If you’re in the federal contracting world, you probably have some familiarity with small business set-asides and the various socioeconomic types of small businesses that the government is concerned with. Small business set-asides influence every type of federal acquisition strategy, including purchases made off of GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), and other government-wide acquisition contracts.

Entering the federal marketplace can be daunting. Especially if you are a small business with little to no resources on how to cut through the bureaucratic red tape and successfully secure a spot on a contract vehicle. What many businesses don’t know is you can approach your path to market in different ways. The Department of Defense (DoD) has a few innovation programs that are designed to help companies with innovative solutions gain access to critical funding and become visible to government buyers. These programs allow for technology development acceleration, innovative research and development, and give small businesses the opportunity to share their cutting-edge solutions with less barriers to market.

To busy government contractors, market research may seem like a trivial activity that can be pushed toward the bottom of their to-do list. Since it won't directly end in a contract award, it's not worth prioritizing, right? Wrong. Market research (often in the form of Requests for Information, or RFIs) is just as essential as Requests for Proposals (RFPs). Market research is generally used to build an RFP, so it's actually important to get your foot in the door early.

It’s almost our favorite time of the year—Q4 of federal government’s fiscal year. From July through September each year, the federal government goes on what is essentially a spending spree totaling approximately 1/3 of its annual discretionary spending. Regardless of the administration, it’s always going to be a quarter full of opportunities as agencies rush to spend the remainder of their budgets. However, the administration does drive where spending will be the most popular. Let’s look at where GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contractors can expect to see a focus on procurement in Q4 and beyond.

Getting your GSA Schedule contract awarded is an important milestone—but it doesn’t guarantee incoming orders from government agencies. To win business, it’s important you actively search for contracting opportunities that match your solutions. Fortunately, tools like SAM.gov can help you find opportunities in the federal marketplace. This guide outlines how to use SAM.gov to identify relevant federal procurement opportunities, with clear steps and helpful tips to streamline your search.

Since taking office, President Trump has signed multiple Executive Orders (EOs) impacting federal procurement and the operations of popular contract vehicles. For example, a recent EO was signed to consolidate many Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) under GSA, due to the agency’s expertise in managing federal procurement through the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) and other contracts.