A federal solicitation is long, oddly formatted and written for people who read them weekly. The good news is that you can decide whether to bid from four things, and most people should walk away from most solicitations.
Read these four first
- The set-aside. If it says Women-Owned Small Business and you are certified, you are competing against a small field. If it says nothing, you are competing against everyone.
- The NAICS code and its size standard. If you are not small under that specific code, you are not eligible no matter what else is true.
- The response deadline, and the questions deadline, which is earlier and which people miss.
- The place of performance. Deciding you cannot staff Fort Hood after two days of proposal writing is an expensive way to learn geography.
Then decide whether to walk
Good reasons to walk away: you cannot meet the performance requirements, the incumbent has held it for a decade and nothing has changed, the margin does not work at the volume, or you cannot get a required bond or insurance in time. None of these are failures. Bidding work you cannot deliver is how small contractors go under.
Ask questions before the questions deadline. Contracting officers answer them in writing to all bidders. A well-aimed question can reshape a requirement in your favour, and asking marks you as someone who read the document.
If you bid
- Follow the submission instructions to the letter. Format, file names, page limits, delivery method. Non-compliant proposals are rejected unread, and that is not unusual, it is routine.
- Answer in the order the evaluation criteria are listed. Evaluators score with a checklist.
- Submit early. The portal will be slow on the last day, and late is late.
A deadline in a solicitation is a real deadline. There is no grace period, no "we were nearly done", and no relationship that saves a late submission.