If you are a current GSA contractor or potentially looking to sell products or services on the GSA Schedule, you’ll need to know how to find opportunities in your industry. Federal contracting requires research into potential costs, benefits, and initiatives like any other business decision. As a GSA Schedule Contractor, the North American Industry Classification System codes (NAICS) can help you better concisely comprehend what opportunities exist in your field for success in the federal marketplace, and can help your company determine if you are considered a small business.

Frequently known as the “Amazon” of the government contracting world, GSA Advantage! is an important tool that government contractors use to publish their pricelist and market their approved GSA products. Within GSA Advantage!, you can find a wide variety of contractors who offer anything from printers and shredders to drones used to map the world. Government agencies frequent this site because they can easily search for and order products within a few clicks, meaning it’s a crucial site for contractors to learn how to navigate.

As a GSA contractor, you may have spent have spent endless hours in Schedule Input Program (SIP) in an attempt to upload your latest catalog update to GSA. However, after receiving feedback and hearing current contractors’ frustrations with the program, GSA has decided to sunset SIP and introduce the Common Catalog Platform (CCP). The goal of this platform will be to streamline and improve catalog management for both contractors and Contracting Officers. In this blog, we have detailed some aspects of how contractors will be able to utilize the CCP when updating their catalog for GSA, what the Product File is, and how contractors will be provided a Compliance and Pricing report.

The short answer is yes, you can participate in government bids without a GSA Schedule. However, it’s much more nuanced than that, and you can be missing out on huge opportunities within the federal marketplace. Open market sales to the federal government take much longer and can be more costly than sales through a government contracting vehicle, and other vehicles are not as flexible or available.

The government contracting world can be challenging—there are lots of rules and regulations to keep track of, billions of dollars being spent through various procurement methods, and tough competition among established contractors. We often hear the question “how do we make a name of ourselves amongst all of this?” from many new businesses who are wanting to break into the federal market.

Although contracts can have a reputation of being binding, your GSA Schedule contract is meant to grow and change with your company. Anytime you need to change your address or primary Point of Contact, add or delete a product, alter a product description, or upload new photos, you are able to make these changes through a modification (mod). Each modification type requires a series of documents and/or requirements, and it can be difficult to figure out what needs to be done in order to successfully complete a mod. Thankfully, the General Services Administration (GSA) has created a guide to keep contractors up to date on all the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) modification standards.