GSA Schedule solicitations are unique in that they are always open and a vendor may submit a proposal at any time. Normally, federal solicitations for products and services have a closing date for proposal submittal. The opportunity to submit a bid at any time is what makes the GSA Schedule program attractive to small businesses. However, the "always open" aspect of GSA Schedule solicitations does have one downside. Companies considering submitting a proposal to GSA can procrastinate, procrastinate, and procrastinate some more, often taking a year or more to prepare and submit a proposal.

A business of any size, provided it is stable, financially sound, and has a sales history, can get on the GSA Schedule. This is not true for other types of multi-vendor contracts. Most other multi-vendor contracts are open for bid for a specific period of time and then the game is over. Either you beat the other vendors competing for the contract or you didn't. In effect, you are competing against yourself when you submit a proposal for a GSA Schedule contract. Your corporate experience and willingness to negotiate prices that the government will accept determines whether you receive a contract. With some exceptions, the other multi-vendor contracts are either held by the big guys or by socially or economically disadvantaged businesses.