I am happy and pleased to announce that Maine PTAC has added a counselor to assist in Southern Maine. Morgan Rocheleau joined the Maine PTAC team at the beginning of November. He will primarily cover York County and parts of Cumberland County. Chances are, if you’re a client in those areas you may have received a welcome email from Morgan already. Morgan brings with him a passion for training and building relationships. His background is in higher education and most recently as the Director of Parks and Recreation for the town of New Gloucester. If you’ve received Morgan’s welcome email, shoot him a reply! He desperately wants to begin counseling clients (also, he’s ready to get out from my painfully detailed onboarding process). Welcome Morgan! I’m truly pleased to have this new presence in Southern Maine.

Federal contracting can be an intimidating experience if you want to grow and expand. The federal business is there, but how do you build knowledge and experience, especially on larger projects? We recently conducted an ‘Industry Day’ with the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard as they are looking for both contractors and sub-contractors for projects coming up at the base. We see many opportunities for our clients, especially small businesses. These types of projects would certainly be easier for your business if you participated in the SBA All Small Mentor-Protégé Program, learning from an existing experienced government contractor.

According to the SBA, the purpose of the All Small Mentor-Protégé Program is to develop strong protégé firms through mentor-provided business development assistance, and to help protégés successfully compete for government contracts. Mentor-provided assistance can be sought for several activities, including management and technical assistance, financial assistance, contracting assistance, business development assistance and more.

It would be up to you, the small business, to locate a Mentor company. The SBA must determine that the mentor-provided assistance will promote real developmental gains for the protégé, not just act as a vehicle to receive federal small business set-asides. Maine PTAC has access to several excellent webinars explaining the program in detail and offering insight to this successful program, all free of charge.

Maine PTAC works closely with the regional SBA office and we would be happy to meet with our clients to determine if this program is a good fit for you and your business. It is what we do.

Since March of this year, many businesses and organizations have faced challenges on how to offer trainings while maintaining social distancing. Cue the vast use of web based training sessions otherwise known as webinars.

 

As a small business owner, you have probably received a plethora of emails from different organizations that you subscribe to, offering insight into many specific areas of your business, including from Maine PTAC. And while there are not enough hours in the day to attend all of them, making time to attend webinars specific to assisting you in expanding your customer base is always advantageous.

 

Here at PTAC, we are dedicated to helping you throughout this pandemic by widening your customer base into the government sector. The U.S. government is the single largest consumer in the world, purchasing more than $550 billion dollars in goods and services annually. PTAC webinars are designed to walk you through a number of different topics with the sole purpose of helping you connect with the government agencies that purchase your product or service. The webinar topics range from how to get started as a government contractor to government set-aside programs such as HubZone, Women-Owned Small Business, etc.. During every webinar, there is a question and answer period where you will have an opportunity to ask questions specific to your business needs. And while PTAC webinars offer tips and tricks to gain success in selling to government agencies, it also provides a terrific networking opportunity to chat with other business owners who are interested in doing business with the government.

 

For information about upcoming webinars, simply visit maineptac.org/events. All PTAC webinars are free of charge and available to be attended from the comfort of your home during this unprecedented time. I hope to see you soon at a PTAC webinar!

Construction is underway on the new Men’s Re-entry Center in Machiasport!

More than two years ago the doors to the Downeast Correctional Facility in Machiasport closed. Last year it was decided by the State of Maine to construct a new Men’s Reentry Center at the same location. The Maine Department of Corrections opened the solicitation in late summer of this year and was awarded to PTAC client, King Construction Services of Machias.

The original facility was sized for 150 inmates and had about 35 employees. This new facility will house about 50 minimum security inmates and will ultimately provide more than two dozen jobs to the people of Washington County. The facility is categorized as “minimum/community release”.

Construction is going on now and is on target to be ready in the fall of 2021.

I love developing a routine in my daily work flow. While I dislike disruptions to that flow, I know that exploring new ideas and evaluating how I'm doing things can pay big dividends. Take a look at the list below to make sure you're taking full advantage of our free services. Remember, we assist with all government contracting: federal, state, county and municipal, and you can focus locally or search nationwide. There's currently a real need for subcontractors on government projects and we can help with that, too.

This list is right on our website:

Check off the items you’d like to know more about and contact your PTAC Counselor.