It’s not easy to maintain a GSA Schedule contract, especially if you’re a small business and you have to juggle daily operations along with commercial sales and the government market. It can be especially difficult as a veteran-owned business—veterans can face significant obstacles entering the federal market. To attempt to mitigate this issue, the federal government has several programs and opportunities to help veteran business owners, especially small businesses, succeed as contractors. Let’s delve deeper into the opportunities available for veterans and how you can use your GSA Schedule to grow your company.

If you think you may qualify as a small business in the eyes of the government, there’s a fairly simple way to find out. The Small Business Administration (SBA) has the Size Standards Tool to give small businesses a better idea of how they may qualify as a small business. It’s beneficial for contractors to know if they are designated as a small business because it opens doors to assistance programs, tools, and certain small business set-asides. In this blog, I’ll cover what information is needed to utilize the SBA’s Size Standards tool and what you can do if you qualify as a small business.

Your first government proposal (and even your fifth) can be intimidating. Not every Request for Proposal (RFP) is the same, and it can take a while to review every section and identify what you need to work on first, especially if the proposal is several pages long. Although various agencies may use different templates, most solicitations will characteristically incorporate the following sections, so if you can get a handle on the basic outline, you’ll begin to easily make sense of each proposal. Let’s demystify the different sections of an RFP so your next response goes smoothly.

The U.S. government and its federal agencies are known to be the some of the world's largest buyers of products and services. The federal government procures almost everything they need from both big and small commercial businesses. Since going after government contracts can be competitive, many small businesses worry they could lose out on potential opportunities because they think they can't compete against big industry giants. In some regards, their worries are partially accurate, most small businesses do not have the resources allowing them to compete against these ultra-wealthy big businesses and corporations.

As GSA Schedule consultants, we sometimes see companies spend a great chunk of time and effort on getting a GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) and then they don’t know what to do with it, leaving the contract to gather dust and cobwebs. This is unfortunate, because getting a GSA Schedule contract is a long and often difficult process, but it can be so rewarding in the end. Why waste the time to get a contract if you aren’t going to take advantage of it? GSA Schedule contractors have access to a whole new world of customers, resources and tools to expand their business.