Before You Bid, See Who Won Last Time

By Magnus Williams

Plenty of veterans go into business with their first customer already picked out. The federal government buys everything from janitorial services to satellite imagery, and it sets yearly spending goals aimed at businesses like theirs. Naturally it looks like the place to start.

Sometimes it is. But the government will also let you spend sixty hours on a proposal for a contract that was always going to the incumbent. Nobody gives those sixty hours back.

Most of what you need to know before bidding is public and free. It lives on two websites, SAM.gov and USAspending.gov. Neither one is fun to use. Both are worth an afternoon.

Start with the certification question

The Small Business Administration now handles veteran certification through its VetCert program. There are two designations. A Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB) certification lets you compete for set-aside and sole-source contracts at the Department of Veterans Affairs under its Veterans First program. A Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) certification opens set-aside and sole-source awards across the whole federal government.

The eligibility rules are in Title 13, Part 128 of the Code of Federal Regulations. In short, the business must be small under the SBA size standard for at least one NAICS code in its SAM.gov profile. One or more veterans must directly and unconditionally own at least 51 percent of it. For SDVOSB status, those owners must have a service-connected disability rating from VA.

The veteran also has to run the place. The regulation requires a qualifying veteran to hold the highest officer position and to control both long-term decisions and day-to-day operations. It generally expects that veteran to work in the business full time. This is the part that catches people. If the veteran owns the majority on paper while a non-veteran partner makes the real calls, the business has a problem that a competitor’s protest will find.

Self-certification no longer works for SDVOSB set-asides. Since January 1, 2024, contracting officers can make SDVOSB set-aside and sole-source awards only to firms SBA has certified, or to firms that applied by December 31, 2023 and are still waiting on a decision. Certification lasts three years before you need to recertify. SBA takes applications at certifications.sba.gov.

This matters for your research because it decides which filters apply to you. A VOSB without a service-disabled owner will find most of its set-aside advantage at the VA. An SDVOSB can look government-wide, where Congress raised the annual SDVOSB contracting goal to at least 5 percent in the 2024 defense authorization act.

Read SAM.gov the way the contracting officer wrote it

SAM.gov is where agencies publicize contract actions expected to be worth more than $25,000. Search the Contract Opportunities section by NAICS code first. Then narrow it by set-aside type and place of performance. Keywords are unreliable because agencies describe the same work in very different ways.

Pay attention to the notice type. A Sources Sought notice or Request for Information means the agency is still doing market research, and that is the best time to get involved. If enough capable small businesses respond, the contracting officer has grounds to set the work aside. At the VA this isn’t optional. In Kingdomware Technologies v. United States (2016), the Supreme Court held that the VA must restrict competition to veteran-owned small businesses when its contracting officer reasonably expects at least two of them to bid at a fair and reasonable price. A short, specific reply to a sources sought notice is how you help make that expectation reasonable.

When a solicitation appears, open the attachments. The statement of work is where the job actually lives. Check whether it is a new requirement or a recompete. Words like “follow-on” or a mention of a previous contract number give it away. Look at how the agency will evaluate offers, because “lowest price technically acceptable” and “best value” call for very different proposals. Look for site visits, bonding, security clearances or past performance you don’t have yet. For service contracts, read the wage determination, since it sets the minimum you will have to pay your people.

Use USAspending.gov to see who won last time

Here is how that might work for a hypothetical business. Picture a service-disabled veteran who owns a small HVAC company in Georgia. A notice appears on SAM.gov for HVAC maintenance at a VA medical center in the state, set aside for SDVOSBs. It looks perfect. Before writing a word of the proposal, the owner spends an hour on USAspending.gov.

On the Advanced Search page, they choose contracts as the award type. They add the NAICS code from the notice, which here would be 238220 for plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors. They filter by awarding agency (Department of Veterans Affairs) and place of performance (Georgia), and set the time period to the last five fiscal years. The results answer the questions that matter.

Who won before? If one company shows up again and again, there is an incumbent. That isn’t a reason to walk away. It is a reason to ask why the agency would want a change.

What did it cost? Past award amounts can give you a starting price range, but check the contract period and obligations. If similar contracts went for about $400,000 a year and your estimate says $750,000, either you’ve misread the scope or you aren’t winning this one.

How was it competed? USAspending lets you filter by type of set-aside. If past awards went out unrestricted or through the 8(a) program, the agency’s habits may not favor you, even if this particular notice does.

When does it end? Click into an individual award to see its period of performance and its history of modifications. A contract ending in eight months may be up for recompete. That gives you time to contact the agency’s small business office before any sources sought notice goes out.

Two cautions. The data is entered by people, so expect the odd mistake. Department of Defense contract data also appears on a 90-day delay, so the most recent defense awards won’t be there yet. SAM.gov’s Contract Data section uses the same records and shows a few extra fields, such as the number of offers received.

Bid, team or walk away

After an hour or two of this, you will usually land in one of three places.

Bid when the work fits, the price range is realistic and you have a genuine reason to think you can win.

Team up when the work fits but the contract is too big or asks for past performance you don’t have yet. Large prime contractors have subcontracting goals for veteran-owned small businesses, and USAspending tells you exactly who the primes are. A subcontract is the slower route, but it builds the track record that wins prime contracts later.

Walk away when the incumbent has held the contract for a decade, the price is below what you can do the work for or the requirements read like a description of somebody else’s company. Passing on a bad bid frees up the next sixty hours for a better one.

A checklist before you write a proposal

1. Confirm your VetCert status, and confirm you are small under the NAICS code in the notice.
2. Read the full statement of work and the evaluation criteria, not only the notice.
3. Find out whether the work is a recompete and who holds the current contract.
4. Look up five years of similar awards on USAspending.gov for price and set-aside history.
5. Note when current contracts end so you can respond early to sources sought notices.
6. Decide honestly whether to bid, team or pass.

The federal government can be a very good customer for a veteran-owned business. It also publishes almost everything it buys. Few customers make their purchase history that easy to read, so read it before you bid.

Sources

Veteran Contracting Assistance Programs, by U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA): https://www.sba.gov/federal-contracting/contracting-assistance-programs/veteran-contracting-assistance-programs

Veteran Small Business Certification Program (13 CFR Part 128; eligibility at 128.200 to 128.203, recertification at 128.306), by U.S. Small Business Administration (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations): https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-13/chapter-I/part-128

CAAC Letter 2024-02, SDVOSB Certification Requirement From January 1, 2024, by Civilian Agency Acquisition Council (Acquisition.gov): https://acquisition.gov/sites/default/files/caac/CAAC_Letter_2024-02_Final.pdf

Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Contracting Program Changes, by R. Corinne Blackford (Congressional Research Service): https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/2024-06-06_IN12313_0d86ad7291d36f092c02c6e71d5ef5d129854ad6.html

Methods of Disseminating Information (FAR 5.101), by Federal Acquisition Regulation (Acquisition.gov): https://www.acquisition.gov/far/5.101

Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. v. United States, 579 U.S. 162 (2016), by U.S. Supreme Court (Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute): https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/14-916

Contract Opportunities, by SAM.gov (U.S. General Services Administration): https://sam.gov/search/?index=opp

Contract Award Data, by SAM.gov (U.S. General Services Administration): https://sam.gov/contract-data

Advanced Search, by USAspending.gov (U.S. Department of the Treasury): https://www.usaspending.gov/search

DoD Data Availability (90-day delay), by Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS): https://www.fpds.gov/common/html/dodDataAvailability.html

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Magnus Williams is Head of SI Agents at Magnus, the SI Agent Store. He writes about small business and the practical side of veteran entrepreneurship.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.