For years, the federal acquisition industry has been asking for a more efficient way to make smarter purchases while saving taxpayer dollars. GSA has answered these calls for improvement with a solution—buy.gsa.gov. GSA has launched buy.gsa.gov, a new tool to help simplify the federal procurement process. This site will benefit both government agencies (buyers) and GSA contractors (vendors) as they can access streamlined market research, searchable templates, and interactive resources. While this tool is still in its testing phase, you can toggle around the site and send your feedback to GSA. Here’s what you need to know about this new tool and how it may help you navigate the procurement process.

Getting a GSA Schedule contract can be a huge endeavor in and of itself, but ultimately, it’s incredibly rewarding for your business. Having access to the federal marketplace can open your business up to a variety of opportunities and partnerships, allowing you to grow as an organization. With this in mind, acquiring a GSA contract is only the first step. In order to do well in the public sphere, there is a lot of work that come with maintaining and marketing your GSA contract. Throughout this blog, we will be going over what it takes to be a successful contractor and the different levels of compliance needed.

Selling to the government through the General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program involves understanding the lifecycle of a government contract. Successful contractors understand what good contract management resembles, so they can position themselves in a place to meet and exceed government customers’ expectations.

Your company may now qualify as a small business under the Small Business Administration’s (SBAs) revised size standards. The SBA recently issued 4 final rules to modify revenues-based size standards in 16 industry sectors. These sectors directly tie to 16 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) sectors and will increase small business eligibility for the SBA’s federal contracting and loan programs for approximately 59,000 businesses. The revised size standards will become effective on May 2, 2022.

If you have ever tried to sell to the federal government, then you have come across SAM.gov. The System for Award Management (SAM, SAM.gov) is the official website for people who make, receive, and manage federal awards. GSA teamed up and integrated with partner sites to curate a powerful tool to register, report, search opportunities, and sector data. On SAM.gov, you can search contract opportunities and entity registration, access data reports, check assistance listings, and connect with resources to help your business of any size succeed.

While it’s important to make sure you are prepared to pursue a GSA Schedule contract, it’s also important to ensure it’s the right fit for your company. When deciding whether your company is eligible to get a GSA contract, you should make sure you can compete in the federal marketplace. When compiling your GSA Schedule offer, you will need to adjust your commercial market rates to be determined “fair and reasonable”, while also making sure there is a market for your offering. A good way to determine this before going through the entire offer process is by completing GSA’s Readiness Assessment, identifying the scope of your offering, and researching your competitors.