In this episode of The Daily Windup, I take you to the whiteboard and show why the “slow, organic staircase” rarely works in Government contracting—especially if you’re doing this part-time. 10,000 hours at 40 hrs/week is ~5 years; at 20 hrs/week it’s ~10 years, and real businesses zig-zag with downturns. Then I reveal the faster path: joint ventures. We break down the play you’ll see in our clip—land a $20M award, leverage that instant track record, walk to the next door and stack another $30M for $50M in year one with one employee, because the agency looked at your partner’s financials and capacity. That’s speaking the language: position, partner, perform.

Next, I run the math everyone ignores on $25K micro-buys at 20% margin. Year 1: 2 contracts = $50K revenue ($10K profit). Year 2: $100K revenue ($20K profit ≈ $10/hr). Year 3: $250K revenue ($50K profit). Year 4: 20 contracts = $500K revenue for $100K profit—nearly two contracts a month for a salary you could earn as a W-2 without the headache. The takeaway: stop chasing low-probability bids; use JVs to borrow past performance and balance-sheet strength, target bigger, better-aligned Government Contract opportunities, and engineer step-changes—not stair steps.