Who is buying
Federal agencies buy hundreds of billions of dollars of goods and services every year: construction, janitorial work, software, lab equipment, trucking, training, translation, lawn care. If a business sells it, some agency somewhere buys it. The Department of Defense is the biggest buyer by far, but every agency, from the VA to the Forest Service, runs its own purchasing.
Almost all of it is announced in public. Federal law requires most contract opportunities above small thresholds to be posted where anyone can read them, and the central posting place is SAM.gov.
Why they want small businesses
Congress sets a government-wide goal that at least 23 percent of prime contract dollars go to small businesses, with sub-goals for specific groups such as women-owned, veteran-owned, and HUBZone firms. Agencies are graded on hitting those goals every year.
That grading pressure is why set-asides exist: competitions where only small businesses, or only businesses with a particular certification, are allowed to bid. A set-aside does not lower the bar for the work. It shrinks the field of allowed bidders, which is exactly why it is worth knowing which fields you can stand in.
What the process looks like
A typical competed purchase runs in stages. An agency may first post a sources sought notice to see who is out there. Then comes a solicitation: the official ask, with the requirements, the deadline, and the rules of the competition inside. Businesses submit bids or proposals, the agency evaluates them against the stated criteria, and one or more win an award. The whole trail is public, including, later, who won and for how much.
Timelines vary from weeks for simple buys to many months for large ones. Nothing about the process is fast, but nothing about it is secret either.
What it costs to get in
Registering to sell to the federal government is free. Getting a UEI is free. Certifications from the SBA are free to apply for. Anyone who tells you there is an entry fee is selling you something you can do yourself.
The honest cost is time: registering, learning the vocabulary, reading notices to find the ones worth your effort, and writing bids. That last part never stops being work.
The myths
You do not need a lobbyist. You do not need to know someone. Plenty of work is not wired for an insider, especially the small and mid-sized purchases that big firms do not chase. And it is not all technology: the government buys far more roofing, food service, and freight than most people expect.
What is true is that the paperwork has its own language, and that first wins usually take months of patience. Businesses that quit usually quit from fatigue, not rejection.