Finding Success with Capability Statements

The webi­nar was host­ed on Wed, Novem­ber 9, 2022, 2:00PM – 3:00PMEST and 10 peo­ple attended.

About this event

This work­shop will walk you through devel­op­ing a win­ning capa­bil­i­ty state­ment. We will iden­ti­fy your com­pa­ny’s overview infor­ma­tion, core com­pe­ten­cies, descrip­tive data, past per­for­mance indi­ca­tors, and differentiators.

“Points of dis­cus­sion for the Capa­bil­i­ty State­ment Webinar

What is the Pur­pose of a Capa­bil­i­ty Statement?

• To serve as sin­gle-page mar­ket­ing tool
• Pro­vide cred­i­bil­i­ty to your company
• A require­ment for munic­i­pal, state, and fed­er­al con­tract­ing opportunities
• Win con­tracts
• Inform deci­sion-mak­ers
• Stand out from the crowd

What is a Capa­bil­i­ty Statement?

A Capa­bil­i­ty State­ment is a one-page typed/​illustrative doc­u­ment that lists a busi­ness’ core com­pe­ten­cies of what they do or sell. Sim­i­lar con­cept and struc­ture to a per­son­al resume, a Capa­bil­i­ty State­ment is bro­ken down into 5 crit­i­cal detailed and tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion­al sections:

1. Com­pa­ny Overview — A brief write-up about the com­pa­ny, its longevi­ty, what goods or ser­vices it pro­vides, and what makes it stand out.

2. Core Com­pe­ten­cies — The spe­cif­ic goods and ser­vices it pro­vides or sells, with brief descrip­tions and fea­tures about them.

3. Com­pa­ny Data — This is where your busi­ness name and con­tact infor­ma­tion (phys­i­cal address, tele­phone number(s), and email address) are list­ed. Also includ­ed are the busi­ness NAICS (North Amer­i­can Indus­try Clas­si­fi­ca­tion Sys­tem), PSC, and FSC codes with descrip­tions, and all local, state, and fed­er­al busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions (ex: MBE, EDGE, 8a, HUB­Zone, etc).

4. Past Per­for­mance — This is where all of the company’s high­lights, unique qual­i­ties, spe­cial affil­i­a­tions, and/​or dis­tin­guish­able product/​service items are fea­tured. Try to avoid gen­er­al­i­ties or com­mon descrip­tions, such as ​“great cus­tomer ser­vice” or ​“we are BBB cer­ti­fied” which are typ­i­cal­ly expect­ed of any busi­ness or ser­vice provider.

Dif­fer­en­tia­tors — This is where all of the company’s high­lights, unique qual­i­ties, spe­cial affil­i­a­tions, and/​or dis­tin­guish­able product/​service items are fea­tured. Try to avoid gen­er­al­i­ties or com­mon descrip­tions, such as ​“great cus­tomer ser­vice” or ​“we are BBB cer­ti­fied” which are typ­i­cal­ly expect­ed of any busi­ness or ser­vice provider.

Points to Consider:

Capa­bil­i­ty State­ments should be brief snap­shots of your company’s strengths and expe­ri­ence doing the work that the agency or com­pa­ny wants or needs. (only 1 or 2 pages)

• Cus­tomize it for each agency or com­pa­ny. Cre­ate a sep­a­rate doc­u­ment for each agency, prime con­trac­tor, and/​or team­ing partner
• Specif­i­cal­ly relat­ed to the indi­vid­ual agen­cy’s needs. Ide­al­ly, it is a liv­ing doc­u­ment that will change depend­ing on the tar­get­ed agency.
• The doc­u­ment should be visu­al­ly inter­est­ing and have sim­i­lar graph­ic ele­ments to the com­pa­ny’s brand and logo. Use short sen­tences fol­lowed by strong key­word bul­let points; no long paragraphs.
• Save this doc­u­ment as “(your com­pa­ny name)’s Capa­bil­i­ty State­ment” and dis­trib­ute as a PDF, not a Word, Pow­er­point or oth­er formats”

Dr. Bri­an Hunter — Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor of Entre­pre­neur­ship and Mar­ket­ing, Depart­ment of Busi­ness, LaGrange College

Dr. Bri­an Hunter serves as a Glob­al Vis­it­ing Fac­ul­ty mem­ber in Mexico’s Tec­no­logi­co de Mon­ter­rey (ITESM), where he began work­ing as a Vis­it­ing Pro­fes­sor of Entre­pre­neur­ship after com­plet­ing a Ph.D. in Behav­ioral Finance and Devel­op­men­tal Eco­nom­ics from the Con­sumer Sci­ence Depart­ment at Pur­due Uni­ver­si­ty. These appoint­ments at Pur­due Uni­ver­si­ty, Mexico’s ITESM Uni­ver­si­ty, and LaGrange Col­lege have allowed him to teach cours­es in mul­ti­ple con­tent areas includ­ing Entre­pre­neur­ship, Strat­e­gy, Eco­nom­ics, Mar­ket­ing, Entre­pre­neur­ial Finance, Cor­po­rate Finance, Inter­na­tion­al Busi­ness, and Per­son­al Finance.

Teach­ing an eclec­tic mix of sub­jects and work­ing close­ly with hun­dreds of stu­dents from all aca­d­e­m­ic back­grounds has giv­en him a broad knowl­edge to draw from to edu­cate and train USPAACC Southeast’s clients on busi­ness plans, mar­ket fea­si­bil­i­ty, finan­cial via­bil­i­ty, oper­a­tions man­age­ment, and legal structures.”

This pro­gram is spon­sored by the SBA Com­mu­ni­ty Nav­i­ga­tor Pilot Pro­gram (CNPP). The CNPP pro­gram is an ini­tia­tive fund­ed through Pres­i­dent Biden’s Amer­i­can Res­cue Plan, to strength­en SBA sup­port for small busi­ness and under­served busi­ness by con­nect­ing them to nation­al, state, and local resources. The USPAACC-SE serves as one of 15 nation­wide spokes under USPAACC to assist in this ini­tia­tive. The Trust­ed Lawyers a Desai Law Group, P.C. also serves as one of 15 spokes.

The CNPP pro­gram was designed to help small busi­ness­es, with a focus on those owned by vet­er­ans, women, and social­ly and eco­nom­i­cal­ly dis­ad­van­taged indi­vid­u­als — includ­ing in rur­al and urban com­mu­ni­ties that had been hit the hard­est by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and severe eco­nom­ic impacts. Through the SBA Com­mu­ni­ty Nav­i­ga­tor Pilot Pro­gram, the USPAACC-SE offers a host of FREE con­sul­ta­tion ser­vices, train­ing and resources to small businesses.

Con­tact us now for FREE1 on 1 busi­ness consultation