Local Small Business Resources

Today on one my listgroups, there was a question about how to get on a schedule for the government. Personally I don't think a schedule is always that useful at least for a company that is starting out but it is another way for a customer to get to you if you want to sell within the public sector. Today I'll show you some local resources that any small business can reach-out to get yes "FREE" help. This is not completely true across the board as some charge minor fees. But the costs are fairly low.

If you want to work in the defense sector, you can contact a Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC).
http://www.dla.mil/db/procurem.htm

For any small business, you can contact a Small Business Development Center.
http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/sbdc/index.html

For woman-owned businesses, you may contact a women's business center.
(The SBA website is broken) so I would google WBC or look them up in your local phonebook. They are not in every location.

Also a final resource is SCORE,
http://www.score.org/

Hopefully this is helpful advice to my average readers.

You Want to Sell Your Idea to the Government?

I wrote a book "Why Don't You Just Shoot the Moose?" that is available on Amazon. But when I write another one - I've decided the next title will question your sanity.

Anyway, if you have something you might want to sell to the government and it might be useful, let me know.

I have led a lot of technology investment decisions in my life - so I've seen a lot of technology. You never know - you might just be the next Raytheon, Hughes, Boeing, or Lockheed Martin. The hoops you have to jump through make it difficult at best to sell. For people from the commercial sector - you might want to slit your wrists! Women are significantly under represented in sales to the government. So we can discuss what it takes to get there. Where YOU CAN GET HELP to take the idea to the next level.

My Initial Post and Renewable Energy

Technology is cool but at the same times it creates challenges. Does it really help increase our quality of life? Sometimes the answer is no! Personally, I believe that technology should never be created for technology's sake. There must be a vision and a goal in mind! Throughout my career, I created a lot of really neat technology. In fact, a lot of it is now sitting at the Smithsonian, and no my picture is very current! I was just in the right place at the right time when I was just out of school. As part of my blog, I want to open discussion on what technology investments should be made and examine global strides to achieve these overall visions and goals.

Renewable Energy Technology Investment
When I was just out of college, I worked in a renewable energy laboratory. It was so cool and so much money was being invested at the time because of the cost of oil. IF we had kept investing in that technology instead of stopping investments around 1985 - we would be much better off today! However, many of the advanced countries didn't - so today we're in the midst of playing catchup to 20 years of wasted time in moving this technology forward. That is sad, but it's water under the bridge.

So how do we go forward? What technologies should we be focusing on with the goal of lowering power costs, reducing waste and environmental impact, and reducing our dependency on non-renewable resources?

Tell me what you think and I'll discuss some of the issues surrounding current renewable energy investments and what we need to be looking around for!

Hope you enjoyed my initial post and I'll be continuing discussions and adding new subjects as we go. Kelley