r/GovernmentContracting

What are some of the specific changes from the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul? I have been out of the career for the past year but am returning.

A lot of people trying to get into government contracting are not stuck because they can’t do it. They’re stuck because they start in the wrong place.

Starting at the local level with vendor registration is one of the fastest ways to get in, build past performance, and understand how agencies actually buy.

Curious how many people here started local before going federal?

I work with government contractors and this keeps coming up. When it's time to allocate labor costs across contracts, overhead, and G&A, most small shops end up with two bad options: Deltek/Unanet (expensive, heavy, built for primes) or spreadsheet templates (no audit trail, DCAA gray area).

Is there anything in between? Especially for teams under 50 people already on QuickBooks Online that don't want to migrate their whole accounting setup.

What are you actually running?

Hi everyone - I’m looking for a practical govcon reality check from people who’ve been around federal contracting.

I run a stainless steel and aluminum fabrication business in Mexico.

This is my first real exposure to U.S. govcon. I’m not the prime on the opportunity I’m evaluating. I was brought in by a Texas-based company, and I’ve been involved with this product category for about two years through multiple proposal cycles.

What makes this more confusing is that the opportunity has seemed to move in stages. The last formal signal I saw was a Sources Sought in October 2025. Until I saw it appear in the FY2026 acquisition plan, showing up in Q2 label as “acquisition planning”. The project itself would take place in Mexico, so I’m trying to understand how experienced people would read that sequence and whether it still points to a real upcoming opportunity.

From the manufacturing side, we know we can execute. The product is a specialized fabricated unit involving stainless steel and aluminum construction, and we’ve received positive feedback on both our fabrication approach and pricing in 2025 by the Texas company.

My question is less about fabrication itself and more about how experienced govcon people read the situation.

For those of you who do this often:

1. When you’re not the prime, how do you tell whether you’re genuinely being positioned to compete versus just being used as proposal support?

2. What solicitation features or procurement patterns tell you to keep going, and what tells you to walk away?

3. If you were new to U.S. federal contracting and not even SAM-registered yet, would you focus on partnering, subcontracting, or trying to build as a foreign contractor?

I’m trying to sharpen my judgment, avoid wasting energy on opportunities that were never truly open, and learn how people with more experience assess situations like this.

Appreciate any feedback.

Hello, i have been building my government subcontracting business since last year. I am focused on staffing pre and post award contracts in Project Management, IT, Cybersecurity, physical security, System Administration & Logistics. I am located in what I would consider a prime location in the DMV. I have been using local government listings, the GSA calculator and job listings to try to connect with Primes. I’ve made one connection but am looking to make more and start to receiving jobs to fulfill. Is anyone else in the space or previously in this space that can guide me through these growing pains or am i in the right frame of thinking and just need to keep my head down keep reaching out to Primes contract admin?

We're a marketing agency with over 5 years under our belt, lots of client work (mostly in the industrial/manufacturing industry, although we are working towards moving our focus to sustainability and health/wellness). We're full service but do a lot of copywriting, graphic design, and web design+dev+SEO.

I was looking at other forms of lead gen and came across gov contracting. At first it seemed like a really good opportunity for our agency but the more I do research the more it seems like it might require lots and lots of hours for little results and could even take years to get a contract?

We were looking at RFPmart.com and SAM.gov, is it worth it? Curious to see if theres any other agencies who have has success and what that looked like.

Thanks!

How often do you folks check government sites to find contracts / new postings? My buddy said it's pretty frequent for him - but curious what everyone else does.

Is there anyone who joined war dogs academy? Is it worth it and how much does it even cost?

I am currently doing research on government contracting. I was wondering are there any websites, softwares, tools, etc., that can guide you through every step of the process for a beginner. I am aware of highergov and would like to know what other alternatives are out there. Also, what's the pricing like for these alternatives?

Hi all, first post here but I wanted to see if others are experiencing the same thing. When I started out in my work, government agencies paid on time within their net 30 timeframe, but lately (the last year or two), I've gotten payments super late. Have any of you noticed this? I'm going to try to put stronger language in my contracts about this but it's gotten to the point where I'm subsisting on ramen noodles because I'm waiting on tens of thousands in checks :( It sucks!! I want to ascertain if there's a pattern, if it's budget cuts (not a new issue however), or anything like that.

edit: I only work with local and regional government agencies, not federal, so I'm not sure how much the downsizing of the federal workforce would affect it.

Handing in my resignation on Monday.

We have been looking at the requirements for the CMMC Level 2 assessment and honestly it feels like every time we solve one control, three more pop up that require some expensive new tool or a specialized consultant. I am all for security, but the overhead for a small firm to actually prove they are compliant is starting to feel like a full-time job in itself.

Are you guys actually trying to do this all in-house, or have you just given up and handed the keys to a managed service provider? I am trying to figure out where the line is between we can handle this and we are just going to mess this up and lose our eligibility. If you went with an outside team, was it actually worth the cost or did you still end up doing half the documentation work yourself anyway?

Are you all seeing a weird increase in RFI requests for your current work prior to an option year (not end of contract), even after receiving excellent past performance ratings? One guy I talked with found an RFI released TWO MONTHS after the start of a five year contract. Had just rewon the recompete. Seems to be initiated by GSA. Was hoping all the turmoil from last year was behind us. smh.

Just started prepping our CMMC Level 1 self-attestation and wow… it’s way more involved than I expected.

Everyone says “Level 1 is easy, just 15 requirements,” but actually documenting those in a way that makes sense is another story. Some of our policies feel vague and I’m not sure what level of detail is actually expected.

We’re a small subcontractor and I really don’t want our score to get rejected when we submit it to PIEE.

Curious how others approached this:

Did you write everything internally?

Bring in a consultant?

Use any tools/templates?

Would love to hear what actually worked.

I am an engineer with experience in international shipments and project management. Ive been fumbling around the idea of getting into contract brokering for a little bit now as I believe my experience and knowledge could be beneficial is this space. But I just never pulled the trigger with the worry its falling for a get rich quick scheme. I do believe I possess the skills needed for this industry however it is a complicated one and I was wondering what the best way to get into brokering would be. I don't want some course thats really just throwing money at a fire, I want to work with a genuine consultant or something of that sort that will work one and one. What got you guys in the brokering business and who did you work with?

Is anyone else at least a little bothered that the same C3PAO can do a “mock” CMMC L2 assessment and then turn around and do the official assessment?

The Cyber AB’s Code of Professional Conduct says it’s fine as long as the mock is “non-certification,” strictly follows the assessment procedures, and the C3PAO gives zero remediation advice. The moment they help you fix anything, it becomes “consulting,” and they’re supposed to be banned from certifying you for 3 years.

And wouldn’t it be awkward to pass the mock and then be failed by the same C3PAO (awkward for the C3PAO and for the OSC)?

What would be considered a fair commission amount as % of total contract value? Let’s say there is an opportunity which would take a number of years to put together, but is in the 8 figure range. The base salary is reasonable but lower than federal SME salary.

What % of the contract value would be reasonable if I am managing the whole pipeline from identifying the opportunity to managment as an AE? Should I negotiate for my pay to be up front? What happens if I close the deal and someone can’t deliver even when they cleared me to sell the product? Ie I put in a couple of years work then it falls through, if the commission wasn’t awarded up front when I negotiated the job, do I take the haircut?

I have a visual impairments—keratoconus which limits my ability to drive (particularly at night). Domain expertise: hospital pharmacy, retail pharmacy, and trying to learn more about 340B. When I think of gov contracting within the pharmaceutical space, I immediately feel as though I wouldn’t qualify or be fit for a majority of contracts due to the need to drive back and forth to haul various equipment to sites?

I’ve incorporated myself and feel as though one thing that I could do would be to go to various hospitals, clinics and perform compliance audits? I could just take an Uber to do so, but for those who have had experience with healthcare related government contracts —what would be a good fit for me? I’m trying not to let my impairments get to my head. I’m a total novice in this space and really would just like some direction as to where to direct my efforts in hopes of landing smaller contracts…thank you