If utilized properly a GSA Schedule can be advantageous to any business, but that also goes to say that a GSA Schedule is not meant for every business. I encourage you to take the steps to find if the Multiple Award Schedule Program is the right fit for you. Before conducting the market research, pulling up the solicitations, or building a business strategy you should have in your mind some really good reasons why you plan to pursue a schedule contract. Take a look at some decent reasons to venture out in the Multiple Award Schedule Program:
- You have found the MAS is the right fit and don’t want to go through all of the red tape to close a federal sale.
- You have performed work for the federal government and have at least one year of completion or the work is ongoing.
- You worked as a subcontractor to a prime and the agency refuses to pay contractor mark ups.
- You have been studying the federal market in your commodity and learned GSA is the right fit.
All of this sounds pretty easy in the beginning but pursuing a GSA schedule is not a walk in the park. Make sound business decisions that work for your business and disregard the current word on the street of who’s big in the business and how they got there because there was always somebody there before that person. Keep in mind once you have that final contract in your hand the party is not over, there is more work to be done. GSA is pretty strict with ensuring that your sales reach the required amount of twenty-five thousand dollars yearly, unfortunately if that is not attained you run the risk of termination of the contract and all of that hard work goes down the drain. So a word of advice if you pursue the schedule program and are awarded a contract, be ready to put in work.