How to Find Incumbent Contractors Before You Bid
Every re-compete has an incumbent — the firm currently doing the work — and that firm starts with advantages you do not have: they know the customer, the site, the quirks of the requirement, and the contracting officer. Bidding against an incumbent without knowing who they are, what they charge, and when their contract ends […]
How to Research Your Competitors’ Federal Contracts
In federal contracting, your competitors are not a mystery. Every contract they win is a public record: the agency, the value, the period, the vehicle, and the set-aside type are all published. A small business that researches its competitors properly can see exactly where rivals are strong, where they are stretched thin, and where they […]
USAspending.gov for Contractors: A Practical Guide
USAspending.gov is the federal government’s public spending database, and for a contractor it is the most approachable way to answer a deceptively simple question: who is spending money on what I sell? Every federal contract action recorded in FPDS flows into USAspending, where it is presented with charts, maps, and search tools designed for non-specialists. […]
FPDS Explained: How to Research Who Won Past Contracts
FPDS — the Federal Procurement Data System — is the federal government’s official record of who bought what, from whom, and for how much. Every federal contract action above a reporting threshold is recorded in FPDS, creating a public database of past awards that any contractor can search for free. For a firm preparing to […]