How to Bid on Federal Contracts as a Woman-Owned Small Business | Blog

The US government sets out every year to send 5% of its contract dollars to women-owned small businesses. In fiscal 2025 it sent 4.52% of eligible prime contract dollars, short again, and that gap is why you keep hearing that WOSB certification is a door worth opening. It can be. It's also free, takes longer than you'd hope, and helps only if the government buys what you sell.

This is the order we'd take it in if you ran a service business and had never sold to the federal government. It's written for founders in the US, with a section near the end for those of you outside it.

How do you bid on government contracts as a woman-owned business?

You register your business in SAM.gov, which gives you a Unique Entity ID, choose the NAICS codes that describe your work, find a notice on SAM.gov Contract Opportunities, and answer it exactly as the solicitation asks. You don't need WOSB certification to bid; you need it to compete for the contracts the government reserves for women-owned firms.

In order:

Check that federal agencies buy what you sell, using USASpending.gov and agency procurement forecasts.
Register in SAM.gov.
Confirm your NAICS codes, and that you count as small for them.
Apply for WOSB or EDWOSB certification through SBA, if your codes are on the eligible list.
Bid, or start as a subcontractor to a company that already holds federal work.

Who should wait?

SBA is unusually blunt about this. On its own getting-started page, it says some businesses spend between $80,000 and $130,000 to win their first contract, and that it could take up to two years to see a return on that spending. Those are SBA's figures, and they're the two most useful numbers in this post.

So wait if you don't yet have a few steady private clients paying the bills, or if a long sales cycle would empty your account before it paid off. The same SBA page says agencies prefer "established, reliable businesses" with a record of delivering on time and on budget, and it suggests keeping private-sector clients to carry you through the early losses. If you're still finding your first clients, where your first 10 customers actually come from is the better read tonight.

How do I register on SAM.gov and get a Unique Entity ID?

Go to SAM.gov's registration page, sign in through Login.gov and choose Register Entity; your Unique Entity ID, a 12-character code, is assigned during registration. It's free, and as of November 2026 SAM.gov tells you to allow at least ten business days after you submit for it to become active.

Treat ten business days as the floor. Your registration is checked against IRS records and the CAGE system, and a failure at either check adds time. Enter your legal business name and address exactly as your tax records show them.

You'll renew every 365 days, or the registration stops being active. If someone offers to register you for a fee, know what you're paying for: SAM.gov's own checklist says there's no charge to get a Unique Entity ID, register, or keep the registration up.

What's a NAICS code, and why does it matter?

A NAICS code is a six-digit number that classifies a business by what it supplies, and the contracting officer assigns one to every federal contract. It decides two things for you: whether you count as small for that contract, and whether that contract can be set aside for women-owned businesses at all.

SBA sets a size standard for each code. According to SBA, most non-manufacturing businesses with average annual receipts under $7.5 million count as small, with receipts averaged over your last five complete fiscal years, though some industries differ. You'll name a primary code in SAM.gov and can add more; the Census Bureau's NAICS list is where you look them up.

Then check your codes against SBA's list of 759 industries where WOSB set-asides are allowed: 646 are open to any certified WOSB and 113 only to EDWOSBs. If your work sits outside all of them, certification reserves nothing for you, and you'll compete in open contracts or general small business set-asides instead.

What's the difference between WOSB and EDWOSB?

A WOSB is a small business at least 51% directly and unconditionally owned and controlled by women who are US citizens and live in the US. An EDWOSB meets that test and an economic one on top, which lets it compete for both kinds of set-aside; a plain WOSB can't compete for the EDWOSB ones.

Under 13 CFR 127.203, as of November 2026, each qualifying owner of an EDWOSB needs personal net worth under $850,000 (leaving out her stake in the business and the equity in her home), adjusted gross income averaging $400,000 or less over three years, and total assets of $6.5 million or less.

Control means more than a title. The regulation expects a woman in the highest officer position who generally works in the business full time during its normal hours. If a man holds the licence the work requires and owns part of the company, SBA may find that he's the one in control.

How do I apply for WOSB certification, and what does it cost?

Apply online at MySBA Certifications. The regulation says there is no cost to apply to SBA, and SBA aims to decide within 90 calendar days of receiving a complete application, "whenever practicable."

That clock starts only when your file is complete, so gather everything before you begin. The same rules say SBA may ask for corporate records, signed federal personal and business tax returns, and bank statements. If you're declined, you can reapply after 90 days, once you've dealt with every reason SBA gave.

You can also go through one of four SBA-approved third-party certifiers. They may charge a reasonable fee, and the rule requires them to tell you in writing first that SBA certifies for free. The U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce, one of the four, lists $350 for non-members as of November 2026. Either way, you still upload the certificate and proof of citizenship to MySBA Certifications before you bid on a set-aside.

Once you're certified, SBA expects a program examination every three years. Its annual attestation is on hold as of November 2026, but you still update SAM.gov each year so your listing in SBA's Small Business Search stays active.

What's a set-aside, and what's a sole-source award?

A set-aside is a contract only certain businesses can bid on. A sole-source award goes to one business without competition, and it's allowed only when the contracting officer doesn't expect two or more eligible firms to bid.

For a WOSB set-aside, the contracting officer has to reasonably expect at least two WOSBs to bid at a fair price, in an eligible industry. Sole-source awards to a WOSB or EDWOSB have a ceiling, and as of November 2026 the FAR puts it at $5.5 million, or $8.5 million for manufacturing, raised on 1 October 2025. SBA's own regulation still printed the older $4.5 million and $7 million figures when we checked on 5 November.

There's also a wider reserve, and it has nothing to do with being a woman. Contracts above the micro-purchase threshold and up to the simplified acquisition threshold must be set aside for small businesses when the contracting officer expects at least two competitive small firms to bid. As of November 2026 those thresholds are $15,000 and $350,000. You don't need WOSB certification to compete in that band, only to be small, and it's a sensible size for a first contract.

Winning a services set-aside comes with a condition: you can't pay more than 50% of what the government pays you to firms that aren't similarly situated. In plain terms, you and other firms with the same status do at least half the work by value. If you're thinking of bidding with partners, how small businesses team up to bid on government contracts walks through it.

Where are federal contracts posted?

On SAM.gov Contract Opportunities, which anyone can search without an account. Contracting officers generally have to post proposed contracts expected to exceed $25,000 there.

A free account lets you save searches and follow a notice as it changes. Filter by your NAICS codes and by set-aside type, and read the award notices as well as the open ones, since they show who's winning work like yours. Then look those awards up on USASpending.gov and read how to price your services before you put a number on a bid.

Do I need to be a US citizen or a US company?

To be a WOSB, the qualifying women must be US citizens who live in the United States, and to count as small at all, SBA requires a place of business in the US. A company based outside the US can still register in SAM.gov, but it needs an NCAGE code first.

SAM.gov's checklist says non-US entities must request that code before starting registration. The NATO agency that runs the request tool lists 14 calendar days for a routine request and 3 business days for an emergency one, and your name and address have to match your SAM.gov record character for character.

If you're a Canadian founder, the federal market at home has its own steps, and how to bid on government contracts in Canada covers them.

Should I start as a subcontractor?

For most service founders, yes. Subcontractors work for the company that holds the federal contract, which SBA describes as the way in for businesses not ready to work directly with an agency. Large companies winning contracts above $900,000 generally have to file subcontracting plans, and those plans set goals for women-owned small businesses among others.

SBA keeps a directory of primes with subcontracting plans and a database called SubNet where primes post subcontract work, both linked from its subcontracting page. Primes also search SBA's Small Business Search to find subs, so fill in your profile there with a capabilities narrative, keywords and your NAICS codes. On the forums, people who've done it keep giving the same advice: call an APEX Accelerator first and learn the work as a sub before you prime. APEX Accelerators offer their help at no cost.

Questions founders ask

Is WOSB certification worth it if I'm not bidding on federal contracts? Probably not yet. SBA says its benefits apply only to federal contracting, and the application asks for tax returns and bank statements.

Can I bid without being certified? Yes. You need an active SAM.gov registration to bid as a prime; certification matters only for WOSB and EDWOSB set-asides and sole-source awards. Women-owned firms that don't want those can still self-certify in SAM.gov and count toward agency goals.

Which comes first, SAM.gov or certification? SAM.gov. SBA reads your size from your SAM.gov record when it certifies you.

Does the government meet its 5% goal? Not in fiscal 2025, at 4.52%, and missing it carries no penalty for an agency beyond a report explaining why.

What's the simplified acquisition threshold? $350,000 as of November 2026, up from $250,000 on 1 October 2025.

Where to go from here

Athena Collective is a membership for female founders, priced in Canadian dollars, with no application and no revenue minimum. In the app, the Contracts board in Opportunities reads federal tenders from SAM.gov and CanadaBuys every morning and orders them by closing date and nothing else. Each tender lists the steps to bid, starting with SAM.gov and a Unique Entity ID, and marking one Bidding turns those steps into your plan with a submit-by day and a reminder. You can also find members whose line of work fits a tender and bid together. It covers federal tenders only for now, not state or municipal ones. Membership details are here.

Whatever you decide, do one thing this week: search SAM.gov Contract Opportunities for your primary NAICS code and read three notices start to finish, including the attachments. By the third, you'll know whether the government buys what you sell, and what it would ask of you to sell it.