There are many ways for your business to sell to the federal government, one of which includes holding your own GSA Schedule contract. A common alternative to holding your own GSA Schedule contract is to sell your products to the government through a reseller. Many companies choose this approach for a myriad of reasons including: when a company does not have the internal resources to support a GSA Schedule contract, or if a company does not qualify directly for a GSA Schedule contract. Regardless of the reason, many small businesses build a successful federal sales practice through partnerships with companies that act as resellers to the government.

In April 2019, the Small Business Administration (SBA) released a plan to enact revised size standards for small businesses. According to the SBA, a size standard is usually defined by the number of employees or average annual receipts and represents the largest size that a business, including subsidiaries and affiliates, may be to remain classified as a small business for SBA and federal contract programs. In 2010, the United States Congress passed the Small Business Jobs Act (Jobs Act) which requires the SBA to review all size standards every five years. Under the Jobs Act, the SBA is also required to adjust to reflect market conditions as needed, including inflation.

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.

In 2017, U.S. Senators Mac Thornberry (R-TX) and Adam Smith (D-WA) proposed a bill known as the Saving Federal Dollars Through Better Use of Government Purchase and Travel Cards Act of 2017 that concentrated on reducing waste, fraud, and abuse of Government spending on travel and when using purchase cards. This bill passed through the House and Senate when it was incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 (or NDAA 2018). The Saving Federal Dollars Through Better Use of Government Purchase and Travel Cards Act of 2017 addressed three key issues with Government spends: (1) improper payments, (2) questionable transactions, and (3) strategic sourcing. Our focus today will be strategic sourcing.

The short answer to this question? Yes, you’re able to sell to the Federal Government without being a GSA Schedule holder, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that you should due to a multitude of reasons.

In November 2018, GSA announced that it would sunset its long-standing quarterly sales reporting application, 72A, and replace it with a combined TDR/MAS sales reporting tool known as SRP, or Sales Reporting Portal. Some contractors were required to transition to the new system and report their FY Q1 sales as early as January 1, 2019 with all other contractors reporting their FY Q2 sales in SRP as of April 1, 2019. This blog will give you direction on that transition, as well as some instruction on how to report your first sales in SRP.