{"id":22403,"date":"2014-09-08T15:17:39","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T19:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=22403"},"modified":"2021-04-23T17:07:30","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T21:07:30","slug":"learning-abcs-corporate-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/learning-abcs-corporate-contracts\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning the ABCs of Corporate Contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Kristine Jones, winning corporate contracts has been game-changing.<\/p>\n

In 2008, on a whim, the former preschool teacher started New England Flagger Services in Windham, Conn., providing certified \u201cflaggers\u201d to manage traffic at work sites throughout the state. \u201cI didn\u2019t have a lot of experience,\u201d she said. \u201cI had to fly by the seat of my pants and learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first year, Jones stayed afloat by doing work for a tree-trimming company and hiring the children of friends as flaggers. But she struggled to pay the bills, and she learned that to be financially viable, she would need to land contracts with big utility companies that often need flaggers for projects like fixing water main breaks or maintaining gas and power lines.<\/p>\n

The trouble was, she didn\u2019t have any experience or connections as a contractor. And the economy had deteriorated and most potential clients \u2014 such as Northeast Utilities, New England\u2019s largest utility system \u2014 already had multi-year contracts with other vendors. The worst year was 2009, Jones said, adding that she remembers questioning whether she should stay in business: \u201cI really was seriously thinking, \u2018Should I go back into teaching?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But then the economy picked up, Jones won a few more small customers, and she got serious about competing for corporate clients, including learning the alphabet soup of contracting. \u201cI didn\u2019t even know what an R.F.P. was,\u201d she said, referring to \u201crequest for proposal,\u201d a document that organizations use to solicit bids from potential vendors. \u201cLearning all the acronyms was really difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, a mistake over the unfamiliar jargon led to Jones\u2019 first big contract. During her second year in business, she targeted a paving company. \u201cI presented myself and said, \u2018My company\u2019s the best and so I want you to hire me,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThey said to me, \u2018You need something called a D.B.E. certification.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

D.B.E. stands for Disadvantaged Business Enterprise<\/a>, a designation that socially or economically disadvantaged businesses can receive through the Connecticut Department of Transportation. (Jones\u2019 company qualifies because it is woman-owned.)<\/p>\n

Jones went home and checked the Internet. \u201cThis is how na\u00efve I was,\u201d she said. \u201cI start Googling and W.B.E. comes up.\u201d This designation stands for Women Business Enterprise, a different designation that one can receive through the Women\u2019s Business Enterprise National Council<\/a>, a third-party certifier of women-owned businesses. Jones went through the process and obtained her W.B.E. certification, which she said took about a year.<\/p>\n

And then she went back to the paving company. \u201cSo the person in the office calls me back and says, \u2018I still don\u2019t see you in the system. Are you sure you have a D.B.E.?\u2019\u2019\u201d That\u2019s when Jones realized \u2013 in a slap-the-forehead moment \u2013 that she had obtained the wrong certification.<\/p>\n

As fate would have it, however, the W.B.E. certification paid off. She was soon contacted by Connecticut Natural Gas, a regional utility that needed flaggers and had spotted New England Flagger on a database of W.B.E.-certified firShe won her first contract \u2013 a relatively small one for two years \u2013 but she said it stabilized her company and put her in a position to grow.<\/p>\n

By 2012, the multi-year contracts with the big utilities were up for renewal, and Jones said she put everything she had into landing one with Northeast Utilities.<\/p>\n

First, she registered her company online with Northeast Utilities\u2019s supplier diversity program<\/a>. In addition, she needed to show, through documentation, that her company trains it flaggers through an Occupational Safety and Health Administration program.<\/p>\n

She also found she needed to be aggressive. \u201cOnce I started submitting my things electronically, I would call and say \u2013 probably for the 10th time \u2013 \u2018just wanted to make sure you received this,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI was in their face, all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The persistence paid off. In 2012, she won a three-year contract with Northeast Utilities, plus contracts with Yankee Gas, Southern Connecticut Gas, United Illuminating and other private companies. In the space of a few weeks, she said, New England Flagger went from about seven employees to 70. Revenue increased from about $100,000 a year to $1.6 million by the end of 2013.<\/p>\n

Jones, who began paying herself a salary in 2012, said her company now sends its flaggers to about 30 sites a day. A new growth area is subcontracting, where smaller outfits (say, a pole-removing company) who have contracts with the big utilities also use her flaggers, she said.<\/p>\n

Jones said she is glad she didn\u2019t return to teaching during the rough early years. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s easy to fall back on something that\u2019s comfortable,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to ride the bumps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: <\/strong>Getting Federal Contracts Into Women’s Hands<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kristine Jones, who provides “flaggers” to manage traffic at work sites, figured out a way to land big utility companies as clients. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":27270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[187,3],"tags":[19459,19790,20367,19687],"class_list":["post-22403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-entrepreneur-videos","tag-housing","tag-business-growth","tag-contracting-and-certifications","tag-women-entrepreneurship"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLearning the ABCs of Corporate Contracts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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