Learning how to leverage key relationships is an integral part of the road to government contracting success and becomes increasingly important in a more competitive government contracting environment. As a result, small businesses are working harder to grow their businesses through government contracting. According to a 2011 American Express OPEN government contracting survey, small businesses spent an average of $103,827 in time and resources, up 21 percent from 2010. Despite the increase in investment by small firms, federal contracting spending is flat from 2010. As this trend continues, small businesses need to come up with more ways to make each bid count and to win contracts.
To help business owners leverage key relationships to find contract success in the wake of reduced government spending, American Express OPEN and Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) are offering a free web tutorial on Thursday, January 26. This educational webinar is part of the Give Me 5 program, a national program created by American Express OPEN and WIPP to help women business owners get a leg up on selling to the world's largest customer: the U.S. government.
In this one-hour session, Give Me 5 instructor Mary Scheetz will provide insight and advice on how she used her key relationships to become a successful contractor. This session will provide business owners with information on how to network effectively, find teaming partners and make beneficial connections to help grow their businesses.
Additional information can be found below:
Give Me 5 171: Leveraging Relationships to Drive your Federal Contracting Goals
Date: Thursday, January 26, 2012
Time: 12 PM ET/ 9 AM PT
Where: Virtual
This a a fabulous, FREE opportunity to increase your chances of selling to the government in 2012. Business owners who are interested in joining the Webinar can register at: http://www.giveme5.com/events.
Inaugural Meeting of Secretary Clinton's International Council on Women's Business Leadership. On Tuesday, January 24th, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will host the first meeting of the International Council on Women's Business Leadership at the State Department in Washington, D.C. The meeting can be viewed via live webcast on the Internet at http://www.state.gov/e/eb/adcom/icwbl/.
The Council serves the United States government in an advisory capacity on major issues in international business and economic policy, including the effective integration of business interests and women's economic empowerment into overall foreign policy; the role and limits of international economic institutions from a gender-specific perspective; and the Department of State's role in advancing and promoting the role of women in a competitive global economy.
Sara Randazzo (The American Lawyer) shared her insights about the the nontraditional pathway many lawyers, especially women, take to become law firm partners. Her article indicates the average time spent at a law firm before making partner is 10.5 years, and that the best way to impress senior partners is still to log billable hours and bring in clients. In a survey of more than 900 firm only one-third of new partners last year were women.
Of particular interest to women:
..."Twenty of the 97 firms elected class sizes made up of at least 50 percent women, including Jones Day (25 of 45 new partners), Locke Lord (7 of 14), Perkins Coie (7 of 12), Stinson Morrison Hecker (4 of 5), and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz (2 of 3). On the flip side, thirteen firms elected no women, including Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner (6 new partners), Haynes and Boone (9), and Winstead (5)."
For a firm-by-firm gender breakdown of the new partner class, see The American Lawyer's "Women Partner Watch" page.
Source: For This Years' New Partners Perseverance Pays. Sara Randazzo, The American Lawyer
Starting at midnight, and for 24 hours on January 18, 2012, many website owners have blacked out their websites to show protest of two new bills that will (likely) be discussed by Congress in February. The bills are called the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).
The bills are intended to help stop online piracy and copyright infringement. While that sounds reasonable, the current language of the bills could have detrimental impact on businesses and individuals globally -- including the United States, by allowing government sanctioned censorship without due process.
I was not concerned when I first heard of the bills last year, after all, this is America -- we have freedom of speech and the right to due process protected under the United States Constitution. But the bills did not die, nor were they substantially rewritten to be fair.
If these bills are passed and signed into laws, anyone who owns a website that has any information that violates current copyright laws or links to other websites that are violating copyright laws could have their site taken down.
Let me give you an example. Someone posts a video on YouTube that violates someone elses' copyright laws. All of YouTube could be shut down instead of just being forced to remove the illegal content. You might still think that could never happen or that this harsh action would be a good thing, especially if you are in the entertainment industry where, unfortunately, copyright infringement is a serious issue. But wait, you linked to that YouTube video or imbedded it on your website. Or, maybe someone posted the link in a comment field on your blog. Now your ENTIRE website can be taken down.
And, someone mentioned it on your Facebook page. Now you are violating copyright laws on your Facebook page because of someone elses' update. If you use Tumblr, well, that's at risk, too.
Essentially, if passed into law, the bill would make each individual responsible for policing all the content, links, images on their website or social pages -- but shouldn't we be doing that now as best as possible? Spend a day on Facebook or running a forum or blog that interacts with hundreds or thousands of users each day and you begin to see the problem.
If you are "busted" you won't be getting a cease and desist letter. The original wording of the bill gave copyright holders the power to simply accuse you of infringement and have your site taken down. The entire site. Did I mention without sending you notice, going to court, or even getting a judge's permission? The accuser still, of course, retains the right to sue you later for damages, or maybe just send a nasty settlement demand letter like Getty does. Only now, Getty can have your site taken down while they try to extort crazy sums of money from you.
The list of companies that purposely set up consumers for settlement demands and lawsuits by offering "free" images with fine print that says "for desktop wallpaper only" to confuse people hoping to get them on a website is growing everyday. Companies already accused of online copyright extortion include Getty, AP, Masterfile, Corbis, Superstock, and Imageline. These companies already use barely legal (and have been accused of using illegal tactics) to demand huge sums of money for $10 images. Those who refuse to pay could have their websites taken down.
Web host companies, who could also be held accountable for their client's (website owner's) actions will be given a legal incentive (immunity) to just pull sites down "in good faith" if they suspect a website owner of infringement. WordPress.org hosts countless WordPress websites and blogs for free, has blacked out their site in protest.
As a writer I fully appreciate that serious nature of copyright infringement and the financial concerns of intellectual property owners. But isn't that why we have lawyers, laws, and a legal system? Current laws require people to go through a specific legal process -- they do not allow companies or individuals to arbitrarily dole out punishment based on a mere accusation. Laws that would allow the accused to be treated as guilty parties, punishing them without due process, is unthinkable.
