Guides for small businesses bidding on federal work
Plain-English answers, from your first registration to your first win. Every figure is sourced.
New to federal bids? Start here
Three guides, in this order, take you from no registration to reading your first bid.
Your first federal contract
How a small business gets registered, finds the right bids and wins a first federal contract.
Read the guide · 8 min →Ways to find federal bids
SAM.gov, APEX Accelerators, paid search tools, proposal consultants and bid services: what each costs, what you get, and what's still left for you to do.
Read the guide · 5 min →Which NAICS codes to list
The codes for janitorial, landscaping, snow removal, pest control, HVAC and other trades, the size limit for each, and why one code won't find you every bid.
Read the guide · 6 min →Set-asides explained
Small business, veteran-owned, women-owned, HUBZone and 8(a) set-asides: who qualifies for each, what you have to be certified for, and how often each one is used in the Mid-Atlantic.
Read the guide · 5 min →How to read a government contract bid
A government contract solicitation can run past 100 pages. The five things to find in your first half hour, where they live in the document, and the details that sink otherwise good offers.
Read the guide · 9 min →Why bids get thrown out
Late emails, an expired SAM.gov registration, a missed amendment, a blank price line. The paperwork mistakes that knock a quote out before it's scored, and how to avoid each one.
Read the guide · 5 min →The quality control plan
What a quality control plan is for, when the agency wants it, what makes one score well, and an outline you can copy for janitorial, grounds and snow work.
Read the guide · 5 min →Reading a wage determination
Most federal service bids come with a wage determination. Which lines matter, what a $18.19 janitor rate really costs you per hour, and the mistakes that sink a price.
Read the guide · 8 min →What the contracts are worth
Two years of Mid-Atlantic award data for janitorial, grounds, waste and pest control work: yearly values, how many firms bid, who won and how the work was bought.
Read the guide · 5 min →Contracts coming up for re-bid
Every federal contract ends. How to see when, what happens next, and what two years of Mid-Atlantic re-bids show.
Read the guide · 6 min →When agencies buy
Federal bids and awards follow the government's fiscal year, not the seasons you'd expect. Month by month, what gets posted and awarded, and what to do in each stretch.
Read the guide · 6 min →Past performance from commercial work
Your work for property managers, schools, hospitals and towns counts. How agencies judge past performance, which jobs to pick, and a write-up format you can copy.
Read the guide · 7 min →See which bids fit your company
Get a free bid-match report: real open federal bids that fit your services, area, size and certifications, ranked by fit. It usually arrives within two business days.