

Ask HN: Experience with GSA Schedules  - matttah

The other day we got a call by a firm trying to sell us on applying to become a vendor on a GSA schedule.  The company itself was a scam, however we've always tossed around the idea about trying to get into that market.  We're a small 5 person web application consulting company.<p>Has anyone had experience with this process?  Or know about people having success/failures with it?  Just trying to decide if the long application process is worth our time and effort or if we should focus elsewhere.
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BMarkmann
Yes -- it's a long process, and there are other contract vehicles that
agencies do procurement under... so getting your GSA (even with the help of a
company that does this for you): a) takes a long time, b) isn't a guarantee
that you'll actually be able to be awarded for many contracts, and c) even for
contracts that are under GSA, just having your GSA is about step 2 of 100

Now, if you have some particular in-house skillset that distinguishes you,
turn up some opportunities and take them to one of the SIs to team on. Bring
value and the opportunities to them, and you can often get into a teaming
relationship with long-term benefits. Alternately, team up with an 8(a) or
service disabled veteran-owned company. There are many program set-asides for
those sorts of companies, so the barrier to entry in them winning government
work is greatly reduced. Same basic idea -- if you can bring them some
skillset they lack and help them win deals, you're probably in a better
position than running from agency to agency waving your GSA schedule.

I'm sorry the company that recommended their services to you was a scam. There
are several out there that offer seminars on the government procurement and
capture management process that are very good. I don't want to pimp the
company I used or the seminars I went to (in no way affiliated), but the
outcome was that as a small company (<20 engineers) we decided that our best
current path (as far as selling into the government) is to keep subbing and
let our primes (ie. our partners) do the selling and bring us in for the
skillset we provide that they don't have.

