Longer reads on the data and the market
Written from the federal record, for any company that sells to the government. Newest first.
Every article
First-time winners: which markets let a new supplier in
Some offices award to companies they have never bought from and some never do. How to count first-time winners, and tell a door from a dead end.
The deadline moved: what an amendment changes
An amendment can change the due date, the work, the terms or the evaluation. How to read one, how to acknowledge it, and how an offer is lost to one.
Why a set-aside disappears at recompete
A contract set aside for small business last time can come back unrestricted. What drives the decision, how to see it coming, and how to change it.
A proposed rule is a solicitation a year early
New contract clauses are proposed in the Federal Register long before a solicitation uses them. How to read a proposed rule, and what to do while it is open.
Who pays the subcontractors: reading subaward reports
Primes report the first-tier subcontracts they award. What is reported, what is left out, and how to use the reports to find primes that buy what you sell.
From a budget line to a notice: reading the P-1 and R-1
The defense budget request lists every procurement and research line before a solicitation exists. What the P-1 and R-1 are, and how to read a line.
Reading a sole-source justification, and the date the lock ends
When an agency buys without full competition it must write down why. What a justification holds, how to read the authority, and when the work reopens.
The fourth quarter: when offices obligate
The federal fiscal year ends September 30, and expiring money has to be obligated first. Why buying bunches at year end, and how to be ready for it.
Your wrap rate against published ceiling rates
A wrap rate turns a salary into a billing rate. How it is built, what the GSA schedule ceiling rates are, and how to compare the two without fooling yourself.
The vehicle you are not on: how much of a code leaves as orders
Much federal money is spent as orders on contracts awarded years earlier, never posted like solicitations. How to see it in the record, and what to do.
Option years and the real recompete date
A contract has a current end date and a potential end date. How options are written and recorded, which date the recompete follows, and what moves it.
The single-offer award: how often one company answers
Every award record says how many offers came in. How to read a single offer, why the rate differs by code and office, and what to do before the recompete.
What a 12-person shop can actually win
Realistic federal targets for a small machine shop or fabricator: DLA small buys, spares, repair, fixtures, set-asides, subcontracts, and the work to skip.
Building a watchlist that works
How to build a federal opportunity watchlist that you will actually read: NAICS, PSC, buyers, incumbents, keywords, what to alert on, and what to leave out.
How to read an award record
A field by field guide to a federal award record: PIID, action type, obligated amount, period of performance, set-aside, extent competed, offers, and PSC.
The Space Coast supplier base
Facts on the record about the suppliers around Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Patrick Space Force Base, and why nearness counts.
The award history nobody reads
Every federal contract action is recorded. What history back to FY2001 tells a small shop about who buys, how often, and how competitive it is.
What a recompete is and why it matters
Every federal contract has an end date. What a recompete is, how period of performance and options set the clock, and why the last year is the time to act.
Why SAM.gov is hard for a small shop
SAM.gov is a system of record, not a search tool for a machine shop. What it is built for, why its notices are hard to work through, and what a shop needs.
Why vendor names lie
The same shop appears in federal award records under several names. UEI, DUNS, CAGE, subsidiaries, and DBAs explained, and why a clean incumbent record matters.
See who was last awarded in your NAICS
Every code, every buying office, every vendor and every recompete, organized from the federal record and read nightly. Start on one code with no card. A plan opens every code.
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