Does anyone have experience with Government Contracting and GSA schedules? What was/is your experience with it and what departments would you recommend?

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Alisa A. Beatty ~Assistance You Can Count On~ www.virtual-jane.com

I have worked on Canadian Government contracts, but never in the States, but I found a few sites on line by searching Government GSA and there was quite a bit of information there.

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Wendy Harrison, www.wendy-works.com
Go virtual and you'll never go back.

I've been to a few of the conferences here in the USA. I've just never heard of a VA doing work with them and how it would be, Knowing that sometimes you have to be present onsite. Thanks for responding.

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Alisa A. Beatty ~Assistance You Can Count On~ www.virtual-jane.com

I've learned that the government is not ready for the VA society. So, I target the companies that contract with the government

@ Business ink: how do you get that information?

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Alisa A. Beatty ~Assistance You Can Count On~ www.virtual-jane.com

Virtual Jane--GSA Advantage has a listing of all companies, what products/services offered and how much they are charging for their products/services. It really tells too much, if you ask me. A very good resource.

Speaking of Government Contracting - I would have loved to have worked with Police transcribing their interviews etc - but you have to apply through the government (and you'd probably have to have a background check, police check etc etc.

One thing I can work towards.

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Alice - My Virtual Me
info@myvirtualme.net | www.myvirtualme.net

I knowt his post is a bit old, but to kind of reactive it. I think working with gov't contractors is a great idea. Alot of these contracts are are out to big companies who have many people that work from home. Of course, then you run the risk of them wanting you on with the company full time instead of on a contract basis. It is a great idea. I'm going to check into it.

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Christina
CyberScribe Virtual Assistants, Inc.

Hello all How interesting. My Niche is in Construction in Bidding on government jobs in the U.S. of course through general contractors and subcontractors (Companies) Niche VA's are still very new to the most markets. While working in NICHE via direct with the government is appealing. We are not ready for that just yet. Its still hard for a VA to break in direct with a company. But the last company I worked for had to offsite work at home estimators. So its doable. Even one of our major suppliers cut of the phones and switched to SKYPE for business calls communication because of cost alone , these suppliers are huge in the specialty. It will take a while for this to catch on but it is coming in the years I know it. The va industry is evolving now we have NICHEE'Z (My funny word for people who work in niche industries)


Natalie

I haven't worked with GSA for my VA business, but have a lot for my work assisting an office furniture seller (selling products on GSA as opposed to services). It is very hard to break into the GSA market, at least for our industry. In fact, the dealers who do the best specialize. They only sell to GSA. This then sets your business up to be completely reliant on the GSA selling cycle, which is busy during the summer/fall and very slow in the winter/spring. If you are interested in local governments, get yourself registered with your local (city/county/state) purchasing departments and get on their e-mail lists for bids. You have to figure out your service codes (usually the registration process gives you a list of the codes and descriptions), so that you get notified when those come out to bid. Then you respond to those. It might be easier to get your feet wet with local first. Good luck with it. There is money to be made there, but it's a tough nut to crack.

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Jill Voegele
Aldwyn Consulting, LLC