(Webinar) Surety Bond Basics for Government Contracting & More.
Tue, Feb 28
|Free for Clients: emma.carrasco@ttu.edu
Time & Location
Feb 28, 2023, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM CST
Free for Clients: emma.carrasco@ttu.edu
About the event
Over the coming months, NW Texas PTAC will transition to a new name: NW Texas APEX Accelerator. Our mission and assistance will not change. You’ll continue to experience exceptional government contracting assistance, just under a new name. We continue to be here for you with all your government contracting needs.
If your industry requires bonding, this webinar is for you. It will teach start-ups the challenges they will face in securing bonding for the first time and provide guidance to contractors who are not quite ready to produce financial statements.
The credit-based surety programs base approval on prior completion history and personal credit, thus posing a potential problem for companies whose owners’ credit scores are less than stellar. Hence, in this webinar, you will learn:
- How the SBA bond program can help you if your personal credit score is 660 or lower; and
- Why even a modest bank line of credit can provide additional bonding support.
In addition, you will also learn financial analysis basics and the importance of tracking your project using a Work In Progress schedule.
Specifically, this webinar will cover the following topics: 1. Suretyship Law – Surety v. Insurance 2. Credit-Based Programs – Why personal credit is so important 3. SBA Bond Guaranty Program – Federally-backed bond program to help those whose credit score is relatively low 4. Understanding working capital and net worth calculations 5. Defining Work in Progress – Percentage of completion basics 6. Types of financial statement preparation
Instructor: KAREN BARBOUR
Karen Barbour, founder and president of The Barbour Group, LLC, is a 34-year veteran of the surety bonding industry, where she is well-known as a thought leader and expert. Karen’s career is underscored by a fierce commitment to enabling the competitive positioning and growth of client companies – she is a leader willing to go to Capitol Hill to drive legislation for the benefit of start-ups, small businesses, and Fortune 1000 firms alike.
She established The Barbour Group in 2002 as an independent insurance agency focused on construction bonding and commercial insurance. To date, Karen has led the company to be licensed nationwide and in Puerto Rico, where the agency manages the surety needs of a wide range of construction clientele, including Fortune 1000 companies that need localized surety expertise in the Mid-Atlantic region. The agency delivers solutions and strategic advice to bonding clients while also helping them grow.
Currently, Karen serves on the national executive board of the Women Contractors Owners & Executives Association. She is also a board member for the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland, where she is also a chair of Distinguished Women’s event, an award she won in 2013, and a President of the board for Party For A Cure Corporation, a 501(c)3 non-profit, to benefit children and adults afflicted by neuromuscular disease, raising over $1.4 million to-date. Karen also serves on the BWI Minority Advisory Board and as Vice-Chair of the government relations committee for AMAC (Airport Minority Advisory Council). Most recently, she was appointed to the US SBA National SBDC Advisory Board.
In prior years, Governor Hogan appointed Karen as a member of the Task Force to Investigate the Challenges of & Opportunities for Minorities in Business (2017), and Governor O’Malley appointed her to serve as Co-Chair for the Governor’s Commission on Small Business (MD) (2011-2014). She also served as a board member for the Carroll County (MD) Economic Development Corporation from 2009 – 2014.
Karen has received numerous awards and distinctions for her contributions to the success of contractors in the building industry. In addition to being named a 2013 Distinguished Woman by the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland, Karen was recognized for her passion for change and awarded the US SBA Small Business Person (for MD) in 2008. She was also one of nine women nationally chosen in 2009 to win the Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneurial Winning Women Award®.
The Barbour Group is headquartered in Maryland with a satellite office in Nashville, TN. The Barbour Group is the only agent that has an exclusive program, the Head Start Bond Program, with Hensel Phelps Construction which has bonded over $160 million in subcontracts with no losses to-date.