Steve McNulty's book on "Small Business Management for Government Contractors" will prove to be an invaluable tool for small companies working with - or endeavoring to work with - the US Government (USG). In this book, Steve lays out the important steps, processes, and procedures for all companies to follow to become a successful - and compliant - US Government contractor. Steve has a unique blend of business and government background and experience that qualifies him to see the issues from "all angles." He began his career in 1978 as a state energy official, and has since worked as both a business manager and clean energy specialist; with private, for-profit companies and also non-profit organizations. This broad foundation of private and public experience has enabled Steve to build a solid knowledge base to assist small companies and NGOs to succeed and prosper in their USG contracting pursuits. Steve has laid out in this book the important lessons he's learned over the past 33 years. He covers the depth and breadth of running a small business, including contracts and financial management; HR compliance; company and employee insurance; discussion on what are the key components in a good Business Plan; an explanation of a few techniques for successful marketing/business development (e.g., mining FBO.gov, reaching out to existing USG contractors to get on their teams, walking the halls of your potential clients, using social media, requesting a debrief if not selected on a bid, and most importantly - performing well on your existing contracts). Quoting from the book..."Developing and nurturing positive and long-lasting relationships with current and potential clients is a cornerstone of building a successful Government contracting business." Take care of your clients, give them what they need. In Small Business Management for Government Contractors, Steve covers NICRA and audit issues; the benefits of participating in GSA Schedules; choices for fringe benefits (or not to offer the full suite of fringe benefits, and simply compensate the employees for the value of certain fringe benefits); the importance of solid file management, and document control; discussion of travel rules; and other processes that are critically important for all current, or aspiring, USG contractors to know. Topics in the book include ideas for utilizing "Cloud" based virtual business services, and other forms of outsourcing (such as maximizing the use of individual consultants) to reduce the need to carry a large contingent of regular, fixed staff. Steve maintains that services from the Cloud will enable companies to reduce their hardware and software requirements - by moving the burden of software updates and associated hardware needs to the Cloud (that is, to off-site entities who will keep data protected, software updated, and also offer a growing range business services such as payroll processing, accounting, and technical project services). Steve's book on Small Business Management for Government Contractors points out that security is the "plastics" of today and tomorrow (borrowing from the 1967 movie classic The Graduate, where Dustin Hoffman was lectured that plastics were the future of business). Achieving enhanced security is critical in so many ways - including physical security, data security, email security, website protection, and more. Services from the Cloud and beyond will help organizations deal with these growing challenges. In his book Steve suggests that in tomorrow's computer networks, the components to be connected will be wide and varied - including to traditional computer workstations and printers and now smartphones and tablets; but also more so in the future to security cameras, and even employees may be connected by way of embedded computer chips. This is Steve's second book, with the first being A Cow's Heaven, also found on Amazon and CreateSpace. Happy reading