On Saturday, March 24, OPEN Washington DC Chapter held its first Mentorship Session of the year with Narjis Ali, President of Sure Secure Solutions and a former President of the Chapter. The session was skillfully moderated by Charter Member Mushtaq Khan and Executive Committee Member Habeeb Syed. Once again, the event was sold out with a long waiting list.
OPEN DC thanks NuAxis Innovations for hosting the event at its new head office at Tysons.
These mentorship sessions are designed for small groups providing personal interaction with the mentor and fellow attendees. Participants were an eclectic group, including IT consulting, cybersecurity, and social entrepreneurship. Main themes covered during the session included:
- Guidance on entering government sector contracting
- Utilizing 8(a) Business Development Program
- Leveraging small-sized opportunities and subcontracts
- Enables establishing strong track record
- Allows personal interface with customers for long term relationships
- Tracking government-wide acquisition contracts (GWACs) and developing proposal-writing skills
- Paying attention to expiring task orders
- Connecting with the small business offices at the relevant agencies
- Submitting non-solicited proposals to get your name out there!
- Differentiating yourself in a competitive environment
- Avoid marketing based on general skills, (cloud computing and cybersecurity), everyone has those!
- Highlight facts and data in support of past achievements and experience
- Your website is not just a promotional tool, it is evidence to verify your skills
- Balancing personal, professional, and entrepreneurial goals
- Learn to delegate, you do not need to do everything yourself.
- Develop partnerships to leverage your strengths
- Remember your social commitment and obligation to the community
Please mark your calendar for our upcoming events:
- Saturday, April 28: Importance of Estate Planning and Succession Planning
- Saturday, June 30: OPEN Annual Picnic
- Saturday, November 3: Annual Event
OPEN Washington DC thanks all those who attended the event and members of the Executive Committee who helped organize it.
Hasan M. Ibrahim
President
