I think an area that has not been discussed is how COVID-19 is going to change how people work. A friend of mine is an engineer, head of diesel, for a major US refinery. Before COVID-19, he spent his days traveling around the country visiting all the sites. Now, he and the majority of his engineering staff are all working from home… and loving it. He told me “Mark, I can’t believe how much more innovative my people are working from their home offices no longer being restrained by the distractions found in working in cubicles.” I laughed and told him “Howard, I’ve known this for years. Many of our employees work from home, and have done so for the past decade!”

Beginning with Obama, and now into the Trump Administration, the federal government has been moving to shift employees to working from home. Employees like it more, they work on average an additional 3 hours per week because many just grab a quick bite to eat and then go right back to work, eliminating much of their lunch break.

In my mind this creates an opportunity moving forward as bosses like my friend Howard no longer care where their employees work. This is going to cause a further shift in the federal workforce and cause a change in the way these people are trained moving forward. This is an area that small businesses should dominate, and here is my rationale.

Small businesses are better suited to sell flat fee under $10,000* fixed price trainings. It is my belief that because people will be working from home in the future, this will become a “new” federal industry. At this price point with teleconferencing, these one-on-one or small group trainings will fit the needs of the future federal workforce.

Training Purchases off the Schedule System are Broad. This list of services covers, Computer Programming, Management, Acquisition, Environmental, Emergency Preparedness, First Responder, as well as almost all other areas of Coursework.

Small Business Sales for 2019

The sales for training are under the $1MM dollar average mark that most small businesses hit with their GSA Schedule. However, in my experience many of the small businesses providing federal training through GSA Schedules are one-two men/women shops, and therefore these revenue figures are significant to them, as their time is the product and these amounts represent real wages to them.

Why under $10,000 training offerings are a good niche for small businesses?

In the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, a key change made was that the Micro-Purchase Threshold applicable to FAR subpart 13.2 Actions, went from $3,500 to $10,000 for Civilian Actions and $5,000 for the DoD. This means that buying actions under $10,000 will now be much easier for federal buyers to undertake.

GSA Schedules
A GSA Schedule is a great early step when entering the federal marketplace. If you are interested in exploring how a GSA Schedule could exacerbate your future sales potential, I always recommend contacting an industry expert such as Advance GSA. They specialize in getting businesses on GSA Schedule, and do not charge for an initial consultation.