Our live trainings, offer dynamic and interactive learning experiences designed to equip you with practical skills and actionable knowledge in real time. These sessions provide the opportunity to engage directly with APEX staff and industry experts, ask questions, and participate in discussions that deepen your understanding of government contracting topics. We hold most of our trainings online to offer maximum convenience, allowing participants to easily access valuable content without the need for travel.
With multiple compliance paths available, selecting the right CMMC strategy is a business decision as much as a technical one. This capstone session will help contractors evaluate different approaches based on company size, contract requirements, available resources, and risk tolerance. Participants will leave better equipped to choose a compliance path that fits their organization long-term.
Offered in partnership with The Core Solution.
Your local APEX Accelerator and the National APEX Accelerator Alliance (NAPEX) are excited to host the upcoming DCAA webinar "Cost of Doing Business: Overview of Indirect Rates".
Join DCAA for a comprehensive one-hour webinar that explores the life cycle of indirect rates - from fundamental concepts to finalization. This interactive session will provide the audience with a deep understanding of indirect rates (G&A and OH) cost allocation, provisional billing rates, and the process for finalizing indirect rates.
Attendees will discover the importance of establishing a causal and beneficial relationship between indirect costs and the activities or products they support.
In addition, attendees will understand how to build allocation bases, including the selection of appropriate bases, such as labor hours, machine hours, or total cost.
Key takeaways for this webinar include:
- Learning the fundamental concepts of indirect cost allocation
- Understanding how to build allocation bases and establish a causal and beneficial relationship
- Gaining clarity on provisional billing rates and their importance
- Understanding the difference between interim and final indirect rates
- Learning the process for finalizing indirect rates and preparing the final rate submission
Speaker: Amanda Reed, DCAA
Are your indirect rates helping you win profitable work or costing you money? Indirect rates drive your pricing, profitability, compliance, and competitiveness. Join Michelle Martinez, Partner at govIRG, for a practical workshop on how to build, price, bill, reconcile, and defend Fringe, Overhead, and G&A rates. Learn the common mistakes that cost contractors money, how to calculate wrap rates correctly, and what DCAA expects to see in an audit-ready accounting system.
Key Takeaways
- Understand Direct, Indirect, and Unallowable costs
- Learn how Fringe, Overhead, and G&A rates are calculated
- Avoid common pricing and wrap-rate mistakes
- Improve profitability without sacrificing competitiveness
- Understand provisional rates, final rates, and incurred cost submissions
- Strengthen audit readiness and DCAA compliance
Training Outcomes
- Price with confidence, not guesswork
- Stop losing profit to indirect rate mistakes
- Turn compliance into a competitive advantage
- Learn practical strategies you can implement immediately
- Real-world examples and interactive Q&A
Ideal for government contractors, CFOs, controllers, pricing professionals, and business owners.
In this webinar, you'll learn how to build and manage indirect rates that support compliant pricing, stronger margins, and long-term growth. Walk away with practical tools you can use immediately in your business.
Your local APEX Accelerator and the National APEX Accelerator Alliance (NAPEX) are excited to host the upcoming DCAA webinar "Barriers to Payments From a DCAA Perspective".
Join us for a comprehensive one-hour webinar that explores the challenges in submitting invoices and receiving payment under cost reimbursable contracts. This interactive session will provide you with in-depth insight into the types of contracts that allow for interim reimbursements, the authority and responsbility for payment, regulatory oversight, and the role of the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) in pre-payment assessments.
Key takeaways for this webinar include:
- Understanding the types of contracts that allow for interim reimbursements
- Learning about the authority and responsibility for payment under cost reimbursable contracts
- Gaining insight into the regulatory framework that governs payment
- Understanding the DCAA's role in pre-payment assessments
- Overview of the PIEE system and its role in facilitating payments
Speaker: Amanda Reed, DCAA
Could Your Next Big Customer Be the U.S. Government?
New customers. New contracts. New opportunities for growth.
If you're a small or mid-sized manufacturer, you may be overlooking one of the largest potential customers in the country: the U.S. government and the major prime contractors that supply it.
The Department of Defense, nuclear industry, and other government agencies rely on businesses of all sizes to manufacture products, components, and specialized equipment. The question isn't just what you make — it's who else might be willing to buy it.
But where do you start? Who are the buyers? What does it take to become an approved supplier? And is your business ready to compete?
Join us for a FREE, 90-minute workshop designed to help Tennessee manufacturers discover new markets, understand the opportunities, and take practical steps toward winning government and prime contractor business.
The Tennessee APEX Accelerator, Tennessee Manufacturing Extension Partnership (TMEP) and the Tennessee Small Business Development Center (TSBDC) at Roane State Community College are bringing together resources and experts to help local manufacturers explore these opportunities.
What You'll Learn
- Find New Customers & Revenue Opportunities: Discover what the Department of Defense, nuclear industry, and government contractors are purchasing — and where your products or capabilities might fit.
- Get in Front of the Right Buyers: Learn how to identify government purchasing opportunities, connect with prime contractors, and position your company as a potential supplier.
- Understand What It Takes to Qualify: Get a practical overview of supplier expectations, cybersecurity requirements, and CMMC — without getting buried in technical jargon.
- Strengthen Your Competitive Edge:
- Explore manufacturing innovation, advanced technology, and resources that can help improve your capabilities and competitiveness.
- Meet the People Who Can Help: Connect directly with organizations offering business counseling, technical assistance, contracting guidance, and manufacturing support.
Who Should Attend?
- This workshop is especially valuable for small and mid-sized manufacturers looking to:
- Diversify their customer base and reduce dependence on existing accounts.
- Explore new sales opportunities beyond traditional commercial markets.
- Become suppliers to larger government and defense contractors.
- Better understand the requirements for entering government supply chains.
- Position their businesses for long-term growth.
You don't need government contracting experience to attend. Whether you're exploring the market for the first time or looking to expand your existing business, this workshop will help you understand the possibilities and identify your next steps.
Your Next Customer Might Be Bigger Than You Think.
Don't miss this opportunity to explore new markets, meet valuable resources, and discover how your manufacturing business could become part of a much larger supply chain.
Register today and start exploring what's possible!
Annually the Federal, State, and Local governments in the U.S. award nearly $5.5 Trillion in contracts and subcontracts via the proposal process.
- Gain an understanding of the overall proposal process and best practices
- Learn to develop compliance matrices, outlines, and other tools
- Discover techniques to differentiate your proposals from your competition
- Have your proposal questions answered
Networking from 8:30 to 9:00 AM EDT
WHAT THIS WORKSHOP DELIVERS
Most small business owners are running their operations without a written strategic direction, not because they lack ambition, but because they have never had a structured opportunity to step back and think clearly about priorities.
This workshop gives them that opportunity. In 60 minutes, each participant works through an honest situational scan, identifies their single highest-leverage priority for the next 90 days, and begins building a one-page strategic plan they can actually use. They leave with a committed next action, a named date, and a peer accountability partner from the room.
The session is interactive throughout, and anonymous live polling via Mentimeter surfaces the room's collective thinking on screen; a group scenario exercise warms up the diagnostic muscle before anyone has to look at their own situation, and questions are welcome at every transition rather than saved for a dead zone at the end.
Speaker: Trent Richardson, Founder & Principal, Hard Knox Life Advisory
Offered by: TSBDC and Stephen W. Williams, Director of Workforce & Economic Development, Roane State Community College
This introductory training session provides small and emerging businesses with a foundational understanding of the government contracting landscape across all levels — local, state, and federal. Participants will explore how government agencies procure goods and services, how to identify contracting opportunities, and what it takes to position your business for success in the public marketplace.
Whether you are new to government contracting or looking to expand into new markets, this session will equip you with the knowledge and tools to take your first — or next — step with confidence.
Who Should Attend: Small business owners, entrepreneurs, and procurement-ready companies interested in breaking into or growing within the government marketplace.