The GovPointe Blog
What our advisors saw in 20+ years inside federal acquisition, written for the firms competing today.
The public FPDS site was decommissioned in February 2026 and its searches now live in SAM.gov Contract Data. Where each old workflow went, and five searches worth running this week.
Read the ArticleShowing 24 articles
The public FPDS site was decommissioned in February 2026 and its searches now live in SAM.gov Contract Data. Where each old workflow went, and five searches worth running this week.
9 min readWoman-owned set-asides exist only in NAICS codes the SBA designates, and only where a buying office chooses to use them. Check both before you build a strategy on the certificate.
10 min readThe only federal certification where geography is the qualification. The principal office rule, the 35 percent residency math, and the price preference nobody else gets.
10 min readBuyers verify size and status in SBA Small Business Search, formerly DSBS, and many run their small business market research there first. Most firms have never opened their own listing.
10 min readThe MAS solicitation is a due-diligence file disguised as an application. Corporate experience, financials, pricing support, and the SIN fit that most rejected offers got wrong.
10 min readA lost bid comes with a legal right to hear why, on a clock measured in days. What FAR 15.505 and 15.506 entitle you to, and the questions that produce answers you can use.
10 min readRenewal is free, takes an afternoon of attention, and protects every dollar the government owes you. Most firms treat it like a subscription auto-renewal. It is not one.
10 min readYou get one nine-year run in the 8(a) program per person, ever. Most firms start the clock before they have anything for the program to develop. The timing is the strategy.
11 min readSBA veteran certification stopped being the bottleneck. What remains is the part certification never solved: being findable, relevant, and positioned at the offices that buy what you sell.
10 min readRegistration is one part in a machine with six. The firms that win their first federal dollar built all six before they bid anything. Here is the assembly order, from the buying side.
11 min readA hundred notifications a week with two real fits is not a lead service, it is a distraction engine. What keyword matching gets wrong, and what a defensible search strategy contains.
10 min readTwo combatant commands, one of the largest VA systems in the country, a spaceport, and the buying offices around all of it. How to see Florida's federal money for yourself, with public data.
10 min readYou can complete every registration yourself. Almost nobody completes them well, and the damage stays quiet for about a year before it shows up as silence.
10 min readSmall firms chase 8(a), HUBZone, WOSB and SDVOSB as trophies. The award history at your target offices tells you whether that authority ever gets used.
17 min readThe capability statement has a conventional format for a reason, and most firms fail it twice: the shape is wrong, and the words are written to impress instead of to qualify.
10 min readMost firms pick targets by brand recognition, then email agencies that never bought their service. The purchase history is public, down to the six-character office code.
11 min readMost firms choose codes that describe what they do. Buyers search codes that describe what they buy. The difference is why you are invisible.
9 min readTwo years of losing prime bids builds nothing you can cite. Two years of real first-tier subcontract work builds a record a contracting officer is required to consider.
10 min readYour message lands in a triage queue, not a conversation. What survives is a short note that names the office's own paperwork and asks one question that costs a line to answer.
11 min readMost small firms sign the first document and assume it delivers the second. They bind at different moments, and only one of them ever creates an obligation to pay you.
11 min readGSA settles your prices, terms and clauses, then buys nothing. What decides whether a Schedule earns anything happens at the order level, long before an RFQ ever posts.
11 min readKeyword habits, saved searches, and the fields agencies filter on. Written by people who ran those searches for a living.
9 min readMost losing proposals answered every requirement. They lost because the evaluator could not find the answer, or was never handed a reason to rate it above acceptable.
10 min readThe legitimate paths to a sole-source award, what justifications hold up, and where contractors overreach.
9 min readTell us where you are in federal contracting and we will point you to the right next step.
