No matter what box you checked last week on the ballot when it came to the vote for President of the United States, I think you will find these two famous quotes from our Presidential Candidates relevant as they relate to advancing your firm’s business in federal contracting.

“Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”  -- Joe Biden

“As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.”  -- Donald J. Trump

I think both quotes are very pertinent for firms looking to enter the federal contracting space.

Show What You Value - Many firms talk about entering the federal space and what it could do for their business. However, when you ask them how much time or energy they have ever spent on breaking into the federal marketplace the answer generally comes back with a cough, a gasp or a zero. This show of “what you value” also translates into how federal contracting officers view your firm. “Are they serious? Why don’t they have a GSA Schedule?”

Think Big – People I talk with generally want to limp into federal sales with a micro contract and see how it goes. If you are going to spend the time and energy thinking about federal contracting and building your business, you should go in thinking big and obtain a GSA Schedule. Why spend a year pursuing $10K when you could be pursuing 100x that amount?

The reality is that very few of the small businesses competing for federal work go through the process of obtaining a GSA Schedule Contract. This is because businesses do not value it enough to expend the resources, thus are not thinking big enough. This becomes even more evident when we look at the numbers.
 

The table below as additional federal sales data:
 

The table show that the GSA Schedule Holders have 4.6X more sales ($1.25MM vs $273K) than their non-schedule holding peers. Additionally, a GSA Schedule helps to level the playing field and makes small businesses 2x more effective at competing with large businesses. We can see this in the comparison of the market share of 40.4% for GSA Schedule Holders vs 20.3% for small businesses at large.

Whether you think it is more important to “Show What You Value” or “Think Big”, a GSA Schedule is your ticket to moving your business forward in the federal space.

As you can see, a GSA Schedule is a great step when entering the federal marketplace. If you would like to have an analysis run of your firm to see what type of impact a GSA Schedule could provide your small business, I always recommend contacting an industry expert such as Advance GSA. They can be reached at (303)810-4580.