A Des Moines freelance writing business found financial stability in the opening months of the pandemic after CIRAS helped it pursue and obtain a government contract.
Kristi Kenyon, owner of Copywriter+, said her company was roughly three years old when she met Justin Niceswanger, a government contracting specialist with the CIRAS Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC), at a networking event.
Before that, government contracting “wasn’t something that I even knew was a possibility” for writing jobs, Kenyon said.
“Justin was super helpful,” she said. “As soon as I learned of the opportunity (through a BidMatch email arranged by CIRAS), I reached out to him. . . . He really helped me through the whole process.”
Niceswanger said many businesses have difficulty with the complications of their first government bidding process. “A lot of it is based on whether you respond in the proper format, whether you submit everything that they ask for,” he said. “We can help our clients with that process, help them understand the proposal.”
Kenyon ultimately received a renewable six-month contract to update website copy and create social media posts and other content for the City of Des Moines. She estimates that the contract initially will be worth $12,000 to $15,000 for her business—a welcome bit of security in the time of COVID-19.
Kenyon plans to pursue more government contracts, and she praised CIRAS for guiding her through the process.
“The biggest help was just in making sure that I was coming across in the most professional and successful manner possible,” she said. “It’s been great.”
For more information on BidMatch or proposal review, contact Justin Niceswanger at jnice@iastate.edu or 515-509-9565.
A version of this article was published in the Fall 2020 edition of CIRAS News. To read more of that edition or others, please explore elsewhere on our website.