FedSubK Feature: Finding Your Way Around a Federal Solicitation
Updated: May 4, 2024
You get a notice that a Federal opportunity that is perfect for your business has been posted to SAM.gov. After downloading the documents, where do you begin your review? What are all these sections and is there any rhyme or reason as to what is contained in each? Solicitations for new contract awards, particularly voluminous documents with hundreds of pages and attachments, can be confusing. How do you prioritize what to read? Let’s delve into how Federal solicitations are organized, how the contents in each section are interrelated, and why it’s necessary to understand it all to craft your best response back to the Government.
What is a Request for Proposal (RFP)?
An RFP document (a type of solicitation) is used in negotiated acquisitions (those over the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT), presently $250,000) to communicate the Government’s requirements to prospective contractors and to solicit proposals. RFPs for competitive acquisitions, at a minimum, describe the–
- Government’s requirement(s);
- Anticipated terms and conditions that will apply to the contract. Terms may change depending on the status of the awardee (i.e., small business versus large business, for example);
- Information required to be in the offeror’s proposal; and
- Factors and significant subfactors that will be used to evaluate the proposal, the criteria that will be applied to rate offerors against each factor/subfactor, and their relative importance.
RFPs may also be issued in the form of a letter or fax, electronic commerce, and orally. Sometimes the Government will issue the RFP in draft format for industry comment. We will not cover those processes in this article as the use of these types of RFPs varies from agency to agency and in emergency or contingency situations.
How are Solicitations Organized?
The Uniform Contract Format (UCF) is used for most negotiated service contracts. However, there are exceptions:
- Architect-engineer contracts (those falling under FAR Part 36).
- Subsistence contracts.
- Supplies or services contracts requiring special contract formats prescribed elsewhere in FAR that are inconsistent with the UCF.
- Letter RFPs.
- Contracts otherwise exempted by the agency head or designee.
For this article, we will discuss UCF only. Under the UCF, solicitations have four parts:
- Part I - The Schedule
- Part II - Contract Clauses
- Part III - List of Documents, Exhibits, and Other Attachments
- Part IV - Representations and Instructions
Now let’s look at each part and what information it includes.
Several sections comprise Part I - The Schedule.
Section A, Solicitation/Contract Form. This is the specific form that the offeror signs when submitting their offer, and the Contracting Officer signs upon acceptance of the offer on behalf of the Government at the time of award. It is the Optional Form (OF) 308, Solicitation and Offer-Negotiated Acquisition, or Standard Form (SF) 33, Solicitation, Offer and Award. Other formats can be used and FAR 15.204-2(a)(2) outlines the minimum information that must be included on the first page of the solicitation.
Section B, Supplies or Services and Prices/Costs. Includes the list of contract line item numbers (CLINs) with a brief description of each to include the quantity and unit to be purchased. The offeror completes the unit price (if applicable) and extended CLIN price. The Government will use national stock numbers, part numbers, item numbers, and other nomenclature to describe each CLiN, as needed. Section B, at the time of award, is also typically populated with appropriation/funding data, by CLIN. Government contract writing systems often include the period of performance or delivery date for each CLIN in this section, as well.
Section C, Description/Specifications/Statement of Work. This section is the heart of the solicitation. It includes the description of the agency’s needs or specifications. How are descriptions of requirements developed? Per FAR Part 11, Describing Agency Needs, “Agencies may select from existing requirements documents, modify or combine existing requirements documents, or create new requirements documents to meet agency needs, consistent with the following order of precedence:
(1) Documents mandated for use by law.
(2) Performance-oriented documents (e.g., a Performance Work Statement (PWS) or Statement of Objectives (SOO)).
(3) Detailed design-oriented documents.
(4) Standards, specifications, and related publications issued by the Government outside the Defense or Federal series for the non-repetitive acquisition of items.”
Section D, Packaging and Marking. Provides packaging, packing, preservation, and marking requirements, if any, specific to the agency or end user’s needs.
Section E, Inspection and Acceptance. Includes inspection, acceptance, quality assurance, and reliability requirements as outlined in FAR Subpart 46.2 Contract Quality Requirements. This section will indicate if the Government will rely on the contractors' existing quality assurance systems as a substitute for Government inspection or if Government in-process inspection is required. It will also include any standard inspection clauses that require the contractor to provide and maintain an inspection system that is acceptable to the Government, allow the Government the right to make inspections and tests while work is in process, and require the contractor to keep complete, and make available to the Government, records of its inspection work. Other higher-level standards applicable to the work, such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO), American Society for Quality (ASQ)/American National Standards Institute (ANSI), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and others, will also be indicated. It describes the criteria the Government will use to inspect and accept the goods or services.
Section F, Deliveries or performance. Specifies the requirements for time, place, and method of delivery or performance, taking into account urgency of need, industry practices, market conditions, transportation time, production time, capabilities of small business concerns, administrative time for obtaining and evaluating offers and for awarding contracts, time for contractors to comply with any conditions precedent to contract performance; and time for the Government to perform its obligations under the contract; e.g., furnishing Government property (see FAR Subpart 11.4 Delivery or Performance Schedules and FAR Subpart 47.301-1 Transportation in Supply Contracts).
Section G, Contract Administration Data. Includes accounting and appropriation data (if not elsewhere included) and contract administration information like reporting requirements and invoicing instructions.
Section H, Special Contract Requirements. Includes special contract requirements that are not standard FAR clauses or those from a FAR supplement required to be included in other sections of the solicitation. Examples of special contract requirements are security, badging, facility access, task order award processes under multiple award contracts, key personnel requirements, and min/max order thresholds.
Part II - Contract Clauses has one section; Section I, Contract Clauses. It houses the standard FAR clauses and those required by agency FAR supplements as appropriate for the requirement as required by law. Clauses are typically indexed, listed in numerical order, including the date of the version of the clause, and are provided in full text but may be incorporated by reference, if allowable.
Part III - List of Documents, Exhibits, and Other Attachments also has only one section; Section J - List of Attachments. Examples of attachments are Data Item Descriptions (DIDs) and Contract Data Requirements Lists (CDRLs) in Department of Defense (DoD) contracts, Department of Labor (DoL) Wage Determinations, and sample resume formats and past performance questionnaires for purposes of proposal preparation. Other sections of the solicitation will frequently cross-reference to documents in Section J for further technical information regarding work requirements.
Part IV - Representations and Instructions includes three sections that encompass information that offerors must provide the Government to receive a contract award and information the Government needs to relay to offerors about the preparation of their offer.
Section K, Representations, Certifications, and Other Statements of Offerors. This section houses FAR solicitation provisions and those from agency FAR supplements that require the offeror to represent, certify, or attest to certain information. Instead of providing all required FAR and Defense FAR Supplement (DFARS) provisions (as applicable) in each solicitation, offerors complete most of these as part of their SAM.gov registration in sections labeled FAR Responses 1 - 4, found in their SAM entity record. Offerors’ SAM Representations and Certifications are downloaded by the Contracting Officer from SAM.gov, reviewed, and maintained in the official contract file. Agencies will include required agency provisions from their agency FAR supplement in Section K since they are not found in SAM.gov, and any other provisions that may be in effect based on a final FAR or DFARS rule but not yet incorporated in SAM.gov.
Section L, Instructions, Conditions, and Notices to Offerors or Respondents. Includes the solicitation provisions and instructions to offerors on how to prepare an offer. Specific proposal formats, volumes, or organization of the information submitted to the Government are provided. Section L also outlines the evaluation factors that will be used by the Government to determine the otherwise successful offeror for contract award. Information that should be provided in response to each faction that substantiates offerors' experience, personnel, management, past performance, compliance with subcontracting requirements, or other factors of interest to the Government are included.
Section M, Evaluation Factors for Award. Identifies the evaluation criteria that will be used by the Government for each factor (and subfactor) to determine if an offeror has met the technical and price requirements for award, and to what extent. The relevant importance of factors (and subfactors) are stated and the rating method (i.e., points, adjective ratings, colors) may be disclosed, following agency policy. The basis for the Government’s source selection decision will be disclosed in this section (i.e., low-priced technically acceptable (LPTA) or best value continuum).
The UCF does not apply to commercial contracts but is used by many agencies anyway to maintain a uniform contract formation process.
The use of standardized contract formats helps the Government prep the solicitation by being able to reference specific sections with specific meanings and communicate with offerors, awardees, Contracting Officer Representatives (CORs), and others that assist in contract administration.
Are All Sections Included in the Final Contract Document?
While solicitations contain Parts I through IV, Part III is incorporated by reference in the final contract through the use of FAR clause 52.204-19, Incorporation by Reference of Representations and Certifications, or under the terms and conditions for commercial products and commercial services found in FAR clause 52.212-4. Part IV is removed from the document at the time of contract award and not included in the final contract document.
Are Sections of a Solicitation Interrelated?
The various sections of a solicitation are interrelated and provide offerors a complete picture of the project work and the compliance requirements for performance. Businesses must understand this concept because the Government will not always cross-reference between sections and connect the dots. if a business focuses solely on Sections L and M which contain proposal instructions, evaluation factors and subfactors, and criteria, but does not read Sections B through H, the offeror will likely provide only a partially complete technical and/or price response compared to what the Government expects to receive.
Example: Section L evaluation factor asks an offeror to describe its schedule for delivery of supplies to be provided as part of services rendered. Section L does not cross-reference the offeror to Section F (Deliveries or Performance). Section M indicates this factor is the second most heavily weighted factor compared to the other factors. If the offeror fails to fully read Section F, it may propose a delivery schedule that is not compliant with the terms and conditions of the solicitation.
Generally, the Sections are interrelated in the following ways:
- Section A - Solicitation/Contract Form often references Section B, which details the supplies or services and their associated prices/costs.
- Section B - Supplies or Services and Prices/Costs information directly influences the evaluation criteria in Section M - Evaluation Factors for Award.
- Section C - Descriptions/Specifications/Statement of Work details directly inform how pricing is structured in Section B and the evaluation criteria in Section M.
- Section D - Packaging and Marking is driven by the nature of the supplies or services outlined in Section B.
- Section E - Inspection and Acceptance criteria are influenced by the nature of the work outlined in Section C.
- Section F - Deliveries or Performance is closely tied to the requirements outlined in Section C and the timelines set in Section B.
- Section G - Contract Administration Data is influenced by the nature of the contract outlined in Section A.
- Section H - Special Contract Requirements often references or builds upon information in other sections.
- Section I - Contract Clauses are directly tied to the rights and obligations established in Sections A through H.
- Section J - List of Attachments supplement the information in other sections, providing additional details or forms.
- Section L - Instructions, Conditions, and Notices to Offerors or Respondents and its evaluation factors and subfactors are informed by Sections A through H and the attachments at Section J.
- Section M - Evaluation Factors for Award and associated evaluation criteria is informed by Section L. Many times Section M relevant importance follows the order in which factors and subfactors are listed in Section L (but not always) with the most heavily weighted factor listed first.
Understanding these interconnections is vital for preparing a responsive proposal and ensuring compliance with the solicitation requirements. Cross-referencing information between sections is key to developing a cohesive and well-informed response.
What Happens When Sections Have Conflicting Information?
FAR clause 52.215-8 Order of Precedence - Uniform Contract Format is included in all solicitations that use UCF. It states, “Any inconsistency in this solicitation or contract shall be resolved by giving precedence in the following order:
(a) The Schedule (excluding the specifications) [Sections A - H, excluding Section C]
(b) Representations and other instructions [Section K]
(c) Contract clauses [Section I]
(d) Other documents, exhibits, and attachments [Section J]
(e) The specifications [Section C]”
Sections that contain requirements that are based on law, policy, or other Federal or agency regulations that have the force and effect of law when included in the solicitation are listed higher in the order of precedence. Conversely, documents that are drafted based on operational needs fall lower in the order of precedence because they are drafted at the operational level and should not set higher-level precedence.
NOTE: The Government encourages offerors to raise any conflicts and discrepancies found in the solicitation during the proposal period to its attention so it may consider issuing an amendment.
Being able to find information in a solicitation, particularly one that uses the UCF, saves time in the proposal review and preparation process, and allows businesses to cross-check between sections for various aspects of the work requirements to ensure an offer submitted to the Government takes into account a 360° view of the requirement. You'll be more confident in the proposals you submit, the information they include, your understanding of the Government's requirements, and your ability to successfully perform when you win.
Reference:
FAR Part 11
FAR Part 15
FAR Part 16
FAR Part 42.6
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The FAR Overhaul: Long-Deferred Maintenance on the Government's Procurement Highway
If you’ve ever worked in federal procurement — as a contracting professional, program manager, small business, prime, sub, or advisor — you’ve probably had this moment:
You’re doing your best to follow the rules…and suddenly you hit a clause, a cross-reference, or a requirement that feels like it came out of nowhere.
That’s because the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) isn’t just a set of rules. It’s a highway system. A massive, heavily traveled road network that’s been patched, expanded, and rerouted for decades — and in many areas, it’s operating with years of deferred maintenance.
Let’s talk about what that really means using the highway analogy to explain why the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul isn't as "revolutionary" as some might think.
The FAR is like a Well-Traveled Federal Highway
The FAR is the main road that nearly every federal acquisition travels on. And like any highway system:
- Everyone uses it
- Everyone depends on it
- And over time, it’s been modified in ways that made sense in the moment… but created complexity later
If you look at any highway on Google Maps it shows a rather clean route. FAR, we were taught, was set up to be the same way: requirements, procedures, clauses, and guidance. But once you’re actually “driving” that road? Well, you realize the terrain is full of twists and turns. It's more complicated than you realized.
Hidden Guardrails: The Rules You Don’t See Until You Need Them
Some of the FAR’s most critical compliance safeguards are like guardrails buried under weeds or snow. They’re there for a reason: to prevent waste, protect fairness, ensure accountability. But they’re not always easy to spot. In practice, you often discover them when someone asks:
“Did you document that?”
“Where’s your justification?”
“Why didn’t you compete this?”
“Which clause applies here?”
That’s when you realize the guardrails were present the whole time — just not visible.
Guardrails are added all the time or in the process of being fixed (via rulemaking). But all that construction can clog up traffic and make the time for arrival (contract award) continually recalculate.
Hazards & Risks: Potholes, Speed Traps, and Fog
Now add in the hazards:
- Potholes = ambiguity and unclear language
- Fog = inconsistent interpretation across offices and agencies
- Construction zones = evolving policy updates, executive orders, and new mandates
- Speed traps = protests, audits, IG scrutiny, and compliance reviews
And these hazards hit different people differently. The same stretch of FAR may feel smooth to one team and treacherous to another. That’s not because the people are bad at driving — it’s because the road is uneven.
Side Roads & Gray Areas: The Detours Everyone Knows About
Then there are the side roads. Some are official alternate routes: simplified acquisition procedures, flexibilities, exceptions, and FAR “shortcuts” that exist for good reasons. Those are the routes people take because they’ve always taken them. Indicators might be hearing yourself or your peer say --
“We’ve always done it this way.”
“That’s how the last CO handled it.”
“This should be faster.”
“It’ll probably be fine.”
Side roads aren’t automatically wrong. But they come with risks, Eventually someone asks, “Why did you go that way instead of the main route?”
Others are the gray areas -- the gravel roads and roads only the locals (experienced COs/KOs) know. Those routes have to be navigated very carefully and even the best driver can have issues even if there is less traffic. Many times they beat those on the highway to their destination, but it's only because they know where all the seen and unseen hazards are from their years driving that route.
So What Is the FAR Overhaul, Really?
Here’s the key point:
✅ It is NOT building a new road.
✅ It is NOT bulldozing the FAR and replacing it.
✅ It IS road maintenance -- the kind that should've been done years ago.
And when you have decades of deferred maintenance, it takes a lot of work to make that road appear to be what it was all along.
But that's not "revolutionary". That's finally doing the work you've been putting off because you couldn't get to it.
The County (in this case, the FAR Council, being the governing body over the FAR and its contents) could always do a little better job at maintenance than they do. But their budget and resources are low and their workload demands are very high (just take a look at the FAR Open Case Report). Sometimes it takes a new Sheriff In town (a new Administration) driving down the highway see what those too close to it should have been aware of all along. Layers upon layers of deferred maintenance.
The FAR Overhaul is best understood as freshening up the same highway.
- Clearing overgrowth = outdated and redundant material and non-regulatory clutter.
- Improving signage = clarity and usability.
- Standardizing merges and exits = better consistency and flow.
- Removing obsolete detours = non-regulatory clutter, outdated terminology, and rules that no longer serve their purpose.
And a bonus is the updated maps available for your travels (FAR Companion and Practitioner Albums)
The destination isn’t changing. But the route is FAR more functional -- see how I did that. ;)
Why This Metaphor Matters
When people hear the word “overhaul,” they often assume “Everything is changing.” But what this effort really signals is “We are fixing the road we’ve been driving on for decades.” That’s important because procurement has become more complex, acquisition timelines are under pressure, and both agencies and industry need guidance that is easier to understand, apply, and defend.
If the FAR Overhaul is the same old FAR highway with better pavement, clearer signs, fewer surprises, and, hopefully, less time lost in detours, fewer compliance collisions, and a smoother drive for everyone. The biggest difference is that now all travelers know what the locals knew all along. How to get from point A to point B in less time using an updated road system and map.
Safe travels on the FAR Highway in 2026!
The FAR Is a Highway System… and the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul Is Long-Overdue Road Work
Contract Types and Contract Vehicles: The Difference Matters
Nuances matter in Federal Contracting. Those who haven't lived the Federal Contracting experience day in and day out may believe it's minor details that don't make a difference. They don't pick up on the nuances.
For those that have lived it from behind the walls of an agency know how those nuances can make a difference between how you are perceived building relationships with primes, potential team members and, most importantly, agency decision-makers.
One nuance -- Contract Types and Contract Vehicles.
Contract TYPES are defined by the pricing structure and risk ratio between the parties. They are:
✅️ Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) to include FFP with Economic Price Adjustment (FFP w/EPA), Prospective Price Determination, Fixed-Ceiling Priced Contracts with Retroactive Price Redetermination, and those with a Level-of-Effort term (FFP-LOE).
✅️ Cost Reimbursement (or "Cost-Plus" ("CP")) to include cost sharing, Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee (CPFF), Award Fee (CPAF), and Incentive Fee (CPIF).
✅️ Time-and-Materials (T&M) with materials on a fixed-price or cost-reimbursement basis.
✅️ Labor-Hour (L-H).
Contract VEHICLES provide the performance and administrative structure for the Contract Type. Those are:
✅️ Definitive Contracts are for specific stand-alone project(s) that fall above the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT).
✅️ Indefinite Delivery Vehicles (IDVs) include Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contracts (IDIQs), Definitely Quantity, and Requirements vehicles. They include, but are NOT exclusively, governmentwide (GWACs), agency-specific, or GSA Multiple Award Schedules (MAS).
➡️➡️ Under the IDV umbrella falls task orders (services) & delivery orders (products) and specific instructions for who can order and how.
✅️ Agreements such as Basic Agreements, Basic Ordering Agreements (BOAs), and Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs).
➡️ ➡️ They are most often an umbrella for calls / orders (agencies call them both of these things even where FAR / RFO is specific, so it is easy to get confused), but don't have to be.
✅️ Purchase Orders (POs) (actions that fall under SAT).
✅️ Letter Contracts.
Yea, I know. FAR (even the RFO) lumps them all together as "Contract Types" in Part 16. But none stand alone. In my opinion, the FAR rewriters blew their chance to clarify this important piece of the procurement puzzle. For example:
▶️ IDIQs for services may include the ability to issue multiple types of task orders like fixed-priced, cost, T&M, and L-H under them, or only one type.
▶️ Definitive contract vehicles can be any contract type or combination thereof (hybrid) as indicated in the contract line items (CLINs) and for which terms and conditions are included.
Bottom line is -- There is not a complete understanding of a contract vehicle without defining its contract type(s).
If you see folks lumping TYPES and VEHICLES together in a discussion without explaining the difference, you know they aren't familiar with the nuances of this part of the FAR / RFO.
Follow those that are and have. Visit fedsubk.com and Expand your Federal Contracting knowledge today.
There are nuances in every FAR / RFO Part, including Part 16. We talk about why it is important to know and understand them in this marketplace.
FedSubK Feature: Be Seen! Why Your SBS Profile is So Important
UPDATED November 2025 to incorporate changes from the SBA Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS) to the new SBA Small Business Search (SBS)
I’ve posted on LinkedIn a lot recently about ways to be seen as a little fish in the big pond that is the Federal marketplace. Every GovCon consultant has a take on the best entry points with agencies. My take is there is only one place small businesses MUST put their best foot forward to be quickly and easily seen by Federal buyers for potential opportunities and influence small business set-asides.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) Small Business Search (SBS) is THE PLACE you must be on your A-game.
The Small Business Search (SBS) is a database in which SBA houses information on the current pool of certificated small businesses. Presently, small businesses that do not have certifications or are self-certified, may also create a profile in this database. The SBS is used by contracting officers, small business specialists, large prime contractors, and other small businesses looking for teaming partners to find small businesses that can help meet Federal requirements and identify businesses that can help the Government (or a prime contractor) meet its small business goals. SBS is one of the first--and often only--sources used in market research by agencies to determine the numbers of small businesses able to provide products or services by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code.
You can see why this might be an important place to pay attention to, eh?
Businesses have forgotten about the SBS in the last few years because SAM.gov no longer sends small business registrants directly to SBS at the end of their registration to complete the profile like it used to. I HUGE bummer. Businesses now must wait for their SAM.gov registration to be activated, then they can establish an SBA SBS account, claim their entity record, and fill in their company profile in the SBS system. Federal buyers are looking for detailed information from SBS to use as part of their market research efforts.
SBS isn’t only for market research.
Even more importantly, the SBS shows Federal buyers the status of any pending certification applications for the purpose of determining whether you are eligible to compete for a set-aside action. For example, an Economically Disadvantaged Woman Owned Small Business (EDWOSB) can still submit an offer for an WOSB set-aside even with a pending application for certification showing in the SBS. Contracting Officers often use SBS as a source to confirm the socioeconomic certification status and 8(a) program participation along with SAM.gov.
While MySBA Certifications automatically sends socioeconomic certification status to SAM.gov and updates the requisite reps and certs to reflect the correct socioeconomic status, recently it has taken weeks for that migration to occur. WOSBs and EDWOSBs have reported not seeing their correct socioeconomic status reflected in their SAM entity record.
Businesses should always check their SAM entity record to ensure that the proper status is shown within a reasonable time after receipt of an active certification status; usually within 14 business days. If the record is not accurately reflected, you can contact answerdesk@sba.gov or the SBA socioeconomic program under which your business was certified for assistance. If a Contracting Officer says that your SAM record does not reflect the status claimed, ask the Contracting Officer to check SBS for the more accurate information because of these delays.
So now let’s talk about BEING SEEN in SBS and walk through each part of the registration.
Understanding how to maximize the fields in SBS is how you can make the best possible first impression so that Federal buyers want to learn more about YOU!
The Key Words
Often businesses pluck these from thin air and over-generalized based on what they think the Government wants to see. Key words need to reflect and incorporate aspects of your primary NAICS, secondary NAICS, and what you can provide under those NAICS. If you use key words that don’t reflect your primary NAICS, you’ll leave the Government scratching their head about you. They won’t understand the message you’re sending about your company. Be consistent and specific with key words while tying into your NAICS codes in order to leave the best impression. You have 500 characters -- use them wisely.
The Website
Be sure that you include the URL for any website you have. Make it be more than a landing page. It needs to tell your story. It needs to include information about your company, what you sell, past customers, and products or solutions you provide. And most of all, it must be polished. Scrub your site hard for formatting, typos, grammatical errors, etc. Acquisition personnel using the SBS will often quickly click on the site to see just how polished it is. When it looks good, they get the impression you know your stuff and pay attention to details.
The Capabilities Narrative
This is the written equivalent of your elevator pitch. This section should include all the things you’d include in that two-minute speech. Hit hard on what your company specialized in and its core product or service areas. Show the business’s focus and avoid being all over the map by overpromising on the breadth of work the business performs.
Near the end of the capabilities narrative, list any socioeconomic certifications Why not lead with it? Because that certification is only part of your business, and it alone does not get you interest from the Contracting Officer. End with that information so the Contracting Officer can easily see it in a quick query and get your business into their market research counts.
Lastly, identify any government contract vehicle or GSA Schedule your company may hold. If you can catch their eye that you have an existing GSA Schedule or your business participates in the 8(a) program, you’ll get counted and likely get a look in terms of the Contracting Officer wanting to know more. If they need to meet a socioeconomic goal, they can see quickly. You’re helping the Contracting Officer do their job. They LOVE that! (And made another great first impression!)
SBS now also includes a field to add a link to your online capabilities statement. Use it!
“Extras” You Should Never Skip
Performance History
I cannot say this enough…if you history doing work for any Government or quasi-Government entity at any level -- Federal, State, or Local level -- list them! Don’t play the “they’ll see that when I propose” game. Showing performance history—even if it is minimal or commercial and not Government--helps. How? It proves the viability of the business and the size and types of projects you’ve completed. Those goes a long way to determining eligibility of the business based on performance on same / similar work of a same / similar dollar value (“Rule of Two” stuff – you can read more about that here).
Review Your Profile
Go out to the SBS site and use the filters for your NAICS, business name, geographic location, and business types. Make sure your show up and see how your profile measures up to your competitors. Look at their records and see what they included that you haven’t. Use the good ideas of others, but don’t plagiarize. Contracting Officers will see that and that won’t look good for either of you.
Keep Evolving
Your SBS isn’t something that you can just set and forget either. Make reviewing your profile in SBS something you do when you renew your SAM.gov registration every year. If something major changes in your business focus, NAICS, or socioeconomic status, make associated changes in SBS.
What GovCon doesn't always talk about -- The SBS Influence
When doing market research and trying to determine if an acquisition should be set-aside for small businesses, the Government is not only counting about the numbers of small businesses that claim they can do the work under a NAICS code in SBS. They are analyzing your SBS profile to see if your business could be one of the "... two or more responsible small business concerns that are competitive in terms of fair market prices, quality, and delivery" and they have “…a reasonable expectation of obtaining an offer…” from you. (There’s that pesky “Rule of Two” again.)
In other words, based on what they see, could you submit a proposal likely to win? And how does a Contracting Officer determine that? Simply put... the your answers to everything we just covered.
Completing your profile helps tip the market research scales toward a small businesses set-aside and possibly a specific socioeconomic set-aside. If you're all over the map in your SBS narrative, the Government will not consider you viable eligible contractor towards that “Rule of Two” and could possible choose to go another way with their acquisition strategy, away from a small business set-aside. Or worse, they set it aside but remember your name from the market research as one of the businesses that didn’t make their initial market analysis cut.
Influence where you can! SBS is the place where you have a lot of influence!
Have I convinced you to get out there and create or update your SBS profile yet?
While the system is no longer got the word "Dynamic" in the title, don't forget its meaning. Life is dynamic, business is dynamic, and your SBS profile should still be dynamic, too. Get it completed ASAP. You can’t afford not to.
Remember again, SBS IS WHERE FEDERAL BUYERS GO TO FIND SMALL BUSINESSES and where other small businesses go to find teaming partners and subcontractors.
Get out there, GET NOTICED, BE SEEN, and STAY DYNAMIC!
(former title: FedSubK Feature: Be A Dynamic Small Business!)
