Must-Have Website Elements for Small, Women-owned, and Minority-owned Businesses (SWaM)
Patrick McFadden • July 14, 2020
Even in the best of times, marketing to the government isn’t an easy task. And, when times are tough, it can be even more difficult.
As a Small, Women-owned, and Minority-owned Business (SWaM) or government contractor looking for procurement opportunities within state-funded projects, your website should be one of your most valuable marketing assets and act as an actual tool for supporting the individual efforts of your business development or capture person.
An effective website for a SWaM Business has many jobs these days and should help you:
- Get Found — Search engine optimization (SEO) should be a priority to help government procurers, influencers, and end users find your business in search engine results pages and directory search listing.
- Build Trust — Your website needs to present your business and services as capable, professional, and successful at doing the work you’re after.
- Educate and inform — Help government agencies and contracting officers know that you understand what their problems and challenges actually are and how to solve them.
- Nurture and convert — This is where the RFP generation component comes into play. It’s common for government contractors to be on one side of the fence and think that a marketing-driven website doesn’t matter because their work comes from RFPs. But that’s not true. In fact, to increase the likelihood of receiving an RFP, put enticing information, forms and CTAs(calls-to-action) in place. This will help to move decision makers closer to taking action.
After speaking with senior buyers and supplier diversity specialists, then consulting with SWaM businesses over the years I can say that many websites aren’t created to achieve the many jobs listed above. In some cases, websites are so poorly developed that it can be difficult for procurement professionals to advocate for and refer a SWaM Business.
Here are the must-have website elements for Small, Women-owned, and Minority-owned Businesses (SWaM):
- A Government Contracting Page — You need to make it clear that you work with government agencies and that you have a deep understanding of their challenges and needs. You want managers and coordinators of supplier diversity, purchasing agents, and senior buyers to feel special when they land on your site and this happens best when they can see your company credentials through your government contracting web page.
- Trust and Credibility Elements — As a small business that provides services to government agencies, I can almost guarantee you are being compared to others that provide the same services you do. To stand out, you must do your very best to include the following elements on your website: past project history, testimonials, government agency or client logos, small business & supplier diversity certifications, project results, capability statements, contract vehicles, case studies, media recognition, and contract awards.
- An Optimized Website — Having your site search engine optimized allows you to show up on the first page of search results when senior buyers and coordinators of supplier diversity are in the vendor research phase. If your website doesn’t show up on the first page of search results on Google, Bing or Yahoo,(especially when they search your company name) or in specific directory listings your potential contract opportunity might be in jeopardy.
- Contact and Code Information — As simple as it seems, there are SWaM websites that make it hard to reach and understand them. Make it easy for people to get ahold of you and identify your commodity codes. This is especially important for Small, Women-owned, and Minority-owned Businesses (SWaM) looking for procurement opportunities within state-funded projects since commodity codes are used to classify goods and services that they may provide.
- Core Services — One of the things some SWaM Businesses don’t do enough of is listing out their core services on their website. This can be a point of new contract opportunities but can also help boost relationship building because it provides a good user experience.
Need more tips on how to market your SWaM business? Check out our Business to Government (B2G) Marketing Strategy.
Everyone is scaling outputs. Almost no one is scaling judgment.
Ask anyone in tech where AI is headed, and they’ll tell you: “The next leap is reasoning.” “AI needs judgment.” “We need assistants that think, not just answer.” They’re right. But while everyone’s talking about it, almost no one is actually shipping it. So we did. We built Thinking OS™ —a system that doesn’t just help AI answer questions… It helps AI think like a strategist. It helps AI decide like an operator. It helps teams and platforms scale judgment, n ot just generate output. The Theory Isn’t New. The Implementation Is. The idea of layering strategic thinking and judgment into AI isn’t new in theory. The problem is, no one’s been able to implement it effectively at scale. Let’s look at the current landscape. 1. Big Tech Has the Muscle—But Not the Mind OpenAI / ChatGPT ✅ Strength: Best-in-class language generation ❌ Limitation: No built-in judgment or reasoning. You must provide the structure. Otherwise, it follows instructions, not strategy. Google DeepMind / Gemini ✅ Known for advanced decision-making (e.g., AlphaGo) ❌ But only in structured environments like games—not messy, real-world business scenarios. Anthropic (Claude), Meta (LLaMA), Microsoft Copilot ✅ Great at answering questions and following commands ❌ But they’re assistants, not advisors. They won’t reprioritize. They won’t challenge your assumptions. They don’t ask: “Is this the right move?” These tools are powerful—but they don’t think for outcomes the way a strategist or operator would. 2. Who’s Actually Building the Thinking Layer™? This is where it gets interesting—and thin. Startups and Indie Builders Some small teams are quietly: Creating custom GPTs that mimic how experts reason Layering in business context, priorities, and tradeoffs Embedding decision logic so AI can guide, not just execute But these efforts are: Highly manual Difficult to scale Fragmented and experimental Enterprise Experiments A few companies (Salesforce, HubSpot, and others) are exploring more “judgment-aware” AI copilots. These systems can: Flag inconsistencies Recommend next actions Occasionally surface priorities based on internal logic But most of it is still: In early R&D Custom-coded Unproven beyond narrow use cases That’s Why Thinking OS™ Is Different Instead of waiting for a lab to crack it, we built a modular thinking system that installs like infrastructure. Thinking OS™: Captures how real experts reason Embeds judgment into layers AI can use Deploys into tools like ChatGPT or enterprise systems Helps teams think together, consistently, at scale It’s not another assistant. It’s the missing layer that turns outputs into outcomes. So… Is This a New Innovation? Yes—in practice. Everyone says AI needs judgment. But judgment isn’t an idea. It’s a system. It requires: Persistent memory Contextual awareness Tradeoff evaluation Value-based decisions Strategy that evolves with goals Thinking OS™ delivers that. And unlike the R&D experiments in Big Tech, it’s built for: Operators Consultants Platform founders Growth-stage teams that need to scale decision quality, not just content creation If Someone Told You They’ve Built a Thinking + Judgment Layer™… They’ve built something only a handful of people in the world are even attempting. Because this isn’t just AI that speaks fluently. It’s AI that reasons, reflects , and chooses. And in a world that’s drowning in tools, judgment becomes the differentiator. That’s the OS We Built Thinking OS™ is not a prompt pack. It’s not a dashboard. It’s not a glorified chatbot. It’s a decision architecture you can license, embed, or deploy— To help your team, your platform, or your clients think better at scale. We’ve moved past content. We’re building cognition. Let’s talk.
In every era of innovation, there’s a silent bottleneck—something obvious in hindsight, but elusive until the moment it clicks. In today’s AI-driven world, that bottleneck is clear: AI has speed. It has scale. But it doesn’t have judgment . It doesn’t really think . What’s Actually Missing From AI? When experts talk about the “thinking and judgment layer” as the next leap for AI, they’re calling out a hard truth: Modern AI systems are powerful pattern machines. But they’re missing the human layer—the one that reasons, weighs tradeoffs, and makes strategic decisions in context. Let’s break that down: 1. The Thinking Layer = Reasoning with Purpose This layer doesn’t just process inputs— it structures logic. It’s the ability to: Ask the right questions before acting Break down complexity into solvable parts Adjust direction mid-course when reality changes Think beyond “what was asked” to uncover “what really matters” Today’s AI responds. But it rarely reflects. Unless told exactly what to do, it won’t work through problems the way a strategist or operator would. 2. The Judgment Layer = Decision-Making in the Gray Judgment is the ability to: Prioritize what matters most Choose between imperfect options Make decisions when there’s no clear answer Apply values, experience, and vision—not just data It’s why a founder might not pursue a lucrative deal. Why a marketer might ignore the click-through rate. Why a strategist knows when the timing isn’t right. AI doesn’t do this well. Not yet. Because judgment requires more than data—it requires discernment . Why This Is the Bottleneck Holding Back AI AI can write. It can summarize. It can automate. But it still can’t: Diagnose the real problem behind the question Evaluate tradeoffs like a founder or operator would Recommend a path based on context, constraints, and conviction AI today is still reactive. It follows instructions. But it doesn’t lead. It doesn’t guide. It doesn’t own the outcome. And for those building serious systems—whether you’re running a company, launching a platform, or leading a team—this is the wall you eventually hit. That’s Why We Built Thinking OS™ We stopped waiting for AI to learn judgment on its own. Instead, we created a system that embeds it—by design. Thinking OS™ is an installable decision layer that captures how top founders, strategists, and operators think… …and makes that thinking repeatable , scalable , and usable inside teams, tools, and platforms. It’s not a framework. It’s not a chatbot. It’s not another playbook. It’s the layer that knows how to: Think through complex decisions Apply judgment when rules don’t help Guide others —human or AI—toward strategic outcomes This Is the Missing Infrastructure Thinking OS™ isn’t just about better answers. It’s about better thinking—made operational. And that’s what’s been missing in AI, consulting, leadership development, and platform design. If you’re trying to scale expertise, install judgment, or move from tactical to strategic… You don’t need a faster AI. You need a thinking layer that knows what to do—and why. We built it. Let’s talk.
