The U.S. Small Business Administration has just announced its findings on the Federal Government’s 2018 fiscal year, and it is great news for American small businesses. 2018 marks the 6th consecutive year the Federal Government has met their small business contracting goals. Not only did the federal government meet this goal in 2018, they surpassed it by $15 billion.
During the 2018 fiscal year, the federal government allocated a record-breaking $120.8 billion to small businesses, “awarding 25.05 percent in federal contract dollars to small businesses” according to a Small Business Administration press release. That’s $15 billion more than the previous year. Acting Administrator of the Small Business Administration, Chris Pilkerton said, “…the federal prime and subcontracts awarded to small businesses in FY18 equate to more than a million jobs created.” This effort by the federal government helps prop up small businesses and the communities they are a part of.
This trend signifies a good faith effort by the federal government to promoting American small business. In fact, over 57% of the money awarded to small businesses was through prime contracting arrangements. More prime contracts were awarded to women-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned, and disadvantaged small businesses in 2018 than the previous year – again, exceeding the goals set for these categories.
This success is in part thanks to small business set asides within the GSA Multiple Award Schedules (MAS) program. These set asides reserve specific GSA contracts for small businesses, giving them a better chance to compete in the larger federal marketplace. A small business within the GSA MAS program could be a part of a large and exclusive marketplace.
How can your business benefit from this?
If you are a small business owner, you may be able to benefit from getting a GSA Schedule Contract. First you should know if you qualify. GSA looks at the number of employees and your amount in sales to determine business size.
If you qualify as a small business – great – you could qualify for the GSA’s small business set asides. Before getting a GSA Schedule contract and taking on everything that comes with it, you should first know whether it is right for you. Getting on the GSA Schedule can seem like a difficult task, especially as a small business, but Winvale can help. If you are thinking about acquiring a GSA Schedule contract give us a call.
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