Government and municipal work for service companies

What public work looks like for a service company

Government work is not only highways and federal buildings. For home service trades, it includes HVAC preventive maintenance at a county office, janitorial service at a post office, grounds maintenance at a school district, pest control at public housing, on-call electrical repairs for a city and roof repairs on a fire station. Some of it is federal; most of it, for a small company, is state, county, city, school district and housing authority work.

The appeal is steady, recurring contracts with reliable payers. The cost is paperwork: registrations, bids, insurance certificates, wage rules and reporting. Companies that do well in public work treat it as a separate sales channel with its own process, not as an occasional bid squeezed into a busy week.

Why small firms have a real chance

Federal law sets procurement goals for small businesses. The government-wide statutory goal is 23% of prime contract dollars to small businesses, and in FY2025 the government reported 27.58%^[1]. There are also goals for small disadvantaged businesses, women-owned small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses and HUBZone firms^[1]. Contracting officers often meet those goals through set-asides, competitions open only to qualifying small businesses.

The trades that serve homes are mostly small firms, so most of them qualify under the SBA size standards for their industry. Census County Business Patterns counted 521,315 specialty trade contractor establishments and 227,045 services-to-buildings-and-dwellings establishments in 2023^[4]. Few of them register for public work, which keeps competition on many small contracts lower than owners expect.

Purchase thresholds decide how buying happens

Federal buying rules change with the size of the purchase. The Federal Acquisition Regulation defines the micro-purchase threshold as $15,000 and the simplified acquisition threshold as $350,000, with exceptions^[2]. Below the micro-purchase threshold, an agency can often buy with a government purchase card after minimal comparison. Between the two thresholds, simplified procedures apply. Above them, formal solicitations are the norm.

For a service company, that means many emergency repairs and small maintenance jobs at federal sites are bought quickly from vendors the facility already knows. Getting known by facility managers, and being registered so they can pay you, matters as much as winning formal bids. State and local governments set their own thresholds, often lower, so check each jurisdiction's purchasing rules.

Getting registered

1. 01

   Register in SAM.gov

   Federal work starts with registration in SAM.gov, where you are assigned a Unique Entity ID. You can get an ID without full registration, but then you cannot apply directly for federal awards^[3]. Renew the registration on schedule; a lapsed registration can stop payment.

2. 02

   Choose your NAICS codes

   List the industry codes that match your work, such as 238220 for plumbing and HVAC contractors, 238210 for electrical contractors, 561720 for janitorial services, 561730 for landscaping and 561710 for exterminating and pest control. Contracting officers search by code.

3. 03

   Complete your small business profile

   Fill in capabilities, past performance and service area in your SBA small business profile so buyers searching for set-aside candidates can find you.

4. 04

   Register with state and local portals

   Each state, county, city and school district usually has its own vendor registration and bid notification system. Register in the ones within your service area.

5. 05

   Assemble a capability package

   A one-page capability statement, insurance certificates, license copies, bonding capacity letter and three references, ready to attach to any bid.

Prevailing wage rules

Public contracts often set minimum wages and fringe benefits for the workers on them. The FAR's own definition of the micro-purchase threshold shows two important federal regimes: a lower threshold of $2,000 applies to construction subject to the Wage Rate Requirements statute, and $2,500 to services subject to the Service Contract Labor Standards statute^[2]. In practice, a federal roof repair or HVAC installation may carry construction wage rules, while a janitorial or grounds maintenance contract may carry service contract wage rules.

• Find the wage determination attached to the solicitation and price labor at those rates, plus fringe benefits.
• Expect certified payroll reporting on construction-type work, and set up your payroll system to produce it.
• Check state prevailing wage laws for state and local work; many states have their own.
• Apply the rates to every worker on the contract, including subcontractors' crews.

Reading a maintenance solicitation

Attend the site visit if one is offered. It is the best chance to count equipment, see access problems and ask questions that become written answers for every bidder.

Pricing multi-year contracts

Maintenance contracts often run for a base year plus several option years, with prices fixed at bid time. Labor, fuel, parts and insurance costs will move over that period, and many small bidders lose money in the later years because they priced every year at today's costs. Read whether the contract allows price adjustments, and if it does not, build expected increases into each option year's price.

• Price each option year separately, with your own estimate of wage and material increases.
• Check whether the wage determination is updated at each option exercise, and how that affects your price.
• Include the cost of reporting, site badging and contract administration, not only field hours.
• Model what happens if the agency exercises every option year, because it often does.

Safety and site rules

Public sites often require written safety plans, site badging and background checks. Falls are a particular focus for roofing and HVAC work on rooftop units: OSHA says falls are the leading cause of death in construction, with 389 of 1,034 construction fatalities in 2024 being falls to a lower level^[5]. Expect contracting officers to ask for your fall protection program and training records.

Building past performance

Larger public contracts weigh past performance heavily, which creates a chicken-and-egg problem for new bidders. Break it with small wins: quotes for one-time repairs, purchase-card jobs at nearby federal sites, county and school district work under local thresholds, and subcontracts under prime contractors who already hold facility maintenance contracts. Ask every public client for a written reference when a job goes well, and keep a record of contract numbers, values, dates and contacts. That record becomes the past performance section of your next bid.

Example: a pest control company's first municipal contract

Example (fictional): Bayview Pest registered on its county's vendor portal and in SAM.gov, listing code 561710. Its first win was a small county purchase for quarterly service at two libraries, bought on a simple quote. A year later, with that past performance, it bid a three-year contract for the county's public housing units.

The solicitation carried a wage determination with fringe benefits higher than Bayview's normal pay, which the owner priced in. The contract required monthly reports, so the office manager built a report template from the field service software before the first visit. The county paid on time, and the steady volume carried technicians through the winter slowdown.

Is public work right for you?

• Yes, if you can handle paperwork reliably, carry the required insurance, pay prevailing wages where they apply, and wait for invoice approval.
• Yes, if you want steady base-load work that does not depend on residential marketing.
• Not yet, if you are short of technicians for your current customers, or your office cannot take on registration, bids and reporting.
• Not for every bid: pick contracts within your service area and trade where you can meet response times comfortably.

Certifications can strengthen your position on set-aside work; see MBE, WBE and veteran-owned business certifications. For balancing public work with the rest of the business, read commercial vs. residential work.