How do you find government contracts?
Federal contract opportunities worth more than $25,000 are posted on SAM.gov under Contract Opportunities. Search it by your NAICS codes and set-asides, save the search so new notices are emailed to you, and check agency forecasts and award history so you see work before it is posted.
Start with SAM.gov Contract Opportunities
SAM.gov is the official, free place agencies post solicitations, presolicitations, sources sought notices and award notices. Most open-market federal buys above $25,000 must be synopsized there. Filter by NAICS code, set-aside, notice type and place of performance, then save the search so matching notices arrive by email instead of by luck.
Look upstream: forecasts and sources sought
By the time a solicitation posts, the strongest bidders have usually been tracking it for months. Agency procurement forecasts list planned buys a year or more out, and sources sought notices are market research before a requirement is written. Answering a sources sought notice can influence whether the buy becomes a small-business set-aside.
Read the award history before you get excited
USASpending.gov and FPDS show who won similar work, what it was worth and when it ends. An opportunity that has gone to the same incumbent three times on a single offer is a different decision from one that drew eight bids. A contract ending next year is a recompete you can prepare for now.
Other places work is posted
GSA eBuy for Multiple Award Schedule holders, DLA’s DIBBS for defense supply items, SBA SubNet for subcontracting opportunities from primes, and state and local procurement portals, which are separate from SAM.gov. Free help is available from APEX Accelerators, formerly PTACs, and SBA resource partners.
The real problem is volume, not access
Finding notices is easy. Finding the five worth bidding out of hundreds is the work: reading the attachments, checking eligibility, and pulling the award record for each one. That filtering step is where most small contractors lose their week.
In the product
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