Dr. Wes Fisher Says the Skills You Need for Government Contracts Are Simpler Than You Think

A lot of people psych themselves out when it comes to government contracts. They assume it’s this tangled mess of paperwork, politics, and gatekeeping, like only Fortune 500s with fancy lawyers and government buddies can get in.

Spoiler: that’s not true!

The basics that you need to have in order to start making money in government contracting are surprisingly simple, especially now that Dr. Wes Fisher, CEO of The Contracting Blueprint, broke them down in a podcast episode with Kizzy Parks.

Dr. Wes Fisher’s mindset flips the script on what most people think about government contracting. Instead of chasing complicated strategies or overthinking the process, he shows that success comes from mastering and consistently applying the most basic skill sets.

Before diving into the core skills, it’s worth seeing how Dr. Wes Fisher first stepped into the government contracting space.

Dr. Wes Fisher – From a School Teacher to a Government Contract

Dr. Wes Fisher began his career as a special education teacher, a role he loved and committed eight years of his life to. He poured his heart into teaching and valued his students deeply, but after earning his master’s degree and making only $50,000 a year, he started questioning if that was the life he truly wanted.

One thing that deeply frustrated Wes was discovering the “retire-rehire” cycle — a pattern where teachers would retire, only to return to work because their pensions weren’t enough to sustain them. For Wes, that reality hit hard. It was a wake-up call that made him realize he didn’t want to follow the same path.

After that wake up call, like many aspiring entrepreneurs, Dr. Wes Fisher tried different ventures such as affiliate marketing, network marketing, Airbnb, and more, but nothing worked out.

He also hustled by flipping wooden pallets in Ohio, earning six figures in his first year. But cold winters made the work tough, and whenever he traveled with his wife, the income stopped. Wes realized he needed a business that could earn money without relying on his physical presence.

While searching for something that truly fit his skills and lifestyle, he came across a YouTube video from J. White about government contracting. Unlike his earlier ventures, this one immediately clicked. It was straightforward, practical, and built around skills he already had—writing emails, staying organized, and managing simple documents.

“I realized that I first of all need to make money when I’m not there. And then once I found government contracting. I was like okay, copy and paste, I can do that. Okay, send an email, I think I can handle that. Adobe, I’m pretty good at that. It was just simple skill sets on the computer from the comfort of your home. I said okay I can handle that. Those fit in my skill sets,” he explained.

His first win was a five-year contract to provide Catholic services in a federal prison in California—even though he lived in Ohio, was a schoolteacher, and wasn’t Catholic himself.

He simply followed the process he now teaches: he found the opportunity, called around until he connected with the right person (a Catholic priest through the prison ministry), worked out a simple rate agreement, added a margin, and submitted the proposal. He won.

That first win only made him $5 an hour, but it flipped a switch in his mind. He realized he could be in Ohio while someone else did the work in California, and he’d still get paid. That was the breakthrough moment. From there, he scaled up, and his next win was a $450,000 HVAC cleaning contract in Las Vegas, which he managed without ever setting foot on-site.

“I’ve never been there, I’ve never touched it, but it’s a $450,000 contract. So that was the next one, and I just kept going from there,” he said.

Dr. Wes Fisher Doesn’t Have a Niche – He Operates As a “Middleman.”

Most people try to find a niche and specialize in one area, like IT, construction, or landscaping. He, on the other hand, doesn’t stick to a single industry. Instead, he goes after a wide variety of contracts and has won everything from HVAC to landscaping, chimney cleaning at the Grand Canyon, dry cleaning, and even building a turtle aquarium in Cincinnati.

The way he makes this work is by operating as a “middleman.” He doesn’t need to personally know how to do the work.

In his middleman strategy, he breaks it down to three simple steps:

• Step one: find the opportunity on sam.gov.
• Step two: find the subcontractor who you can partner with.
• Step three: submit a proposal.

Applied to his story, When he wins a contract, he simply finds a company that already specializes in that service and hires them to complete it. For example, when he won the aquarium contract, he just called a local company in Cincinnati that builds aquariums and placed the order.

“I want to be a middleman. I don’t know anything about how to build an aquarium for turtles, but I called a company in Cincinnati. ‘Hey, do you build aquariums? Yeah, we do. Great, how much do they cost?’ And I placed the order. That was it. So that’s kind of how I did it,” he stated.

He Prices It Aggressively!

Unlike many people who chase million-dollar contracts just for the headline number, he focuses on deals that are financially meaningful to him. In Dr. Wes Fisher’s view, success in government contracting comes from profitability, not quantity, “I don’t bid to win, I bid to make money and that’s what I teach — to make money,” as he puts it.

Instead, he bids in a way that keeps his workload manageable while ensuring the contracts he does win are profitable. He prices his bids aggressively, which reduces his chances of winning every contract he goes after. But when he does win, the payout is high enough to make it worthwhile.

He explained, “I price it pretty aggressively to not win, but when I do win one, I make a good amount of money on it. So that’s just the way I like to do it.”

For example, if he submits 365 bids in a year and wins 5% of them, that’s about 18 contracts—enough to generate solid income without creating the burden of managing 36 or more contracts. Since he runs the business entirely on his own without any employees, this approach allows him to handle a manageable number of contracts effectively.

“If I submit 365, I win 10% of those, I win 36 contracts. I don’t want that, that’s too many. I’d rather win like 5%,” he said.

Profitability is his ultimate measure of success. He points out that some contractors boast about winning large contracts, such as a $450,000 deal, yet their actual profit might be only a fraction of that, like $10,000. For him, that is not a worthwhile pursuit. Instead, he prices contracts aggressively so that he intentionally wins fewer deals, but each one delivers a solid financial return.

The goal is to avoid overextending himself, stay small, and focus on contracts that produce meaningful take-home income without the complications of managing dozens of deals or employees.

“That’s why I said I’m pricing aggressively. I want to win contracts, very few, but I want to make good money on them. That’s the whole point,” Dr. Wes Fisher expressed.

He Separates Politics from Business

According to Dr. Wes Fisher, as of 2024, he has been in government contracting for three years. When people were panicking about a potential government shutdown, he stayed focused on what he could actually control which is submitting proposals and winning contracts.

While others spent months worrying about the shutdown, he dedicated that time to actively growing his business and ended up earning six figures.

His point is that worrying about things outside your control, like who is in office or political events, doesn’t help your business. What matters is consistent action on the things you can influence. For him, that means finding opportunities, submitting proposals, and following through. He respects what’s happening in the world but doesn’t let it distract him from growing his business.

“I can’t control who’s in office, I can’t control the different things that are going around this world. But what I can control is submitting a proposal and focusing on what’s in front of me,” Dr. Wes said.

He Doesn’t Overcomplicate the Process

As he points out, many people overcomplicate the process by thinking they need templates, websites, or other tools before they can submit. In reality, all you need to do is fill in your information, provide your pricing, technical details, and past performance—the basics the government asks for.

He articulated, “You need to put your name, your CAGE code, your UEI, you put your phone number, you put your email address on there, and you sign it.”

“Just tell the government how much you’re charging. Tell them your technical, your past performance, give the government what they ask you for,” Dr. Wes continued.

Whether you submit four proposals a month or one per day, the principle is the same, but higher volume increases your chances of success and puts you ahead in the “race.”

Dr. Wes emphasizes that the most important step is simply to submit proposals regularly. Even if a submission is incomplete or has errors, it gets the process started, and often the contracting officer will provide feedback or request missing documents. The key is to keep submitting, learning from any mistakes, and moving on to the next proposal.

“That’s why I’m always talking about submit, submit, submit, because that’s going to get things going,” he expressed.

He Found His Subcontractors on Facebook Marketplace

According to Dr. Wes Fisher, Facebook Marketplace is an often overlooked resource for finding subcontractors, and it is much more than a place to buy and sell items.

“The biggest piece of sauce that I can give you guys right now is Facebook Marketplace,” he emphasized.

Many people do not realize that service providers, from landscapers to cleaners to specialized contractors, also list themselves there. Some even set prices at one dollar or zero dollars simply to attract leads and be found by potential clients.

By searching strategically, for example using terms like “landscaping Los Angeles” or “commercial cleaning Chicago,” you can quickly create a list of local businesses capable of completing contract work.

The value of using Facebook Marketplace lies in its simplicity and efficiency. There is no need for complicated tools or lengthy processes—just send a message to the service provider, ask if they can handle the work, and request a quote. Many providers respond the same day, making it possible to secure subcontractors quickly without long phone calls or formal proposals.

He Starts with Services Rather than Large Product Contracts

“The first thing I always tell people is to start with services first,” he stated.

This is because when you jump straight into buying and reselling expensive products, like a million dollars’ worth of iPads, is risky because most suppliers won’t extend that kind of credit. Starting with services allows you to use net 30 terms, meaning the service is done first, the government is invoiced, and you have 30 days to pay the subcontractor.

“You’ve got this thing called net 30, which means that they do the work first, then they send you a bill, and now you have 30 days to pay them so you can invoice the government. So that’s kind of what—that’s the foundation I give people,” he said.

However, as said by him, if you have credit, you can use it to fund purchases for contracts, like buying products to resell to the government.

“Maybe you got 40k in business credit available or 80k sitting over here, the government contracting could be a good place to put that credit at, to put it to use,” he suggested.

In his words, while the type of contract depends on your business resources, starting with service contracts is generally safer and easier for beginners.

He Invests in Education

Dr. Wes is the kind of person who’s willing to invest generously in education. He believes that learning and mentorship are absolute game changers in the world of government contracting.

Many people try to go it alone, thinking they can figure everything out for free using resources like sam.gov. While those resources are indeed free, relying solely on them often leads to slow progress, repeated mistakes, and unnecessary frustration. Dr. Wes Fisher stresses that investing in the right education or mentor allows you to fast-track your results. You learn proven strategies, get practical guidance on avoiding pitfalls, and gain insights that might take years to discover on your own.

“I invest in my education. I’ve invested hundreds and thousands on education. But it has made me millions and millions and millions,” he stated.

He Haven’t Attended Any Outreach Event

Many people attend events to network and build relationships, but Dr. Wes felt that it is not for everyone, especially himself. For his middleman approach to government contracting, he has been able to win contracts and develop partnerships without attending meetings, so he hasn’t found it necessary.

He acknowledges, however, that for other contractors—particularly those acting as a prime performing the physical work—events can be very valuable for forming connections and finding opportunities.

The key, he says, is being intentional: know why you are attending and what you hope to gain, rather than expecting a contract to come just by showing up.

Stop Being Lazy!

From his perspective, in the middleman strategy, you can’t just pass off the entire contract or solicitation to a subcontractor and expect them to handle everything themselves.

“Stop being lazy! Especially in the middleman concept,” he warned people.

You need to actively guide and support them, breaking the process into manageable steps, so they can focus on what they do best while you manage the rest.

“As a middleman, we’re helping blue collar workers, small mom and pop companies get government contracts,” said Dr. Wes Fisher.

What he means that handling requests for proposals (RFPs) is a core part of the middleman strategy. As the middleman, you don’t necessarily perform the work yourself, but you manage the process: reviewing the RFP, breaking it down, guiding your subcontractors on what to provide, and ensuring the proposal is complete and accurate. Success depends on being diligent and organized rather than avoiding complex documents out of laziness.

Avoid High-Risk Real Estate and Construction Contracts as a Beginner!

Dr. Wes Fisher advises that beginners in government contracting should avoid starting with real estate or large-scale construction projects because of the high level of risk and complexity involved.

He personally had no experience in real estate, tried a few ventures, and quickly realized it was not the right starting point. His recommendation is to work your way up to these types of contracts after gaining experience with smaller, more manageable projects.

Large-scale construction projects, in particular, are risky because they often go over budget. A multi-million-dollar building contract requires experience in managing teams, coordinating subcontractors, handling billing processes, and negotiating payment schedules with the government.

Beginners usually lack this knowledge, so taking on a $5 million project as your first contract could lead to major problems.

Additionally, these projects require bonding, which adds extra costs and legal responsibilities that can be overwhelming for someone new to the field.

In his a $36,000 turtle aquarium contract in Cincinnati, Ohio. Even with careful planning, the government requested a change in materials, increasing the cost of the project. He ended up spending $38,000 and lost $2,000 on the contract.

While this loss was manageable for a small project, the same type of miscalculation on a multi-million-dollar construction contract could result in losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“Now multiply that by a multi-million-dollar contract that you underestimate by a couple zeros here and there, and now you’re owing your sub $300,000, $380,000. So that’s why I just say if you know what you’re doing, you might have some great construction contracts, but if you don’t know what you’re doing, I wouldn’t start,” he articulated.