Every small defense contractor eventually gets told they need a system security plan. Almost nobody gets told where that requirement actually comes from, what has to be in it, or why the document they downloaded from a template site will fail an assessment. This is the practical version, written for a shop with five people…
Your SPRS score is a number you calculate yourself, post yourself, and are held to by the government. Nobody checks your arithmetic before it goes in. That combination is why so many small defense contractors have a score in SPRS that does not survive contact with a government assessor. This walks through the actual scoring…
If you have been trying to figure out what the FAR overhaul did to small business set-asides, you have probably run into a confusing wall: the rewritten Part 19 has been circulating since September 2025, agencies are visibly operating under it, and yet the Federal Acquisition Regulation you can pull up on eCFR still reads…
On July 13, 2026, the Department of War suspended the transition to Phase 2 of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program. Within a week, a lot of small defense contractors heard a much simpler version of that sentence: CMMC is dead. It is not. And acting as though it is will cost you contracts, and…
If you have been preparing an 8(a) application by writing the story of discrimination you personally experienced and how it held your business back, stop. That test is being deleted. On August 11, 2026, SBA published a final rule that removes the rebuttable presumption of social disadvantage for individually owned firms and replaces the individualized…
Configure QuickBooks for DCAA compliance: chart of accounts, timekeeping, indirect rates, unallowables. SF 1408 preparation for small contractors.
Federal contract debriefings: 3-day request window, what agency must disclose, preparing questions, using feedback, protest timing interaction.
Federal bid protests explained: GAO vs Court of Federal Claims, timing rules, CICA stay, cost/benefit, when to protest and when not to.
Wrap rate math: direct labor × multiplier for federal services pricing. Typical multipliers, category buildup, competitive benchmarks.
Federal cost proposal buildup: direct labor, indirect rates (fringe/overhead/G&A), profit. Sample math, cost realism, common mistakes.