You search SAM for subcontracting work and get a page full of prime solicitations. Most of them are too big to bid, and none of them say "subcontractors wanted." So where do primes actually post the work they hand down?
Quick Answer
Subcontracting is one of the most practical ways to enter and grow in federal contracting. Instead of competing for a prime contract directly, you partner with a company that holds one and deliver part of the work. For many businesses, it is a lower-barrier way to win federal revenue, build past performance, and learn how federal work runs, all of which strengthen your position for prime work later.
Winning a small business set-aside contract feels like crossing a finish line. The award letter comes in, the team celebrates, and then someone on the operations side starts asking a question that should have been asked weeks earlier: how much of this work can we actually subcontract out?
That question has a real answer, and the answer matters. Get it wrong and you're not just risking a contract. You're risking a finding that you operated as a pass-through, which is one of the more serious problems a small business contractor can have.
This is the rule that catches more newer contractors than almost any other compliance trap. Here's what's actually going on.
