Founded in 2011, Avanue Enterprises, Inc. dba Redhead Medical is an established distributor specializing in medical, laboratory, pharmaceutical, and janitorial supplies.
The business has a single location with 5 full time employees in McHenry, IL. Nick Snider, Owner has successfully built the company by meeting and exceeding year-over-year sales goals and receiving accolades of excellence from his commercial client base. The team demonstrates excellence in product knowledge and flexibility to meet their customer’s needs which resulted in positive ratings from both new and repeat customers.
Because of the strength of his team and his strong relationship with his suppliers, Nick decided to expand his product line and his client portfolio to include government contracting. A decision that led him to contact Illinois PTAC at the College of DuPage in July of 2021 for guidance.
Ileen Kelly is the principal Illinois PTAC advisor who worked with Nick on government contracting. She assisted him with meeting required vendor eligibility guidelines for SAM.gov (federal); Illinois Procurement Gateway (State) and local municipalities. Initially Redhead Medical took advantage of the many workshop/webinars COD Illinois PTAC has to offer. The information provided through the webinars/workshop is very beneficial because they’ve proven to help clients gain need insight to pursue and to take their companies to the next level. The center provides knowledgeable speakers who relay their expertise in a practical method for clients to follow direction offered. Clients learn from past experiences of the advisor which guides the client along their journey to develop their business using a methodical strategic process.
Illinois PTAC advisors help with the needed marketing documents for government contract and assisted Redhead with the completion of their capability statement. The client uses this tool to develop relationships with contract officers identified through their daily bid match emails. Bid Match is our service which monitors public posting sites of federal, state and local government agencies of open solicitations. Opportunities that match client identified keywords and their capabilities are automatically emailed to them daily.
Nick reviews his bid match leads regularly; and is able to assess quickly which leads to pursuit of governmental opportunities. Redhead Medical has been a client for less than a year and has responded to approximate 8 bids and to date has won 4 government contracts with the latest award from the Correctional Facility of East Moline and the State of Illinois CMS.
When we first decided to pursue government contracting we had no idea where to start. Fortunately we came across Illinois PTAC and Ileen Kelly. Their webinars provide step by step instructions on how to meet necessary requirements which allowed us to begin quoting for government entities. Even now that we have met those requirements, Ileen still communicates with us regularly, and to have her accessible with any questions that arise is so helpful!
Nick SniderPresident, Avanue Enterprises, Inc. dba Redhead Medical
Contact Information
Business Development Center
535 Duane Street, Office 233
Glen Ellyn IL 60137
(630) 942-2600
Email: bdc@cod.edu
Regular Hours of Operation
Monday to Friday: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Map and Directions