As your company searches for buyers, whether they’re government customers or commercial entities, you want to make a good first impression to stand out against your competitors. By conveying a message through an effective capabilities statement, you’re one step closer to accomplishing this.

While we are welcoming 2023, there are some aspects following us into the New Year. 2023 is not only the the year of the rabbit, but also the years of major IT Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs). The Information Technology (IT) community has been tracking major solicitations as they sit in protest purgatory or as they are in process of releasing draft and final Request for Proposals (RFPs). Let’s go through these opportunities and their journey into 2023.

In late January 2023, the Department of Defense (DoD) released its Small Business Strategy which reduces barriers to entry, increases set-aside competitions, and leverages programs to grow the industrial base. As part of the overall federal government initiative to strengthen the support of small businesses, the DoD has been looking for ways to create more opportunities including providing more tools and resources to small businesses. Here’s what you need to know about this new strategy and what it could mean for you as a small business government contractor.

When you enter a new marketplace, one of the first things you think about is how you can create and maintain contacts. While the federal marketplace works differently from the commercial world, it’s still something that’s relevant. Especially when you are responding to active contracting opportunities.

As a prospective or current GSA contractor, you might have seen the term COTS. What does it mean and why is it an important piece of government contracting? If a government agency wants to buy Commercially available Off the Shelf (COTS) items quickly, efficiently, and at the best value, they often turn to the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program. In this article, we will define COTS, cover how they fit into the MAS program, and discuss regulations on COTS from the Buy America Act (BAA).

Analyzing your company’s sales is a valuable approach to understand how you’re doing in the federal marketplace as well as identifying any strategic changes you need to make. Every GSA contractor has to report their GSA Schedule sales on a regular basis, and of course it’s always important to keep tabs on your sales to track performance, but it’s also important to take a step back and see what sales look like across the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program. How is your business doing compared to your competitors? What does the market look like overall? Does it look like it's growing or shrinking in certain areas? As a GSA contractor, you have access to several tools to help you assess sales. Let’s talk about the various resources available.