By Sean McKay, CEO of Site Hub
I hold an active GSA Multiple Award Schedule contract and have managed campaigns for government clients under it. When other agency owners ask if they should pursue one, my honest answer is usually no.
That puts me at odds with most published content about GSA Schedules, which is unsurprising once you notice who writes it. Most GSA content online comes from consultants who help agencies get a Schedule. They are paid to make the process look worth your while. Contract holders rarely publish honestly about the experience, because selling federal compliance services is profitable, and telling agency peers “this might not be for you” is not.
This article is the resource I wish I had before starting the process. When other agencies consider pursuing I won’t tell you it was a mistake, I will explain why the outcome that worked for us would not work for most agencies that ask me about it, and what to consider before spending six months and a significant chunk of revenue on an application.
What a GSA Schedule actually is
The GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), often called the GSA Schedule or Federal Supply Schedule, is a long-term government-wide contract vehicle. Once awarded, it pre-negotiates your pricing, terms, and conditions so that federal, state, local, and tribal government buyers can purchase from you without running a full competitive procurement. The contract can run up to 20 years (an initial five-year term plus three five-year option periods).
The pitch is straightforward. Get on the Schedule, get listed in GSA Advantage (the government’s online catalog), and federal agencies can buy from you with dramatically reduced procurement friction.
However, this pitch leaves out important details.
The Math Most Consultants Don’t Show You
Here are the numbers as of fiscal year 2025, sourced from GSA’s own Schedule Sales Query Plus dashboard and Federal Schedules’ annual reporting:
- Approximately 14,579 companies held a GSA MAS contract
- Total Schedule sales reached $50.6 billion
- Small businesses won 36 percent of awards (compared to 22 percent of overall federal contracts)
- Roughly 12,300 small business contractors averaged about $1.5 million in Schedule sales each
- The IT category accounted for $27.3 billion (46 percent of all Schedule sales). Professional Services added another $12.2 billion
While the $1.5 million average seems attractive, averages in heavily skewed distributions are misleading. The top 10 percent of small business GSA contractors generate tens of millions in Schedule sales annually, which significantly raises the average. The median contractor earns far less, with many making under $100,000 per year through their Schedule. A substantial number of contract holders see little or no federal work from it.
GSA acknowledges this reality through its minimum sales requirement: $25,000 in the first 24 months, then $25,000 every 12 months. The existence of this threshold indicates that many new contractors struggle to meet it.
If you read “the average small business GSA contractor does $1.5M” and assume you will too, you have made the same mistake as someone reading “the average tech founder exits for $X million” and making decisions based on an unrealistic projection. The distribution is not representative; most earn little, while a small group earns much more.
The Real Cost of Getting on the Schedule
Most consultants warn that the application is the hardest part of the process. That framing is misleading, because while the application is hard, it’s also finite. The harder work starts after you’re awarded.
Per GSA’s own published guidance, the typical application takes three to six months. The IT FASt Lane program can cut that roughly in half. The work involved includes:
- SAM.gov registration with a full Unique Entity ID, NAICS codes, and CAGE code setup
- Two years of audited or reviewed financial statements demonstrating financial stability
- At least $25,000 in sales in each of the past two years (the Startup Springboard program waives this for new entities, but most agencies will not qualify)
- Past performance evaluations, typically through Open Ratings or similar third-party services
- A complete commercial price list with documented justification for every rate, including your “Most Favored Customer” pricing analysis
- Detailed labor category descriptions matched to the SIN(s) you are applying under
- Technical proposal narrative addressing the Solicitation requirements
- Subcontracting plan, if your company is large enough to require one
If you hire a consultant to prepare the offer, expect to pay $15,000 to $40,000, depending on the scope and the firm. If you do it yourself, expect 200 to 400 hours of senior staff time. For a 10-person agency, that is a significant chunk of revenue or owner time.
Most consultants gloss over the challenges that arise after the award is won.
What happens after you win the Schedule
Getting the Schedule is the start of the work, not the end. Ongoing obligations include:
The 0.75% Industrial Funding Fee (IFF) applies to every dollar of Schedule sales and must be remitted to GSA. While the fee is modest, it is mandatory and requires quarterly reporting through GSA’s Sales Reporting Portal, regardless of sales volume.
There is a mandatory minimum sales requirement: $25,000 in 24 months, then $25,000 every 12 months. Failure to meet this can result in Schedule cancellation. Some contractors hold their Schedule for years without securing a single order, as winning Schedule work is not automatic.
Pricing maintenance is ongoing. Your price list is public, and any commercial pricing change to your Most Favored Customer may require a Schedule modification. This compliance burden is significant, especially for agencies with complex pricing structures.
Modifications are paperwork-heavy. Any changes, such as adding a SIN, updating labor categories, or refreshing pricing, require submitting a modification through eMod. Each modification involves substantial paperwork.
Schedule contracts are subject to Inspector General audits. While audits are infrequent, the cost of being unprepared is high. Most agencies do not budget for this risk in advance.
Active marketing is required. This catches most new Schedule holders by surprise. Being on the Schedule does not mean federal agencies will call you. The Schedule is a buying mechanism, not a marketing channel. You must identify target agencies, build relationships, attend industry events, register on vendor portals, and proactively pursue opportunities. Without that work, your Schedule will sit unused.
If you cannot or will not commit to ongoing federal business development, the Schedule will generate little or no revenue. It serves as a credential, not a source of customers.
Our Honest Experience: The Proposal Trap
We pursued our GSA Schedule because we saw federal-adjacent opportunities in our pipeline and because the credential carried weight in conversations with both government clients and certain private-sector buyers, particularly in cybersecurity and B2B services where holding a federal contract signals operational maturity.
Once we had the Schedule, we made the investment most consultants will tell you is necessary to actually win Schedule work. We hired two full-time proposal writers. Federal procurement is paperwork-heavy, and the conventional wisdom is that the agencies that consistently win are those with dedicated proposal capacity who can respond to RFPs at speed and scale. So that’s what we built.
Over roughly 18 months with two full-time proposal writers on staff, we won exactly one piece of GSA work: a $50,000 engagement with the CDC. And here is the kicker: That job was a direct bid that asked only for a price quote. It required no proposal. Our proposal writers had nothing to do with winning it.
Eighteen months with two full-time proposal writers resulted in no wins from competitive, proposal-driven procurements. The only job we secured came through a process that did not require their involvement.
The reason is structural, not skill-based. The federal proposal market for digital services is dominated by large agencies and federal-focused systems integrators. They have institutional relationships with contracting officers, decade-long past performance on the exact contract vehicles in question, staff with security clearances, and proposal teams 10 to 50 times larger than anything a small agency can field. When a competitive RFP drops, those firms hold advantages a 10-person agency can’t close in any reasonable timeframe. Small agencies that compete head-to-head on competitive RFPs usually spend weeks preparing a response that loses to an incumbent before evaluation even begins.
For small agencies, the realistic opportunity on the Schedule is direct-buy work: smaller engagements sourced through GSA Advantage, contracting officer relationships, or niche capabilities. Those opportunities are real, but the pool is much smaller than headline GSA sales figures suggest, and it doesn’t justify a dedicated proposal team.
The credential, on the other hand, has provided more value than the direct Schedule sales. It comes up regularly in private-sector sales conversations, especially in cybersecurity and B2B services. The opportunities we secured under the contract have been meaningful, but procurement cycles run months, and the volume isn’t transformative.
Would I do it again? In our case, yes, but with a very different operating model. We would treat the Schedule as a credential and direct-buy storefront, allocate part-time owner attention to federal business development, and pursue Schedule revenue opportunistically rather than as a primary growth channel. We would not hire proposal writers.
This approach differs significantly from the model most consultants promote. Both can be effective, but only one aligns with the realistic economics of a small agency.
Five Questions to Ask Before You Pursue a GSA Schedule
If you’re weighing whether to start the application process, work through these questions honestly before you commit anything to the effort:
- Do you already have federal or government-adjacent business? The agencies that succeed with GSA Schedules almost always have prior government work, government-sector relationships, or a clear pipeline of opportunities that specifically require a Schedule. If you are pursuing a Schedule cold, hoping that holding the credential will generate federal demand, you are likely to be disappointed. The Schedule reduces procurement friction for agencies that already want to buy from you. It does not create demand that does not exist.
- Can you afford to wait 6 to 18 months for ROI? Federal sales cycles are slower than commercial ones. Even after award, it often takes a year or more to close Schedule revenue. If your agency cannot absorb application and post-award marketing costs without expecting revenue within 12 months, the timing may not be right.
- Do you have a staff member dedicated to federal business development? This must be a defined responsibility, not a side project. If the answer is “I will do it when I have time” or “we will figure it out after we are awarded,” the Schedule will likely remain unused. Note: business development is distinct from proposal writing. Hiring proposal writers without a clear pipeline creates overhead, not revenue. Build the pipeline first, then add proposal capacity if volume justifies it.
- Is your service offering a fit for federal buyers? Federal agencies purchase IT, professional services, cybersecurity, training, logistics, and other categories at scale. They do not buy small-business marketing services through the Schedule. If your core offering is “Google Ads for local restaurants,” there is no federal market for it. Review the Schedule Sales Query Plus dashboard to confirm your SIN(s) show meaningful sales activity, as many do not.
- Are you pursuing the Schedule for the credential or for revenue? Both are valid but require different strategies. If you seek the credential, a leaner application and lower direct revenue may be acceptable. If you seek revenue, you need a business development plan to bridge the gap between being on the Schedule and securing agency business. Be honest about your primary objective.
When the GSA Schedule Actually Is the Right Move
Plenty of agencies are well-suited to pursue a Schedule. To be clear, this article isn’t an argument against the credential, it’s an argument against pursuing it without the right foundation. The ideal profile looks like this:
- You already have at least one government client, or a confirmed government opportunity that requires a Schedule to close
- You have a service offering that fits cleanly into a SIN with active sales (IT services, cybersecurity, professional services, certain marketing and communications categories)
- You have at least one staff member who can own federal business development as a real responsibility, not a side project
- You can absorb 6 to 18 months of investment before meaningful Schedule revenue arrives
- You have a strategic reason for the credential that extends beyond direct Schedule sales (positioning for B2B buyers, qualifying for prime contractor teaming opportunities, opening state and local government work through Cooperative Purchasing)
If three or more of these criteria apply to your agency, pursuing a Schedule is likely worthwhile. If fewer than three apply, investing in commercial growth may be a better use of resources.
What a Small Agency Can Do Instead
If a Schedule isn’t the right move yet, federal and government work is still accessible. Several alternatives often yield better near-term ROI for small agencies, and most of them help build the foundation that a Schedule will eventually require:
Subcontract through a prime contractor. Find an established Schedule holder who needs subcontractor capacity in your specialty and pursue a teaming agreement. You gain exposure to federal work and federal client experience without the contract-maintenance overhead. Many primes actively seek small-business teaming partners to meet their subcontracting goals.
Pursue state and local government work first. State and local procurement is often more accessible than federal, and the work builds the past performance record you’ll eventually need if you do pursue a Schedule. Many states have their own procurement programs with lower barriers to entry.
Target smaller federal vehicles. Some agencies use Simplified Acquisition Procedures (SAP) for purchases under $250,000 that don’t require Schedule access. Direct outreach to small business specialists at target agencies can surface these opportunities.
Go after government-adjacent commercial work. Defense contractors, federal systems integrators, government technology vendors, and the broader ecosystem of companies that sell to the government often need agency services and pay commercial rates without the procurement complexity. The credentials and experience you build serving them position you well for direct federal work later.
None of these paths requires a Schedule, but each one helps build the foundation that makes a Schedule worthwhile if you decide to pursue one in the future.
The Honest Summary
A GSA Schedule is a valuable credential and procurement tool for the right agencies at the right time. It is not a solution that automatically turns small agencies into federal contractors, and the marketing materials that suggest otherwise are usually produced by people who benefit from your application and do not care whether you succeed or not.
Agencies for whom a Schedule makes sense already have federal market momentum, a service offering aligned with federal buying patterns, and the resources to invest in post-award marketing. For most agencies, it is more effective to focus on commercial growth, build federal-adjacent experience, and reconsider the Schedule when the strategic case is stronger.
The agencies for whom a Schedule actually makes sense already have federal market momentum, a service offering aligned with federal buying patterns, and the resources to invest in post-award marketing. For most agencies, the better path is to focus on commercial growth, build federal-adjacent experience, and revisit the Schedule when the strategic case is stronger.
If you’d like to talk through your specific situation, including whether a Schedule aligns with your goals or whether one of the alternatives is a better fit, get in touch. I’m happy to share what we’ve learned firsthand, including the parts you won’t find in consultant materials.