A&AS (Advisory & Assistance Services) is a common market for many small businesses. A&AS work is a contract to provide what I call “butts in seats”. The contractor provides engineers, program manager, SMEs or other labor to augment Government employees. Frequently these are 5-10 year contracts. The contractor will hire and manage all personnel to fill the positions required by the Government. Competition for these contracts is very high, but it usually limited to small businesses and sometime 8(a) companies. Many people call it easy money. I understand that, but if you’re new to managing an A&AS contract it can be a challenge to get up and running.
This type of contract can be pretty large. For example, I just worked on a proposal for an A&AS IDIQ valued at $750mil. For a contract that size its common to bring together multiple companies, large and small, to support specific areas of the requirements. For the proposal I worked on I was the prime with a large and another small as teammates.
This is another market for small businesses to consider when looking at getting into Government contracting. It is especially popular with staffing agencies.