An Exceptional Guide & Mentor | Varetta Huggins

Varetta’s followers and customers are drawn to her after hearing her speak passionately about helping the Small Business Community navigate the Government Contracting industry. Her customers have branded her as authentic in providing information about pricing contracts, completing Government Contracting registrations, and finding Government Contracting opportunities for their goods and services. Many of her customers are repeat customers who have become loyal to her brand because they realize they cannot find the caliber of coaching, guidance, and information she provides, anywhere else. Her warmth and love for people come out in her Coaching sessions, where each customer feels like they are the only ones receiving the detailed, informative, and specialized coaching she provides. When asked why she is helping small business owners, Varetta’s response is always the same, “because I wish someone had helped me when I was building my business years ago.” “I treat others how I want to be treated,” she says.

Overcoming Barriers

The most significant barrier in Varetta’s career has been obtaining financing for the company. In 2011 when they received their first prime Government Contract, it was hard to find the finance to make payroll and pay for business expenses. Even though Varetta had a contract in hand, banks were still not lending to her, a U.S. naturalized Caribbean woman. One of the best thing that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic was the opportunities for small business funding from the Federal, State, and Local governments for programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs). For PPP, banks were mandated to help small businesses because the Government secured the funds. “We need more programs like this after the pandemic to ensure minority and women small businesses gain financing they need without banks and other financial institutions applying gender and ethnicity stereotypes to their algorithms to decide which business owners get funding or not,” Varetta stated.

Varetta finds that women will work two times harder than a man but still not be included in conversations or at the table for discussions just because they are a woman. “I remember attending a business conference with my husband who was the Chief Accounting Officer for V-PMC and when we started networking with other business owners (men of course), they immediately turned to my husband and started speaking to him,” she elucidates. “He confided in me after the conversations that some of the men thought he was the CEO. Of course, they did, even after I introduced myself as President and CEO of V-PMC.”

Inspiring & Empowering

Varetta coaches and speaks to women entrepreneurs and small business owners weekly and monthly. She encourages them to believe in their abilities to go after what they want, set goals, and work on daily actions to achieve those goals. She reminds them that their brain is their intellectual property and that many folks out there would pay to gain the knowledge they have. She provides them with the latest tools, technology, best practices, advice, and skills to be competitive and congratulates them when they accomplish milestones towards meeting their goals. She has encouraged women business owners and entrepreneurs to focus on their business and give back to their community by supporting a cause.

One of Varetta’s role model was Bill Walsh. Varetta met Bill at a Small Business Expo in Washington DC in 2017 when she was looking for innovative ideas to grow her company. Bill spoke on ways to grow a business and speaking and publishing a book were options Varetta was intrigued to hear more about. Bill told Varetta there was a need for more female speakers on stages, which inspired Varetta to fill that gap, be a published Author, be on stages, and help more women to be on stages. Varetta attended Bill’s Speaker Masterclass, where Bill inspired Varetta to sell services and products to the small business community to help them navigate the

Government Contracting industry. The V-Government Contracting (V-GovCon) Success Program is a result of Varetta taking action. Today, Varetta is a National Speaker and is working on her Government Contracting book. Most of the small business owners Varetta coaches are women inspired by Varetta’s story and approach to helping them achieve their goals to grow their business.

“As a female leader, I have learned that I need to say “Yes” to opportunities I am 50-75% capable of doing then figure out how to do the rest. As women, we feel we have to know it ALL to accept the challenge, job, opportunity, contract or deal. Women, we don’t,” says Varetta. “We are smart, passionate, calculated, and driven to complete actions and those are qualities we need to succeed as female leaders. Being smart means, we know what we know and we know how to surround ourselves with other people who can complement what we don’t know. So, when opportunities strike, we know what we can do and we know how to hire or choose the right people who have the knowledge we don’t have.”

Some of the reasons Varetta noticed that men gain more opportunities than women are they take more risks, are more secure, and sell themselves better than women. She has witnessed this in hiring people for Government Contracting positions where men responded to jobs by completing the interview questions and applied for the jobs. When the men got to the interview, that is when she and her staff found out that they did not have all the qualifications needed, but, in most cases, they get the job because they sold themselves better than the women. “When women responded to the same jobs, we saw they did not complete the interview questions because there may have been one or two questions they could not answer positively. But once we looked further at their resume or even pre-screened them, we found out that they were more than qualified for the position and some of the things they mentioned that qualified them were not listed on their resume,” adds Varetta. “When ask a question they have not done before, women let us know they do not have any knowledge of the tool, best practice or technique but we have seen men sell themselves and let us know that even though they have not used it before they are willing to learn and put in the work to know it.”

Women are missing opportunities because of fear and insecurities. When Varetta met Bill Walsh, her Business Coach in 2017, he told her she would be a great Speaker. He said there was a lack of Women Speakers out there. “I told him I have not become a Speaker because I did not like it when there were so many eye balls staring at me. Fear of eye balls I call it. Since then, I have trained with Bill to become a National Speaker and I still do not like the many eye balls staring at me, but I still do it,” she says. “Women, we have to be afraid to stay inside our comfort zone and take the leap to opening new opportunities. Today, I speak not because I am comfortable doing it, but because when another woman sees me speaking, they get the courage they need to do it too and that contributes to getting more women on stages.” Armed with this ideology, Varetta has been taking the company to new heights.

Creating a Future

V-Project Management Consulting, LLC was born on 11/16/2009 when the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Varetta Huggins, took action to make her long-term goal a reality by building a consulting company that provided services based on her strengths: Project Management, Acquisition Management, and System Development.

In 1996, while on the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean, Varetta wrote down her long-term goal of starting her own consulting company. She knew that to accomplish her long-term goal, she had to start working on her short-term and mid-term goals of being college-educated. In January 1997, Varetta began classes at Hampton University for her B.S. degree in Computer Science and graduated in May 2000. In 2005, Varetta also graduated from George Washington University with a Master’s degree in Information Systems Technology concentrating on Management Information Systems.

In 2008, after receiving her Project Management Professional (PMP) certificate and accomplishing her short-term and mid-term goals of gaining the education, certifications, and training she needed, Varetta knew she was ready to make her long-term goal a reality. After gaining the experiences she needed by working with large and small Federal Government Contractors, being placed on government sites, and in some cases never even setting her foot in the door of her employment company, she wanted to create a company that felt like a family environment – where each member is treated as a family member, where teamwork overrides individuality, and where compassion is employed when addressing personal and family needs. V-PMC is the 13 years journey of actions Varetta took to realize her long-term goal of starting her own consulting company.

As a Government Contractor, V-PMC has been impacted by the constant Government shutdowns, and Varetta wanted to create a more sustainable company. In 2017, Varetta began training to become a Master Speaker to sell services and products to the small business community. In 2018, Varetta updated her business model and launched the V-Government Contracting Success Program to train coach, and mentor small business owners, entrepreneurs, and non-profit owners to navigate the Government Contracting and Grants industry. The purpose of the V-GovCon Program is to assist business owners and entrepreneurs in becoming Government Contractors, obtaining Government contracts and grants, and to grow a Tribe of Partners to go after the Billions in Government Contracts and Grants. Today, V-PMC has held BootCamps, MasterMinds, Discovery Calls, LIVE Webinars, Coaching Sessions, Strategy Sessions, LIVE Learnings, LIVE Workshops, Booths, and Seminars and has assisted over 100 V-GovCon Customers and gained over 50 V-GovCon Partners.

Now, V-PMC services not only Government clients but also small business owners, entrepreneurs, and non-profit owners. V-PMC is re-designing their website; their updated website (www.v-pmc.com) will go live soon and include their V-GovCon Program. Their small business customers will have the opportunity to register for upcoming events and Discovery Calls directly from the main website. Varetta will be speaking at the Small Business Expo in Orlando, FL, on 12/9/2021 and in Miami, FL, on 12/16/2021. “If you are in the Florida area, please register and visit our booths and LIVE in-person Workshops. I will be in person to speak with small business owners about becoming Government Contractors, obtaining Government Contracts, and providing Business Coaching services,” says Varetta.