but I have heard:

1) do you have professional liability insurance? if so, we will need you to show us that we are covered with at least $10 US million coverage. I negotiated that down to $1M.

2) i'm sorry, we don't work with anyone who isn't on our approved vendor list. so, I ask, how do I apply to be on the approved vendor list? then I found out it is "by invite only." That sort of made me laugh but then I was able to find a contact in their legal department that got me on "the list". This is by far the biggest obstacle I run into every time, but I'm getting use to finding my way around it.

3) the most recent one was, "we want you on this project, your proposal is the best by far, we trust you,... but we just shut down several departments and management wants us to reallocate those people on any projects we can find and won't allow us to use consultants right now. to be honest, using your services would even reduce the cost of this project by 40%, but we're not allowed to use your services." some times you just can't win... I understand they were trying to avoid as many layoffs as possible and possibly someone's job was at stake. whadda ya do?

thanks for sharing your advice!