How to Find Government Contracts

Where government contracts are posted

The federal government centralizes its contract opportunities in a single official government system, where most federal solicitations above the micro-purchase threshold are published. State and local governments run their own procurement portals, and some agencies also post to specialized systems.

• The official federal opportunity system — the authoritative source for federal contract opportunities and entity registration.
• State and local procurement portals — each state, county and city runs its own.
• Agency-specific systems — some large buyers (e.g. defense, GSA) have additional posting channels.
• Subcontracting directories — prime contractors post teaming and subcontracting needs.

Register before you bid

To bid on federal work you generally need an active federal entity registration and a Unique Entity ID (UEI). Registration is free. You do not need to be registered to read opportunities, but you do need it to submit an offer, so start it early — it can take time to complete.

Search by what you actually do

The most common mistake is searching by broad keywords and drowning in results. Narrow by the codes and attributes that describe your business:

• NAICS codes — the industry classification a buyer assigns to a solicitation.
• PSC codes — the product or service category.
• Place of performance — where the work happens, which is what tells a local job from one across the country.
• Set-aside type — whether the contract is reserved for small business or a specific socioeconomic program.
• Response deadline — filter out anything closing too soon to prepare a credible response.

Separate real bids from market research

Not every notice is something you can bid on today. A Sources Sought or Request for Information is the agency doing market research before it writes a solicitation. Responding can shape the eventual requirement, but it is not a bid. A presolicitation signals a solicitation is coming. Knowing the notice type keeps you from preparing a proposal for something that cannot be submitted yet.

Make a fast bid or no-bid decision

Once you have a shortlist, the question is not "could we do this?" but "is this worth our time?" Weigh the fit against your capabilities, the place of performance, the set-aside eligibility, the deadline, and the requirements you would have to meet.

This is exactly the step GreatlyBid is built to speed up: it reads the current opportunities, compares them to your business profile, and explains why each one fits, so you review a short, ranked list instead of thousands of raw notices.