Thoughts on aligning a search fund with government budgets in Canada for next year?
February 07, 2023
by a searcher from Staffordshire University in Toronto, ON, Canada
I'm debating offering consulting to search funders on how to align their searchers with future government budgets and grants available in Canada. Examples
- Infrastructure for electric cars (recharging stations for cars and heavy duty/commercial vehicles).
- Education to help the adoption of heavy duty electric cars (this funding closes soon so may not apply).
- automotive repair shops that can help with retrofitting of boat tails, cab heaters, auxiliary power units (will be funding for it next spring).
- Private colleges that can offer training to the types of trades workers needed by these businesses.
Thoughts on aligning a search fund with government budgets for next year? Is that thinking too 'short-term' and not advised? Or smart?
from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Raleigh, NC, USA
The positive: I think your offering to consult would be a value add to any searcher looking to get into GovCon or looking at an industry that plans to benefit from government spending (like US infrastructure bill). Anyone who is banking on a government for the success of their business needs to learn as much as possible about how governments work. Even those of us who have been around the space for a long time still have plenty to learn. So in that regard I think it is a good play to offer up your professional experiences as a resource to the search community.
The caution: I would not expect to see a high level of demand for this specific type of consulting. Maybe I'm not seeing the deal flow, but it doesn't seem to me that there are a lot of acquisitions in GovCon - although there might be a bigger push to search for industries to benefit from government spending. What I have seen is that investors (and lenders) are uncomfortable with the volatility and uncertainty that comes from the government funding cycles. I could be wrong, but I just don't see (or hear) a lot of deal flow in those areas.
My recommendation: if you really have a value add proposition to someone looking at the government space then go for it. Offer the service to the search community, but don't bet on "us" being your biggest customer group. There are thousands of US companies in the federal space and Canada might be a great growth opportunity for them - if only they knew how. Your ROI targeting companies that could grow into the Canadian markets seems much higher than from the search community.
Overall, I want to encourage you and your idea, but paint expectations as to the level of demand you might see from the search community. Just my two cents. Best of luck in your endeavors regardless. - Austin
from University of Texas at Austin in Austin, TX, USA
There are certainly interesting pockets in the government service space. ^redacted is your expert here, but they are all focused on long-term, mission critical services.