owners, managers and government agents. He presented slides showing that Germany exports 42 percent of its products and services; China, 40 percent; Canada, 31 percent; and the U.S., only 11 percent.

Business in the trenches

Kent Menser, executive director of the Howard County BRAC office, said: "We have 600 businesses on the BBI Match-Up database, but we'd like 6 million!" Those in the database run the gamut, he said, from "people who paint floors to those who do IT work." The idea is for small businesses to register online so that government agencies and contractors can easily find those that meet their needs.

"The DoD (Department of Defense) is not easiest organization to do work with; it's not very transparent because it's usually classified. But we can make it easier," he said.

In that vein, others shared their best practices. Sarah Jamshidi, of Chesapeake Innovation Center (CIC), said her company is "in the trenches" with their clients.

CIC helps with marketing, finance and business development. It also arranges for "showcases" six times a year, where someone with a unique technology can give a face-to-face, half-hour presentation to a representative of a major organization, like the National Security Administration (NSA).

Laurie Hedlund, vice president of Howard County Neotech Incubator, did not use the phrase in the trenches but verbally painted a picture for the audience of an organization battling to help its clients land those BRAC contracts.

"We roll up our sleeves and get to work," she said, of the consulting and strategic mentoring services her company offers to Fort Meade, which she she referred to as "the center of the universe" when showing it on a map.

Toward the end of the meeting, representatives from BBI's Test Companies stood and gave the audience a synopsis of their business. These are companies whose strategies to obtain defense contracts are documented by BBI staff members to monitor what works and what doesn't. They were selected to be a cross-section of area businesses.

Although most were IT (information technology) companies, there was some variety. There were representatives from turbine and solar panel companies, web design, space planning, construction, furniture sales, event production and environmental management.

But not everyone at The Other Barn was there trying to milk the BRAC cow.

Daine Cockrell was focused on lining up help for Howard County school students. Cockrell is the public school system's resource manager for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) projects. Raj Kudchadkar, deputy director for Howard County's BRAC office, told her about the meeting and said that it should be an ideal spot to connect with businesses.

"I came looking to see if I can get some people to help us with school projects; judges for our science programs; Career Day speakers, and mentors," she said, as she glanced around The Other Barn, looking to milk some goodwill in a room frothing over with high-tech business men and women.

BBI will offer a seminar called "How to Win a Prime Contract with NSA" on April 28. For more information, email BRACBI@hotmail.com.