Fiscal Year 2016, A Year in Review

Fiscal year 2016 was a great success for small business contractors working with the GSA. The newest numbers from the Office of Small Business Utilization (OSBU) shows that there are currently 12,367 small business within the MAS program!

Here’s the further breakdown:

Small Disadvantaged	3051
Women-owned	3434
8A	1514
HUBZone	540
Service-disabled, Veteran-owned	1296
Veteran-owned	2284

Overall FY16 seemed to fare well for small businesses with more than $13 Billion dollars’ worth of contracts going directly to them.

The Federal Government is proving to be more frugal than ever before and is utilizing cost savings programs and cross agency spending initiatives to cut costs but not quality.

Looking at government spending in FY 2016, over $390 Billion were direct contract dollars throughout government spending (across vehicles and open bids). Spending was also slightly down from FY 2015 with the government spending $48,681,338,439 less in FY16.  Average dollars spent per year between 2008 and 2016 was $491,423,430,510 showing that FY 16 was almost a billion dollars below average over the last 8 years.

GCS is looking forward to the next fiscal year and the opportunity that it will bring to government contracts. Don’t forget that now is the best time to forecast opportunities and to start reaching out to your government contacts to make sure no stone goes unturned. We’re always here if you have any questions! 

October is Woman Owned Small Business Month!

On the heels of the Federal Acquisition Regulations being amended to incorporate Sole Sourcing for Woman Owned Small Business, the SBA has announced the October is Woman Owned Small Business Month!

Effective September 30, 2016, DoD, GSA, and NASA have adopted regulatory changes that provide authority to award sole course contracts to economically disadvantaged women owned small business and woman owned small business. Overall, this puts Woman Owned Small Businesses on equal footing with Service-Disabled Veteran Owned small business in receiving preferential treatment for contracts.

Working from this success, the SBA is targeting additional segments of woman owned business to help them succeed. The Encore Entrepreneurship for Woman webinar looks to assist women over the age of 50 who are launching their own businesses and pursing a second career. And for the other Women Owned Small Businesses, the What You Need to Know section on the SBA website is a treasure trove of incredibly useful information! 

Looking back over Fiscal Year 2016, government-wide overall spending with Women Owned Small Businesses almost reached the goal of 5% by allocating 4.45% or $15.2 Billion of $334.1B. That number is down .62% from the FY 15. Looking forward, the Sole Source provision should increase the number exponentially. Take a look at the full breakdown of set-aside spending!