Why U.S. Contracts For Small Businesses Go to Big Companies
As part of the government’s efforts to help entrepreneurs get a slice of the lucrative federal contract market, this contract had been set aside for bidding by small businesses only. The size standard for “small” differs by industry and contract; for instance, a firm bidding on a telecommunications award can sometimes have up to 1,500 employees while a computer reseller such as Federal Edge or GTSI typically needs 500 or fewer workers to qualify.With eight employees and $6 million in sales last year, Ms. Stolk’s company was allowed to apply. But so was GTSI, which had sales of $954 million in 2003 and employed 685 people as of March 1. “This is small?” asks 49-year-old Ms. Stolk, who opened Federal Edge in 2000 and works alongside her husband and two sons.
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KC on November 9th, 2004 6:19 am
I worked down the street (1/4 mile) from GTSI until my company moved last week and even got a job offer from them back in May.
It’s completely accurate that they have nearly a $1B in revenues, but they run on razor thin margins for their own stuff and manage to use their contract vehicles in support of lots of other non-GSA approved companies. It’s a powerful combo.
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