Your Next Move - The Discipline It Takes to Rebuild a Business

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

In this episode of Your Next Move: Audio Edition, Inc. senior editor Rebecca Deczynski sits down with Ebony Wilkins, president and CEO of Aalis Management Consulting, a government contracting firm ranked No. 369 on the 2025 Inc. 5000. The company provides acquisition support, financial management, and digital transformation services to more than 10 federal agencies. Wilkins explains how consistency, discipline, and regular self-assessment helped make Alice Management Consulting a two-time Inc. 5000 honoree. She also recounts how she rebuilt the company after losing every contract and watching its revenue fall to zero during the early days of the pandemic—and why persistent follow-up is the key to turning professional relationships into new business. Drawing on her experience as an Army veteran, Wilkins shares how a mission-driven mindset influences her leadership, hiring, and company culture. Plus, she discusses preparing employees to work with AI, helping government agencies navigate digital transformation, and finally transitioning from working in her business to focusing on its long-term strategy.

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Hello, I'm Mike Hoffman, and you're listening to the audio edition of Your Next Move produced by Inc and Capital One Business. In this season's audio edition, we're bringing you conversations from the Your Next Move pop-up studio at the Inc-5,000 conference this best October in Phoenix, Arizona.

You'll hear Ink writers and editors interviewing the founders of some of the fastest growing privately health companies in the country. Now, in this episode, Inc. Senior Editor Rebecca Daczynski sat down with Ebony Wilkins, president and CEO of Alice Management Consulting, a government contracting firm ranked number 3,609 on the Inc. 5,000. Ebony's company provides acquisition support, financial management, and digital transformation services to more than 10 federal agencies. And the conversation begins with Ebony reflecting on how consistency,

discipline and self-assessment, that fuels her growth, and how her journey as an Army veteran shaped her approach to leadership, resilience, and rebuilding her business after losing every contract during the early days of the pandemic. For our recording, can you say your name, your title, and your business, and your Inc. 5,000 ranking. Ebony Wilkins, president and CEO of Alice Management Consulting, ranking 369,

Second year. Congratulations. Tell me a little bit more about what your business does. Right. So we're in government contracting where we provide acquisition, financial management support, and digital transformation. Currently support a host of different customers in the government space, more so 10 agencies at the moment. Mm-hmm. What do you think has been the biggest driver of growth, especially landing on that in 5,000, two years in a row?

is consistency, right? So we are consistent with what we do and how we do it and constantly doing self-assessments and business process improvement. Tell me a little bit more about what led you to start this business, what you're most passionate about with it and what it's like finding your clients. Yes, so I am an Army veteran. So I've been in the government space since the age of 17. I spent 10 years in the Army. Once I got out of the Army, I became a government contractor in which I supported different agencies for probably a span of 10 years or so. And from there, there was like a light bulb went off, and it was, I could do this.

I understand what's required of me, and I can make it happen for myself and my family. So I decided to lean in. It's been a rewarding experience. It's been a challenging. and no lack of chaos, but it's been a rewarding experience. Yeah, and what year did you launch the business? 2017.

Cool. What was it like going from that point, launching the business, becoming an entrepreneur to now being a two-time Inc. 5,000 honoree. Like, did you have this vision from the start, and how did that vision evolve as the business grew? So I did have the vision from the start. There were many peaks and values. that we, you know, we use that term in all things.

But for us, we really had significant lows. When we were starting up, I gained really great traction, probably year three. It's a difficult market to break into when you are a younger woman. So you're always having to prove yourself. And in year three, I became pregnant with my second child. And it was very challenging because it was an early business. and being taken seriously while being with child because it's always that thought that, well, we don't want to work with her because she's not going to be around pretty soon. And during that time, I had my second child in January 2020.

Once I had the child, we all know how 2020 went. Yes, yes. And my complete world fell apart. I lost every contract due to different circumstances. situations in which our revenue went down to zero. Wow. And that was very difficult on top of everything else to kind of manage and pick myself up during that period. Yeah. So how did you do that? What was the process like? So I really took six months with no income during the craziness of the world to really refocus and focus on my newborn, of course, my health, my well-being, and work on

myself. I was able to slowly rebuild, taking a 1099 position that would help get this past performance within my firm. And from there, like, I really, I don't believe I slept for probably a year after that. Making sure that I made phone calls, went to conferences, sent emails, all of the things that I needed to do to get myself back in front. Yeah. Having client-driven work like that, especially in government services. Networking is such a huge part of that. What do you think makes you successful at that and do you have any advice for how people can kind of go about that

in a productive way? You know, you can meet all the people in the world. You can be friendly, funny, all the things. But if you do not follow up, not only have you wasted your time, but you wasted their time because that's their expectation of you. And that's their first impression that you're not a man or woman of your work. And for me, follow-up is king.

I will follow up two and three times over because I want you to remember me. So normally when people see me right away, there's an instant connection. I don't necessarily need the six touches. You know, they say it's six touches for someone to remember you. I like to pare down to three. Three touches were good. Yeah. What does that follow-up look like?

Are there any particular things that you say or like what makes a good follow-up? up. Mainly action, right? So when I follow up is there, can we do coffee? Can we get on Zoom, our teams, and really have another secluded conversation. But I need to understand that before I go into that conversation, I need to know what you like, what your goals are. Where is your business headed or this relationship headed and really drive in and pinpoint on that? As your business has grown, what has been the biggest challenge of maintaining that growth? I know that you said that, you know, consistency has been really key to landing on the 5,000 list two years in a row.

But what has been the trickiest part of maintaining that? Having the bootstrap has been very difficult. There was a point early on where, you know, I'm starting off with $0 in the bank. Yeah. And we were robbing Peter to pay Paul. because the banks would not loan us money. And then the light bulb finally went off, and it was,

the banks won't give you money until you don't need the money. Learning that and learning how to navigate through those turbulent times, I believe gave me the hope and the inspiration to keep going. Because there is light sometimes, but, you know, there were a couple of Christmases that my kids missed, but we were able to persevere through that. And for me, relationships comes easy. So that wasn't an issue.

Getting more work really wasn't hard for me because I have that personality. But it was the money factor that really stagnated our growth. And tell me about your team and what it's been like, you know, getting people to be your community helping you build this business. Oh, yes. I am a part of many different organizations that have CEOs and founders. and we really built different villages, and especially for myself, to be able to talk about those real issues

and understand, okay, what are you doing? What's work for you? How did you persevere? And through those lessons, it really helped me shape my team and be able to make really decisions that impact us before stuff hit the fan, if you will. I was able to pivot and make very informed decisions

quickly and early on. Yeah, yeah. Tell me about your hiring approach. Yes. So we are very purple. And I am so proud of the fact that we are a purple organization, which essentially means that we really seek out veterans. I am a veteran. The majority of my staff, they're either veteran or veteran spouse or have some sort of connection with a military organization.

And the atmosphere is different with veterans. Like, they really have a can-do attitude. And there's veterans that are on my team that I could log on at 10 p.m. And they're online. And I'm like, what are you doing? Like, I need you to stop. But I love it. I love it.

Yeah. It sounds like you're the same way. I know. That's right. Yeah. What are the biggest lessons that you got from your Army experience that you applied to entrepreneurship? completing the mission.

I think for military, that's a sentiment that we hold near and dear is that you don't stop until it's done. And that's something that I strive to show to my employees. And they've picked up on it. And they, you know, our culture is really strong. We have people who they have cried because their contract have ended. And they really wanted to remain part of it. of our organization.

And it's like, you know, I still reach out to them. Hey, if certain opportunities come back around, we would love to have you back. And they say, say no more. Yeah. We'll be there. Yeah. So is it primarily like project-driven work that you're doing? It is.

Gotcha. Gotcha. Yep. The contracts can range from a year up to five years. Gotcha. Gotcha. That makes sense. You mentioned that digital transformation is part of what you offer as your services.

What does that look like in this environment, especially with so much change happening in technology? There's so much. One of our strategies going into 26, and we say FY26, because we operate off of the fiscal year, is really creating internal AI agents within our firm. It's something to invest in your employees. So we want to ensure that our employees really have the work, productivity, skills, to be amazing. So we're going to give that to them,

give them the tools, the learning, so that when they go out and are on the customer side, the client side, we want the clients to see that and want them to want more. What more do you guys have? What can you teach us? What can you show us? So that's one of our strategies going into 26

that I'm really, really excited about. We have some really cool projects. that we are working on. Currently, we support the president's office in assisting with tariff support. So we have Mandarin-speaking legal analysts. We have Spanish-speaking legal analysts because we support specifically the U.S. and China engagement

and the U.S.MCA engagements. Wow. That must be super busy. It is a fantastic, project. It's amazing. There's a lot of moving pieces, but one thing that I love, love, love, the government team that we currently support, they're fantastic, true professionals through and through, and I love them. When we return, Ebony breaks down how her team helps government agencies embrace digital transformation in a rapidly changing tech landscape.

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With the technology, it's interesting because government agencies, I feel like, aren't known for necessarily being the most up-to-date. So obviously, they're in need of digital transformation as a service, but I would imagine some of them might be a little bit hesitant or maybe not even know that they need this. So what's it like working with those kinds of clients? The landscape has changed. The Trump administration has really pushed the needle and forced the workforce to think outside the box.

Now the agencies are doing more with this. They have to because a lot of the contractors were cut and a lot of the workforce was shortened. So now it's how do we still accomplish the mission? How do we still get it done? And for us, we're right at the forefront. We can assist you on your walk. One of the things that the government is doing is they've created for a year.

So with that being said, we want to be there to help those agencies learn how to implement it successfully and go to the next level. Yeah. I would imagine that's also a challenge when technology is changing so rapidly that, like, you yourself and your team have to learn how to do this in order to teach. your client. So are there any tools or practices that you have to be able to stay on top of the technology yourself? So there's a lot of components. So from an enterprise or company's standpoint, we were very aggressive and implemented AI policy. There's a lot of AI tools. There's a lot of, there's a lot takers. Oh my God, the note takers make it into the meeting before I do. And I said, Who are all these people?

So we have to get aggressive with our policy to ensure this is acceptable, this is not acceptable. These are the security settings that you must have to operate with this tool. And with that, in understanding the changing landscape, we are really focused on what we know to be consistent. Right. We know that Microsoft and co-pilot will be there. And most agencies have that. Yeah. They have access to that.

Focus there. Focus on all the different functions that we're seeing from great things that we're seeing from OpenAI and chat GPT. What are the new connectors? What can be created to solve your work admin tasks? How can we teach our customers? to just focus on the analysis and at the administrative task. They hear us, they're listening, and they're open. There was a point where we would say,

government likes to go window shopping. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that looks nice, but not right now. But it's certainly changed. Are there any use cases for AI that you feel like businesses should be taking more advantage of, like kind of a missed opportunity that you feel like you're frequently recommending to clients? Because of the landscape is changing, we're still learning a lot of what's the best way or what's the best tool to operate in. So I don't recommend a lot to other businesses because this is a space that we own.

So get your own space. So no, I do not recommend anything or any use cases to other businesses. Are there any external factors that are either providing a challenge to your business, or fueling it? This year was still a challenge for us, even though we were doing amazing when the year started, things changed, and then we had a few contracts

that were terminated for convenience. So that's never easy, but learning how to, okay, this is where we are, how do we pivot, how do we find new opportunities within the chaos? And we were able to do that,

Again, I'm super excited for what's to come in 2026. We really just had to lean in and not operate off of the wo it's me type of mentality. Okay, this is here to stay. What do we do about it? Yeah. Growing as a project-driven business, I feel like it's a particular challenge, especially knowing that you have to balance managing the contracts that you do have, like keeping the possibility that maybe a contract will be terminated. And then also pitching for new work. So what is that like navigating that? And have there been any strategies that have helped you to not only maintain this business, but to grow it at such a fast rate that you land on the Inc. 5,000? Oh, definitely.

Really being in tune with the administration, the government in my world, they run everything. So if you're not in alignment with what their goals or objectives are, you're going to miss out and you're not going to be successful. So for us really, okay, this is where the current administration lies. This is their thought process. Let's lean into it. And for them, you know, they're focused on, as we mentioned before,

tariffs and they're focused on homeland security in which we operate there in that space as well. So we really are diligent about working with those customers. customers building those relationships, having those constant communication so that we can stay ahead of our competitors and that we are the vendor of choice. And what does that look like in terms of building your team? Like, how do you have to grow internally in order to grow externally? Very strategic. We look for people to join our team who has the government, our client relationships, have a certain skill set. and the ability to be able to understand your gaps

and pick from your other team members to fill those gaps so that we can take it to the next level. One of the strategic hires that we hired last year was a digital transformation director. And she brings such amazing skill sets from industry and specifically service now. And she had skillset within the government space and procurement and all of these different attributes that is a true gym.

And she's been able to help us elevate in so many different areas. Yeah. And you mentioned earlier, you know, after that moment in 2020, revenue goes down to zero. You have to rebuild from there. You said, I don't think I slept for a year after that. How do you, once you've gotten over that, that challenge, how do you deliberate? and how do you kind of like open up your schedule as a leader to focus on things that you need to do to grow the business rather than operational things? Like how do you decide what you do hand off to your team?

I feel like I'm just getting to the point where I can solely work on the business and not in the business. And that was a long journey. It was getting to the point where we brought in a lot of the expertise. I now have a C-O. oh, I now have a lot of leadership and management within the firm. So I'm all things strategic and visionary, which creates a great balance for us at this point. So it's working. I'm glad we're finally here.

I am finally sleeping. Good. So it's all good. What do you think has been your biggest lesson growing this business? Maybe something that surprised you, a mistake that you made. Not documenting. as quick as something happens, right? Whether it's personnel or whether it is different processes,

making sure that getting everything out of my head and on paper so someone can easily come in and be great and succeed on day one. I spend a lot of time doing one-on-one trainings where I could have easily automated it to make sure that we're able to flow. And then building your company culture, especially with contract-driven work, what's that like? I know that hiring is a big part of this, like especially focusing on veterans,

but is there anything that you do to, like, maintain this culture when maybe people are coming and going for different projects? I would assume that some of your contractors are remote, too, depending on where they are in the country. What's that like and how do you think about culture? Oh, yeah. A culture is so important to me. It's important to me that I read,

out that I call, that I talk, that I email our team members. If something is going on, if there's a change in the company, I relate that as quickly as possible. We do something called coffee talks once a month where it's just informal, it's free-flowing, and I get to learn more about our team members. We do work-life balance once a quarter where a team member gets to go wherever they want to, whether it's lunch, dinner, movies, up to $100, we will reimburse you for your outings. So I'm very intentional on ensuring my team has a work-life balance, ensuring that they have access to me, and ensuring that they know they're a part of the firm's success. So it's been a great experience. Amazing. Well, Ebony, thank you for joining us today and thanks for sharing

your story. Thank you. That's all for this episode of Your Next Move. Our producer is Blake Odom. editorial editing and sound design by Nick Torres. Additional editing from Sam Gavauer and Tad Wadams. And our executive producer is Josh Christensen. If you haven't already, subscribe to Your Next Move on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. And Your Next Move is a production of Inc and Capital One business.