A key strategy for taking full advantage of the GSA Multiple Award Schedule’s contracting opportunities is partnering with other contractors. Of the partnership options available, Joint Ventures (JVs) are a great choice for companies that want to form a new legal entity in order to pool each other’s capabilities, past performance, and even small business designations.

Small businesses have an opportunity this month to voice their input on the new Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) overhaul. In late September, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council released new model deviation text for Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 19, which applies to small business contracting. This release is part of the broader Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO) initiative, designed to simplify the FAR using plain language and to remove non-statutory and non-essential content.

The General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program receives regular updates throughout the year by GSA, and this year the changes have been major. As is, it’s already easy for federal contractors to get behind on the changes that come through the several recent Solicitation Refreshes. In combination with other common misconceptions surrounding the MAS Program, existing vendors and prospective vendors alike may have a hard time parsing old from new, and myth from fact. Here, we’ll clarify both old and new misconceptions that cause some of the most confusion for MAS contractors and prospective contractors.

When a government agency has a need for a product or service, the dollar amount determines how they go about procuring it. One of the most important of these benchmarks is the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT) — the dollar amount under which agencies can use streamlined acquisition procedures to buy goods and services. These simplified methods are designed to reduce administrative burden and speed up procurement, which benefits contractors and agencies alike. Recently, a final rule was issued to raise the Simplified Acquisition Threshold from $250,000 to $350,000 to account for inflation. This is good news for contractors, especially small businesses. This blog post defines the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT), its purpose, its impact on small businesses, and what you should do when searching for opportunities within the set threshold.

Many government contractors are undoubtedly familiar with SAM.gov (System for Award Management). One of its most important functions is the entity registration process, in which federal contractors are required to be active on SAM and continue to keep company information up-to-date. Due to this, many scammers have targeted companies needing to register or renew their SAM entity. In the blog, we’ll walk through what the contractors must know when utilizing SAM, such as how to register in SAM, what some of the more common scams contractors will run into, and how to stay compliant with changing regulations.

A very common question we receive as GSA consultants from contractors, especially in their first option period of their GSA Schedule, is “Are there any consequences to no or low GSA sales?” Or “What are some good tips or tricks to generate GSA sales and ensure we are remaining complaint with GSA regulations?” In this blog, we will address the current rules in place for minimum sales on the GSA Schedule, potential repercussions or actions GSA may take if these criteria are not met, and best practices to generate or increase GSA sales and remove any concerns regarding our former mentioned points.