Episode 90:

Business Pivot

What You Will Learn:

How Molly started D2DInc and became involved with the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) shortly after to seek support and education
What pain points D2DInc experienced at the seven-figure mark, and how they made a wildly successful business pivot out of consulting and into government contracts
How the business pivot from consulting to contracts took time to implement but made a dramatic difference in the company’s growth
How the organization prioritized roles when they needed to recruit and hire new team members, and how they have worked to unify their team and its diverse roles
What suggestions Molly has for any organization interested in making a business pivot into government purchasing contracts
How Molly learned to delegate and begin working on the business rather than in it as the team grew from 8-10 people to over 80
How D2DInc’s period of rapid growth caused the company’s leadership to be stuck in a reactive mode, and how stabilizing the team allowed them to become more strategic
How Molly and her team have developed a strategic meeting cadence that has helped them look ahead and be more intentional
How NAWBO has launched a group called the NAWBO Circle specifically for the 3% of women-owned businesses that make more than $1 million in revenue

About Molly Gimmel

Molly K. Gimmel is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Design To Delivery Inc (D2DInc), an award-winning firm that provides program and acquisition management support services to Federal government agencies. Molly has been working in the field of government contract and acquisition management since 1991. Before co-founding D2DInc in 2001, she spent eight years working in the government practices of three of the “Big Five” accounting/consulting firms.

D2DInc appeared four times on the Inc 5000 list of fastest growing privately held companies in the US, from 2014 thru 2017. D2DInc was ranked #32 on the Women Presidents Organization’s list of Fastest Growing Women Owned Companies in 2016.

Molly has been a member of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) since 2002. She served on the NAWBO National Board of Directors for six years, including one year as Chair (2018-2019), is a past president of the NAWBO Greater DC Chapter, and has served in several other leadership roles within the organization.

She currently serves as a delegate on the US delegation to the W20 – the G20 working group focused on women’s issues. She also currently serves on the Board of the Women in Business Initiative for George Mason University.

Molly was named an Enterprising Woman of the Year in 2014 by Enterprising Women magazine and serves on the Enterprising Women Advisory Board. She received a Brava Award from Smart CEO magazine in 2015 recognizing outstanding female CEOs in the DC Metropolitan Area.

In addition to NAWBO, she is a member of Women Impacting Public Policy, Women in Defense, the National Defense Industrial Association, and the National Contract Management Association.

Molly holds a Masters of Science in Contract & Acquisition Management from Florida Institute of Technology, and a Bachelors of Business Administration in Marketing from the College of William & Mary. She has a Graduate Certificate in Leadership from the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.