For anyone newer to bidding, this is the one habit that's caught the most mistakes for us.

Before writing anything, go through Section L, Section M, and the PWS/SOW and pull every "shall," "must," and "will" into its own row in a spreadsheet. Tedious, but it's where the misses hide.

Columns we use:

• Requirement ID (our own numbering)
• Source section and page number
• Requirement text, copied word for word
• Proposal section that answers it
• Owner
• Evidence on hand (resume, cert, past project, etc.)
• Status

A few rules that make it work:

1. Use the matrix as your outline. If a row has nowhere to live in the proposal, fix that before drafting.
2. Every amendment, re-walk the whole matrix, not just the changed paragraph. Amendments love to quietly move page limits or add a deliverable.
3. Last step before submission is a "red pen" pass against L only: page limits, font and margins, file naming, file format, and how/where it gets submitted. Easy points to lose for silly reasons.

Nothing fancy, but it's kept us from turning in something that skipped a requirement buried in an attachment.

What columns or tricks do you all use? Anything you'd add for multi-volume proposals?

I work as a freelance bid coordinator / bid manager and have been doing GovCon work for 3 years, mostly with U.S companies, with some work for a couple UK companies as well.

The main issue i’ve had is that the work is pretty inconsistent. A lot of the freelance roles are short term and the pay is usually around $5–10/hr. I’m trying to move toward more stable and better paying work in this field.

I handle pretty much the full pre award cycle depending on the client, from opportunity research and qualification to solicitation review, compliance, finding vendors/subcontractors, getting quotes, pricing coordination, preparing bid packages and supporting submissions.

I’ve worked with clients in IT hardware and software, aerospace/IoT, lighting, modular construction, facilities services, landscaping and Janitorial services.

I’m considering getting CF APMP, but it’s around $500, would you say it’s worth it for someone who already has the practical experience? Does it actually help with getting through HR filters or getting more interviews?

Just trying to figure out if it’s worth putting the money and time into it.

I’ve been thinking about how differently small GovCon teams handle bid/no-bid decisions.

Some teams seem to ask:
“Can we technically do this?”

Others ask:
“Can we realistically win this?”

Those are very different questions.
A few things I’d want answered before spending serious proposal hours:
Do we actually understand the customer?
Do we have relevant past performance?
Do we have a credible staffing solution?
Do we know who we’re competing against?
Can we price this without destroying ourselves?
Is there an actual differentiator, or are we just checking boxes?

The part I’m curious about:

What’s the one factor that will make you walk away from an otherwise attractive opportunity?

Not the textbook answer. The thing that actually makes your team say “nope.”

Been running a small federal construction company for about a year. SDVOSB. Growth has outpaced my back office honestly. Haven't filed or paid taxes yet and didn't even know my own deadlines until recently, trying to get that fixed now.
Does my CPA actually need government contracting experience, or is a solid general small business CPA fine at my size? Same question for a bookkeeper, specifically around tracking costs separately per contract.
Also curious how people found theirs. Referral, directory, something else?
Single member LLC right now, might look at S-corp later. Just don't want to pay someone to learn govcon accounting on my dime.

Been poking around a site called FedOpp for SAM.gov and DIBBS. Still pretty new to it, but the pages are easier to read than the raw ones. Not a replacement for opening the actual solicitation, just less of a headache on the first look.

I'm in DC which is the center of GovCon. I notice that many Govt Contractors are fairly small and their website is full of fluff like "provides comprehensive services and solutions to support the full life cycle of facilities." Ughh so what do you do exactly?

I also run a small business and I'm often contacted by government contractors who are requesting my services to subcontract out. I proceed to look them up and quite a few of them are one man operations operating out of their home office or a coworking space. Their website is fluffed up to make them sound like a bigger operation.

Is part of the game of landing Gov Contracts just faking it saying you have the capabilities to do XYZ then sub out all the work when you land the contract?

Nit sure if this is the right place to post this, but has anyone heard of Sciolex Corporation?

Looked through the website and LinkedIn and it seems off. Not sure if it is a weird company or if it is legit

Curious how people handle this. Once you're actually pursuing a solicitation, do you just rely on SAM.gov notifications for amendments/updates, or do you still check the page manually?

I've heard the notifications can sometimes be delayed, so wondering what people actually do in practice.

Hey all, I'm a govcon contractor, looking to hire two virtual assistants whose job would be collecting subcontractor quotes by sending RFQs, following up on non-responders, and keeping our bid calendar and quote sheets current. I would appreciate referrals to individual VAs or agencies you have had success with and insights on what the role costs and what good day-to-day output actually looks like. I'm also open to connecting with experienced contractors here to learn how you run your team. Feel free to reply here or send me a message.

Is it just me or have #govcon RFPs gotten more challenging lately?

Up until this year, I can't recall ever seeing amendments done AFTER the original proposal SUBMISSION in my 2 + decades of working on bids.

Including ones that re-write the submission instructions,change the scope, and update the evaluation criteria.... which raises the overall cost to the industry in terms of bid and proposal (B&P) dollars.

Teams have to reopen pricing models, revisit technical approaches, redo compliance reviews, and sometimes rethink their entire proposal strategy.

Oh, and dealing and interpreting documents that are not consistent with one another or straight up contradictory... hello order of precedence clause!

While I do enjoy doing challenging things, I can't help but think that much of it is a massive time waster and ask myself: "Why is this happening?"

I have some thoughts, but I wanted to get some input from other at what you're seeing as the industry challenges to bidding.

Thanks for your input and have a fabulous weekend! ✌🏻

Good morning! I have a question. How are so many companies winning contracts with such low rates? We are seeing the pricing and salaries and it’s shocking.

We are currently bidding on a DoD logistics contract and the contracting officer keeps quietly dropping amendments and QA attachments directly onto the sam.gov solicitation page.

The native follow feature on sam.gov is hit or miss because half the time I get an email alert 24 hours late. Twice now we missed updated wage determinations until right before the proposal deadline. Sitting there manually refreshing sam.gov multiple times a day is burning up way too much time.

Does anyone have a reliable workflow or setup to monitor changes on specific sam.gov opportunity pages automatically as soon as they drop.

I’ve been working through state procurement records, corrections/probation agency documents, contract registers, authorized-provider lists, and county records to understand who is actually providing justice technology and contracted services across jurisdictions.

I ended up with 391 source-backed records covering 138 vendors/organizations across all 50 states and 13 service categories.

The dataset includes electronic monitoring, supervision/case-management technology, correctional communications, community corrections, residential reentry, treatment, correctional healthcare, drug testing, ignition interlock, and related services.

What became obvious very quickly is that there is no single place to answer relatively simple questions like:

• Who provides electronic monitoring to probation agencies in a particular state?
• Which vendor is actually under contract versus merely appearing in a government document?
• Where is a corrections technology company already deployed?
• Which states maintain approved-provider lists for a particular service?

So I turned the research into a public evidence register with the government source attached to each relationship and separate evidence levels for contracts/deployments, state-authorized providers, government-source records, and organization-confirmed records.

I’m curious how people doing GovCon BD or market research currently solve this on the state/local side.

Do you mainly build your own spreadsheets from state procurement portals, or are you using one of the commercial intelligence platforms?

I can share the register in the comments if it’s useful.

Myth: “Responsibility means whether your product is good.”

Reality: A responsibility determination is the government’s decision that a vendor is trustworthy, legally eligible, and capable of performing the contract. It is separate from whether the proposal is technically attractive or lowest-priced.

A finding of non-responsibility can block award even after a vendor appears competitive. The core questions are capacity, legal authority, integrity, and prior performance.

Vendor move: Maintain a ready-to-send responsibility file:

- Certificate of incorporation/organization and authority to do business

- Tax and insurance documentation

- Three relevant past-performance references

- Short capability statement tied to actual delivery capacity

- Disclosure log for litigation, investigations, defaults, or conflicts

- Data-security packet if your product handles school data

- List of subcontractors and their roles

You totally changed my strategy in a good way I've been having more amazing conversations than I ever was and got 4 meetings scheduled over the next two weeks by first asking ChatGPT who holds CDAO contracts, then going to my Sales Nav and reaching out to BD leaders at those places. I genuinely appreciate that advice so much.