Every week we talk to a business owner who has heard that the government buys what they sell, has been told to “get registered,” and has no idea what that actually means or what happens next.
Here is the scale of what they are trying to get into. In fiscal year 2025, small businesses won roughly 28% of federal prime contract dollars — about $179 billion — against a statutory goal of 23%. California adds its own layer on top: state agencies are required to direct at least 25% of contract dollars to certified small businesses and at least 3% to Disabled Veteran Business Enterprises. Then there are counties, cities, school districts, transit agencies, and universities, each running their own vendor lists.
The money is real. The confusion is also real, and most of it comes from people doing the steps out of order.
This is the order. Work through it start to finish and you will be further along than most businesses that have been “registered” for two years.
Step 1: Figure out what you actually sell — in the government’s language
Before you register anywhere, you need two things: your NAICS codes and your size standard.
NAICS codes are the six-digit codes the government uses to classify what you do. Contracting officers search by them. Solicitations are posted under them. If you pick the wrong ones, you will be invisible to the buyers who want you and flooded with opportunities you can’t perform.
Pick codes that describe the work you have actually done and can prove. Most businesses need between three and eight. Choosing thirty does not make you more findable — it makes your profile look unfocused to anyone reading it.
Each NAICS code carries a size standard, expressed either as a maximum number of employees or maximum average annual receipts. That standard is what determines whether you count as “small” for contracts in that code. You can be small under one code and large under another. Check each one.
Do this first because everything downstream — your registration, your profile, the set-asides you qualify for — is built on top of these codes.
Step 2: Get your UEI and register in SAM.gov
The Unique Entity ID (UEI) replaced the old DUNS number. You get it through SAM.gov, and it is free.
SAM.gov registration is also free. We need to say that plainly, because a steady stream of businesses pay third parties hundreds of dollars believing the registration itself carries a government fee. It does not. What you may reasonably pay for is help getting through it — the entity validation step, the representations and certifications, the financial and banking information, the points of contact — because it is a long form and errors cause weeks of delay.
Two things to know:
- Entity validation is where most registrations stall. SAM has to match your legal business name and physical address against third-party records. If your Secretary of State filing, your IRS records, and your utility bill disagree about your address by so much as “Suite 200” versus “Ste #200,” you will be stuck submitting documentation. Fix your records before you start, not after you’re rejected.
- Registration expires every 12 months. A lapsed registration makes you ineligible for award, and it happens constantly — usually to a business that finally has a bid worth submitting. Put the renewal date in your calendar the day you’re approved.
If you want this handled for you, that is what our SAM.gov registration and UEI and entity validation services exist for.
Step 3: Register with California — and with the agencies near you
Federal registration is not the whole map. For most California businesses, it is not even the best starting point.
Cal eProcure (caleprocure.ca.gov) is the state’s vendor portal. You register there to do business with California state agencies, and it is also where you apply for state certifications. If you sell to the state, you have to be in it. See our Cal eProcure registration page for what the process involves.
Then go local. San Bernardino County, Riverside County, the City of San Bernardino, Omnitrans, the community college districts, school districts, water districts, and the Cal State and UC campuses all maintain their own vendor registration systems. These are free, they take an afternoon each, and they put you on the list that a buyer scrolls through when they need something in your category next month.
Local and state work is where new contractors should start, for three reasons:
- Lower barriers. Fewer compliance requirements, shorter and simpler solicitations.
- Shorter cycles. A county can go from posting to award in weeks. A federal procurement can take a year.
- It builds past performance. This is the real reason. The thing you will be missing when you eventually bid federal work is a track record. Local contracts are how you get one.
Step 4: Make your profile findable — because a thin profile is the same as no profile
Most businesses register and stop. That is the single most common mistake in this whole process.
Registration puts you in a database. It does not make anyone find you. Contracting officers and prime contractors do market research — they search these databases to find out whether enough qualified small businesses exist to justify setting a contract aside. If your profile is three lines long, you don’t show up in that research, and you are invisible in exactly the moment that decides whether the opportunity is reserved for companies like yours.
Two places to invest the effort:
SBA’s Small Business Search (SBS). SBA rolled this out to replace the old Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS), and existing profiles were migrated over. It pulls from your SAM registration, and you can create an SBS account to edit your profile directly. Fill in the capability narrative, keywords, past performance, and every NAICS code you legitimately qualify under.
Your capability statement. One page. Core competencies, differentiators, past performance, company data (UEI, CAGE, NAICS codes, certifications, contact). This is the document a contracting officer or a prime’s small business liaison asks for, and “let me put something together” is the wrong answer when they do. Have it ready. We build these — see capability statement writing.
Step 5: Start where the competition is thinnest
New contractors lose a lot of time bidding contracts they were never going to win. There are specific places designed for small buys, and that is where a first award usually comes from.
Federal micro-purchases — up to $15,000. As of October 1, 2025, the micro-purchase threshold is $15,000. Below it, a government purchase card holder can buy directly from a vendor they have found, without competition. This is the most overlooked entry point in federal contracting, and it is won almost entirely through being findable and being known.
Federal simplified acquisition — up to $350,000. The simplified acquisition threshold rose to $350,000 on the same date. Acquisitions in the range between the micro-purchase threshold and the SAT are set aside for small business unless the contracting officer determines there is no reasonable expectation of offers from two or more responsible small businesses. Streamlined procedures, fewer bidders, and a real path to your first past performance record.
California’s SB/DVBE Option. If you hold state Small Business or DVBE certification, California agencies can contract with you directly — no formal bid — up to $249,999.99 for goods, services, and IT, and up to $484,000 for public works as of March 2026. This is one of the strongest small-contractor provisions in the country and most California businesses have never heard of it.
The 5% bid preference. Certified California small businesses get a 5% preference applied in state bid evaluations. On a competitive bid, that is frequently the whole margin.
Step 6: Do market research before you write a single proposal
Before you bid anything, answer these questions:
- Who has bought this before, and from whom? Federal award history is public on USAspending.gov; check Cal eProcure and agency sites for state and local history.
- What did it sell for? If the last three awards came in at a price you cannot match, that is useful to learn now.
- Is the incumbent vulnerable? A long-tenured incumbent with a clean record is a bad first target.
- When does the current contract expire? That tells you when to start the relationship — which is the next step.
Bidding without this is how businesses burn six months writing proposals that were decided before the solicitation posted. Our market research service is built around exactly these questions.
Step 7: Build the relationship before the solicitation drops
By the time a solicitation is public, the agency usually knows what it wants and often who it expects to get it from. The work that wins happens earlier.
- Sources sought notices and RFIs. These are the government asking the market who can do this. Responding influences how the requirement gets written and whether it is set aside for small business. It costs you an afternoon and it is the highest-leverage thing a new contractor can do.
- Small business specialists. Most federal agencies have one. Their job is literally to talk to you. Reach out with a capability statement and a specific question, not a general introduction.
- Prime contractor supplier portals. Large primes carry subcontracting goals they are obligated to meet. They all run supplier registration and small business diversity portals, they cost nothing, and they put you in front of people who need to find you.
- Local outreach events. County and city procurement offices, the Inland Empire APEX Accelerator, and SBA district events put you in the same room as buyers. In local contracting, being a known name matters more than most people expect.
What a realistic first year looks like
Here is the honest timeline, because the wrong expectation is what makes people quit.
Months 1–2. NAICS research, UEI, SAM registration, Cal eProcure, local vendor registrations. Capability statement built. Certification applications filed if you qualify.
Months 2–4. Profiles fully built out. Market research on your target agencies. Sources sought responses going out. Relationships started.
Months 4–8. First bids on small local and simplified-acquisition work. Expect to lose some. Debrief every single loss — agencies will tell you why, and that information is worth more than the contract you lost.
Months 8–12. First award, in a good year. Then the real work: perform flawlessly, get a strong performance record, and use it to bid bigger.
The failure mode is real and it is predictable. People register, hear nothing for six months, and conclude government contracting doesn’t work. What actually happened is that they finished Step 2 and skipped Steps 4 through 7. Registration is the beginning of the process, not the end of it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to register for government contracting? SAM.gov registration, your UEI, and Cal eProcure registration are all free. So are SBA certification applications and most local vendor registrations. You may choose to pay a consultant for help completing them, but no government fee exists for the registrations themselves.
How long does SAM.gov registration take? Typically two to six weeks if your entity information validates cleanly. Entity validation problems — mismatched names or addresses across your business records — are the most common cause of longer delays.
Do I need certification to get government contracts? No. Small business status is self-certified in SAM.gov, and you can bid on small business set-asides without any formal certification. Certifications such as 8(a), HUBZone, WOSB, SDVOSB, and California’s SB and DVBE unlock additional set-aside and sole-source work that is closed to uncertified firms. We cover this in detail in do you need to be certified to win government contracts.
Should I start with federal or state and local contracts? State and local, in almost every case. Lower barriers, faster award cycles, less competition, and they generate the past performance record you will need when you do go federal.
What is the fastest path to a first government contract? Register correctly, build a findable profile, and pursue small buys — federal micro-purchases under $15,000, simplified acquisitions under $350,000, and California’s SB/DVBE Option for certified state small businesses. Those are the awards a contracting officer can make without a full competition.
Registration is the easy part. Knowing what to do in the nine months after it is what separates the businesses that win from the ones that give up.
If you want the sequence above run properly the first time, see how we run it, book a strategy consultation or call GERC at (909) 454-7076. We work with businesses across San Bernardino and the Inland Empire, Riverside County, Orange County, and Los Angeles County.