Selling to the Federal Government: The First Steps

The federal government buys almost everything: cleaning, landscaping, catering, hauling, translation, software, snow removal, office supplies. It buys from one-person businesses as well as giant contractors, and by law it tries to steer a fixed share of that money to small firms. If you run a very small business, even one with no employees and no credit history, you are allowed to compete for that work.

Before anything else, one fact that will save you money: every registration you need to sell to the federal government is free. SAM.gov, the system where you register and where contracts are advertised, says so in its own official checklist: “SAM.gov is FREE to use.” There is no charge to get your Unique Entity ID, no charge to register, and no charge to renew. The Department of Labor’s page on SAM repeats it: there is no cost to use SAM.gov.

That matters because an entire industry exists to charge new contractors for this free process. Firms with official-sounding names will offer to “get you registered,” “expedite your approval” or “obtain your DUNS number” for a few hundred dollars. Some of what they sell is free, and some of it no longer exists at all. If anyone asks you to pay to get into SAM.gov, walk away.

Step one: register in SAM.gov

SAM.gov is the government’s single entry point for people who want to do business with it. To bid on federal contracts as a prime contractor, the one who signs the contract and gets paid directly, you need a full entity registration at SAM.gov. Registration is what allows you to bid on government contracts and apply for federal assistance.

A few mechanics worth understanding before you start:

• The Unique Entity ID comes with registration. The UEI is assigned automatically as part of the registration process. You don’t apply for it separately, and you don’t pay anyone for it.
• A UEI alone is not enough to bid. SAM.gov offers a lighter option where you get only a UEI by providing your legal business name and physical address. That’s for entities that don’t apply directly for awards, such as sub-awardees who only need to be identified for reporting. If you want to bid as a prime, you need the full registration.
• You’ll be assigned a CAGE code. During registration, US businesses that don’t already have a CAGE code simply select “No” when asked, and one is assigned after you submit. You don’t need to do anything in advance. (Non-US entities are different: they must request an NCAGE code before starting.)
• Registration is not one-and-done. Per the Department of Labor, registrations must be updated every 12 months to stay active, and your registration must be active and in good standing when you submit a proposal and throughout the life of any award. Put the renewal date in your calendar. There is no fee to renew, ever.

The official SAM.gov entity registration checklist walks through what you’ll need. Once you’ve submitted, you can check progress by signing in to SAM.gov and using the “Check Registration Status” button, searching by your UEI or CAGE code. If you get stuck, the Federal Service Desk is free help: (866) 606-8220, or FSD.gov.

Before you register, your business needs to exist as a legal entity with a name and a physical address. If you haven’t sorted that yet, start with registering a business: structure, EIN, licences.

Forget the DUNS number

Older guides, and plenty of paid-service pitches, still say your first step is getting a DUNS number from Dun & Bradstreet. That step no longer exists. According to Grants.gov, the federal government stopped using DUNS numbers on April 4, 2022. The old 9-character DUNS, owned by a private company, was replaced by the 12-character Unique Entity ID, which is owned and issued by the government itself through SAM.gov, at no cost. Anyone offering to sell you a DUNS number for federal work is selling you 2021.

Step two: find your NAICS code and check you count as small

Every kind of work the government buys is classified under a NAICS code: a number for janitorial services, another for landscaping, another for freight trucking, and so on. Attached to each code is a size standard, the maximum size a business can be in that industry and still qualify as small. Some standards are measured in annual receipts, others in employee headcount.

The practical way to look yours up is SBA’s table of small business size standards, which lists the standard for every NAICS code. SBA also publishes the data behind its Size Standards Tool, which you can use to check whether your business qualifies as small for federal contracting.

Two details trip newcomers up. First, you self-certify as small in SAM, you tick the box yourself, but you’re legally responsible for it being true, under the rules in 13 CFR Part 121. “Annual receipts” means your total or gross income plus cost of goods sold, normally taken from your tax returns, and anyone on your payroll counts as one employee regardless of hours or temporary status. Second, you don’t choose the NAICS code on any given contract. The contracting officer designates the NAICS code for each solicitation, under 13 CFR 121.402, and the size standard for that code is what decides whether you qualify as small for that particular bid. Your job is to know which codes describe your work and whether you sit under their caps.

If you file self-employment taxes on irregular income, none of this should scare you. A sole proprietor doing $40,000 a year in receipts is comfortably small under essentially any standard. Being tiny is not a barrier here; it’s the qualification.

Step three: understand set-asides, the reason small firms win at all

If tiny businesses had to outbid national corporations head to head, they’d rarely win. So the system doesn’t work that way. Many contracts are “set aside,” meaning only small businesses may compete. Under SBA’s current guidance for contracting officials, purchases between $15,000 and $350,000 are automatically and exclusively set aside for small businesses. Above that, a contract is set aside whenever at least two small businesses could do the work, the so-called rule of two, with set-asides for 8(a), HUBZone, service-disabled-veteran-owned and women-owned small businesses considered first. One honest caveat: these dollar bands are adjusted periodically and some SBA pages still show older figures, so treat the exact numbers as current SBA guidance rather than settled forever.

Behind set-asides sit government-wide goals, floors the government sets for how much of its contract spending must reach small firms:

These are real money. In fiscal year 2022 the government beat the 23% goal, awarding 26.5% of federal contract dollars, $162.9 billion, to small businesses. Individual agencies carry their own goals, which can differ from the government-wide figures, and SBA publishes annual scorecards; agencies that miss a goal must explain themselves to SBA with a corrective action plan. One recent change to know about: the small disadvantaged business goal had been raised as high as 15% under the prior administration, but in February 2025 SBA returned it to its statutory 5%. Older articles quoting 15% are out of date.

Understand what goals are and aren’t. They’re floors measured across the whole government, not a guarantee on any single contract. But they’re why contracting officers actively look for small firms, and why being registered and correctly classified puts you on the list they’re looking at.

Step four: find the actual opportunities

Federal contract opportunities are posted on SAM.gov itself, the same site where you registered. Agencies are required to advertise all contracts over $25,000 there, and contracting officers post and manage notices directly at SAM.gov contract opportunities. If you’ve read older material mentioning FedBizOpps or FBO.gov, that system was folded into SAM.gov; it’s the same pipeline under a new roof.

You don’t have to start as a prime contractor either. Many small firms get their first federal revenue as subcontractors to large primes, which are often required to have small-business subcontracting plans on big contracts. SBA runs SUBNet, a database of subcontracting opportunities posted by large primes, and keeps a directory of prime contractors with subcontracting plans; GSA keeps a subcontracting directory too, all noted on the SBA contracting guide.

None of this requires capital up front, which is exactly why it suits someone who can’t borrow. It does require patience and paperwork. If you’d like a human to walk you through your first registration or bid, free, in-person help exists, and it’s considerably better value than a paid registration service. And if cash flow is the obstacle once you win work, look at SBA microloans before anything with a triple-digit APR.

Frequently asked questions

Does it really cost nothing to register in SAM.gov? Yes. SAM.gov’s own registration checklist states “SAM.gov is FREE to use,” with no charge to get a Unique Entity ID, register, or maintain the registration, and the Department of Labor confirms there is no cost to register or renew. Any fee you’re quoted is from a third party, not the government.

Do I need a DUNS number first? No. The federal government stopped using DUNS numbers on April 4, 2022. The replacement, the Unique Entity ID, is issued automatically and free inside SAM.gov when you register. Anyone selling DUNS numbers for federal work is out of date or worse.

I’m a one-person business with no employees. Am I too small to bother? No. Size standards define the maximum size a business can be and still count as small; there’s no minimum. You self-certify as small in SAM, and contracts between $15,000 and $350,000 are automatically set aside for small businesses under current SBA guidance. Being tiny is the qualifying condition, not the problem.

Where do I actually see contracts I could bid on? On SAM.gov. Agencies are required to post all contracts over $25,000 there, and contracting officers manage the notices directly on the site. For subcontracting work under large primes, SBA’s SUBNet and its directory of primes with subcontracting plans are the starting points.

What happens if I forget to renew my registration? It lapses. Registrations must be updated every 12 months to remain active, and your registration has to be active and in good standing when you submit a proposal and for the entire life of any award. Renewal is free; forgetting it isn’t.