GSA Schedule

[mel]

Curious. Is anyone here on the GSA schedule for photography services?

[maxwell1295]

Interesting question.

I'm curious about this myself.....now that you've brought it up.

[MRRiley]

Yeah... good idea Mel. Wonder how one would go about getting on it?

Mike

[mel]

well that's what I'm looking into. duh. lol. anyway, what i'm finding out is that it takes lots and lots of paperwork and lots of time. i was mostly asking to find out if anyone else was on it and if they got a significant amount of work from it.

[MRRiley]

Looks like a thin field of competition. Only 26 "contractors" on the whole Photographic Services and Solutions part of the schedule. This might be something good to do as a CO-OP Mel, especially if we could draw photographers from around the country.

Mike

[mel]

well right now my biggest barrier is getting my backside down to the county offices to stand in line all day long to get a biz license. every time i think i can do it some big time-sucking something interferes.

from what i understand is contracts seem to be more often awarded to minority or woman-owned businesses.

[MRRiley]

Veteran owned businesses get prefs too...

p.s. You may want to check to see if you can register for your business license online. Loudoun County has that option anyway...

[mel]

cool on the vet thing.
i checked on the online reg bit. nope. good ol' pwc makes you do it in person.

[MRRiley]

have you done all of the VA tax stuff?

[mel]

i've done none of it. i'm so completely clueless on what i need to do it's almost laughable. trying to find information is time consuming on my slower than molassas connection.

[Photophile]

I got a GSA Schedule three years ago after struggling with the paperwork for over a year. The paperwork is a real pain in the you-know-what. I finally got help from EZGSA (www.EZGSA.com).


Sales have been great, and competition thin. First year over $200k, last year almost $400k. Had to hire help to keep up with demand.

Go for it. You won't regret it.

[MRRiley]

Mel,

The VA stuff is at https://www.business.tax.virginia.gov/VTOL/Login.seam. You should do this before doing your county stuff since the county will probably ask for your VA Sales Tax info anyway. Its predictably tedious. I registered everywhere as a sole proprietorship. For the county stuff you'll probably need to register a fictitious name unless the entire name of your business is just your legal name.

Also, the VA form will ask you for a NAICS category number at one point. I selected 541922 (Commercial Photography). You could also select 541921 (Photo Studios & Portraits) but I think that applies more to formal portrait studio type businesses. Commercial Photo encompasses a huge range anyway so it's safe to use.

I don't know if PWC requires it but I also have to fill out a "Zoning Application for a Home Occupation Permit" to run a home based business.

Photophile,

Are you on there as a photographer or some other service? Only reason I ask is the list shown on the GSA site is very very small and it isnt clear if it is "every photographer in the country who is on the schedule" or just some weird subset.

Mike

[Venturi]

Hey Mike, Mel and other interested parties...

It looks like there are at least two different schedules for photography services: 19-100 (26) which you found and also 541-4E (46).

[MRRiley]

Great catch Jim.... So that brings up the total of GSA schedule Photographer Services to 72. Still an amazingly small number. I just did a search on their site for PHOTO and it appears we've uncovered all of the niches...

Mike

[maxwell1295]

Looks like a total of TWO photgraphers.....1 in DC and one in San Diego. Either that segment of the GSA Schedule is severely under-represented or there is zero demand for that type of service.