What a 12-person shop can actually win
The federal market has work sized for a small shop. It also has work that will sink one. Knowing the difference is most of the game.
Start from your capacity, not the market
A shop with a dozen people has a fixed number of spindle hours, a person or two who can read a solicitation, and a bank account that cannot wait long for payment. Every target should be tested against those limits before you look at anything else.
The federal market rewards shops that know exactly what they are. A small shop that quotes only what it can deliver on time, every time, becomes a known source. A small shop that chases everything becomes a name buyers learn to skip.
Work that fits
DLA small buys
DLA buys spare and repair parts for every service, and much of that is bought in small quantities on purchase orders through DIBBS. Machined parts, brackets, fittings, bushings, shims, gaskets, small weldments. Many of these are total small business set-asides by default. The drawings are often available with a DIBBS login and a Joint Certification Program approval for export-controlled data. This is the natural entry point for a job shop.
Spares and repair parts for the services
Navy, Army, and Air Force sustainment activities buy parts for aging systems that the original manufacturer no longer supports. These buys tend to be small, repeat, and hard to source. A shop that can reverse engineer from a sample and hold the tolerance is valuable here. Some of these parts require source approval; more on that below.
Repair and overhaul of components
Depots and DLA also buy repair of assemblies rather than new parts. If you can disassemble, inspect, replace, and test, repair contracts are steadier than new-part buys because the fleet keeps sending cores.
Tooling, fixtures, and ground support hardware
Every depot, test facility, and launch site needs fixtures, stands, adapters, and handling gear. These are often one-off or short-run fabrications, built to a drawing or a sketch, and bought locally when they can be.
Subcontracts to primes
Large primes with subcontracting plans have to report small business participation, and they run supplier portals to find shops. Sub-tier machining, plating, and harness work is where many small shops earn their first aerospace revenue. You will not see these buys on SAM.gov, but you will see which primes win the end items, and that tells you who to call.
Targets and what they ask of you
| Target | Typical shape | What you need |
|---|---|---|
| DLA purchase orders via DIBBS | Small quantity, short lead time, often set aside | SAM registration, DIBBS account, JCP certification for drawings, the ability to quote fast |
| Service spares and repair parts | Low volume, repeat, aging systems | Reverse engineering, inspection records, possibly a source approval request |
| Component repair | Cores in, tested units out | Test equipment, repair data, packaging and marking |
| Fixtures and ground hardware | One-off fabrication to a drawing | Welding certifications, material certifications, local delivery |
| Prime subcontracts | Flowdown clauses, the prime's quality system | A documented quality system, cyber compliance, export control paperwork |
Work to skip, at least for now
- Anything with a facility clearance requirement. You cannot get one on your own timeline.
- Large IDIQs with heavy reporting. The administration will consume the person who should be quoting.
- First article plus long lead tooling on a buy that will not repeat. The tooling never pays back.
- Parts with restricted sources when you have not started a source approval request. The solicitation is not the time to begin.
- Quantities beyond your capacity. A contract you cannot deliver damages your record more than a contract you never won.
- Services codes. If the PSC starts with a letter and it is not repair, it is usually not for a machine shop.
Set-asides are a door, not a guarantee
Total small business set-asides are common for the work above. If you qualify for 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, or WOSB status, some buys will be reserved for that group, and sole-source awards are possible in some programs. Certification takes time and paperwork; start it before you need it. But a set-aside only limits who can compete. You still have to be the best quote in the room.
How to find the targets
Take the parts you already make well. Find the PSC codes that describe them. Pull the award history for those codes and note which offices buy them, how often, and how many offers they received. Mark the awards ending in the next year. That short list, not the whole of SAM.gov, is where a twelve-person shop should spend its quoting hours.
Related pages
- For machine shopsHow LastAwarded fits a job shop.
- For fabricatorsWeldments, fixtures, and ground hardware.
- What a recompete is and why it mattersThe most predictable buys in the market.
- Building a watchlist that worksTurn the targets into alerts.
See who was last awarded in your NAICS
The free report shows who bought your part category, who won, and what is coming up for recompete.