How long does this really take end to end?

The work is about four weeks. The calendar depends on SAM. A clean entity validation on a company whose paperwork matches everywhere can clear in under a week; one with a name or address mismatch across the state registry, the IRS, and your incorporation documents can take a month or more and there is no expedite path. I sequence everything else to run alongside it so the wait costs you time rather than deliverables, and I tell you which stage is blocked and on whom.

Do I pay a fee to register in SAM?

No. SAM.gov registration is free, the UEI is free, and the CAGE code is free. Companies that charge hundreds of dollars for registration are reselling a free government process. You are paying me for code selection, positioning, past performance framing, and the capability statement. The registration is included because it has to happen first, not because it is the expensive part.

What if my entity validation gets rejected?

It happens, and it is usually a document mismatch rather than a real problem. I prepare the validation package against what the government actually checks, and if it comes back rejected I work the correction with you and resubmit. Rejections are inside the engagement, not an extra.

Is the capability statement really included, or is it a lighter version?

It is the same deliverable sold standalone at $750 — same one-page format, same tagged accessible PDF, same editable source, same revision round. It is better here, because the codes and past performance framing that feed it were chosen deliberately in the same engagement instead of taken from whatever you already had.

What is the federal web presence module?

A $2,000 add-on, sold only to accelerator clients, that turns the deliverables you already have into a four-page website — home, capabilities, past performance, contact — on one of three templates, with a written Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 AA conformance summary you can hand to a contracting officer. It is not custom design and it is not included in the $2,500. Ask at the handoff call if you want it.

Will you bid for me after this?

Not under this engagement. Once you are positioned, a specific solicitation is an opportunity assessment, a live response is proposal support, and continuous bidding is the retainer. Plenty of accelerator clients buy nothing else for six months and work their own outreach, which is the intended outcome.

I registered myself two years ago and nothing happened. Is this still the right engagement?

Usually yes, and it is the most common version of this client. A dormant registration with default codes, no PSC selection, and a capability statement built from a template is functionally invisible. The registration part gets shorter, the positioning part does not change, and the price is the same.

Is the strategy call credited against this?

Yes, in full. Book the $250 call first and the accelerator is $2,250. It is also the better order, because an hour on your situation is how we find out whether this is the right engagement at all.

Federal Accelerator: the full positioning engagement

$2,500

flat

The whole positioning sequence in one engagement — SAM registration with UEI and CAGE, NAICS and PSC selection built on what the government actually buys, set-aside eligibility, past performance framing, and the capability statement that comes out of all of it.

Ends with a submitted offer, not a certificate. Calendar time depends on SAM validation, which nobody controls.

Book a call

Who this is for

This is for you if

You run a business that already delivers something to somebody, and you have decided federal work is worth a genuine attempt rather than a look. You either have no federal presence at all, or you have a dormant one — a registration someone did for you years ago, codes nobody chose deliberately, and no idea which agencies buy what you sell. You can put a few hours into this over the course of the engagement, because the parts that require the owner cannot be delegated to me. Firms that get the most out of this have real delivery capacity and commercial past performance, and are missing only the federal scaffolding around it.

This is not for you if

Not for you if you do not have a business yet. Positioning is arranging what you can already do so a federal buyer can see it; if there is no delivery capability and no performance history, there is nothing to arrange. Not for you if you want opportunities sourced and screened — this engagement makes you findable and bid-ready, it does not produce a pipeline, and ongoing sourcing is the pipeline retainer at $3,000 a month. Not for you if you have a live solicitation on the clock right now; the accelerator runs on a positioning timeline and a due date does not wait for it, so buy the opportunity assessment or proposal support for that bid and do this afterward. Not for you if you already hold an active UEI and CAGE, chose your codes deliberately against spend data, and only need the document — that is the $750 capability statement and you should not pay $2,500 for it. Not for you if you want me to guarantee a SAM approval date; entity validation is run by the government, it stalls on document mismatches, and anyone selling you a date is selling you something they do not control. Not for you if you want the registration done without your participation — the notarized letter, the EBiz POC designation, and the validation documents require the owner, and a registration filed around you is a registration you cannot maintain. Not for you if you expect a contract at the end of it; the deliverable is a firm that can credibly compete, not an award. And not for you if what you actually want is a website — the federal web presence module is a separate $2,000 add-on available only to accelerator clients, and it is not part of this fee.

What you get

SAM.gov registration end to end: UEI, CAGE via DLA, entity validation, reps and certifications walked through clause by clause, and the EBiz POC and MPIN set up so you control the account afterward rather than depending on me.
NAICS and PSC selection built from spend data rather than guesswork — three years of obligations under each candidate code from USASpending and FPDS, who won it, typical award size, size standard against your revenue and headcount, and which codes to drop because nothing is bought under them.
A set-aside and certification review — what you already qualify for, what you could qualify for and what it would cost to get there, and which certifications are not worth pursuing for your line of work. Includes the SDVOSB, VOSB, 8(a), HUBZone, and WOSB paths where they apply.
Past performance framing: your existing work, federal or commercial, rewritten into the structure a contracting officer evaluates — customer, contract vehicle, period, value, scope, and a reference who has agreed to be called.
The one-page capability statement, tagged and Section 508 conformant, plus the editable source file. This is the $750 standalone deliverable, included and built from the code and positioning work rather than from a template.
A target list of buying offices and agencies that purchase under your codes, with the small business specialist or OSDBU contact for each, ranked by how much they bought and how much of it went to small business.
A written 90-day plan after the sequence closes: what to do in week one, what outreach to run, what to respond to, and which of the six offers is the right next spend, including none of them if that is the answer.
Two calls: a kickoff to set direction and a handoff at the end to walk the deliverables and the plan. Email in between, answered in one business day.

Most firms enter the federal market backward. They register first, pick codes from a dropdown in an afternoon, download a capability statement template, and then start looking for opportunities — and cannot understand why nothing happens for a year.

The order that works is the reverse. Find out what the government buys in your line and who buys it, then select the codes that put you in front of those buyers, then build the registration and the document around that. This engagement is that sequence, run once, properly.

How it works

Kickoff call. What you sell, what you have delivered, what you can deliver at scale, and what you want out of the next twelve months.
Market research first, not registration. Three years of obligations under every candidate NAICS and PSC, who won them, typical award sizes, and how much went to small business. This is what decides the codes.
Registration. UEI, entity validation, CAGE, reps and certifications clause by clause, EBiz POC and MPIN in your control. Filed with the codes step two produced.
Positioning. Set-aside eligibility, past performance framing, and the competitive picture under your codes — who you are actually up against and what they win.
The capability statement. Built out of everything above, with one revision round.
Handoff. A call, the target buying office list, and a written 90-day plan.

Why the sequence matters

Codes chosen after research beat codes chosen from a dropdown. Your primary NAICS determines which set-aside opportunities you are visible for and which size standard applies to you. Picking it in thirty seconds is the most consequential thirty seconds most firms spend in this market.

Past performance framing is not writing. It is deciding which of your existing work maps onto federal requirements and getting references who will confirm it. Most firms have more usable past performance than they think and present none of it in a form a contracting officer can evaluate.

The document comes last for a reason. A capability statement is a summary of your positioning. Write it before the positioning exists and you get a brochure.

The SAM dependency, stated plainly

I control the work. I do not control the government. Entity validation is a manual review against records held by the state, the IRS, and whatever you typed into the form, and mismatches between them are the single most common reason a registration sits for weeks. There is no expedited path and no relationship that shortens it.

What I do about it: the validation package goes in prepared against what is actually checked, everything not dependent on SAM runs while you wait, and you get a written status telling you which stage is blocked and on whom. What I will not do is quote you a date the government has not given me.

What I will not do

I will not file a registration around you. The notarized letter, the EBiz POC designation, and the validation documents require the owner of the business, and a registration you cannot access or maintain is worse than not having one. Budget a few hours across the engagement.

Where this fits

Once you are positioned, the next spend is usually per-solicitation. A specific opportunity is an opportunity assessment; a firm bidding continuously belongs on the pipeline retainer rather than buying assessments one at a time.

Timeline

Roughly four weeks of active work on my side, sequenced so nothing waits on anything it does not have to. Calendar time is longer and I will not pretend otherwise, because SAM registration and entity validation are run by the government and outside my control — validation can take days or can stall for weeks on a single document mismatch between your incorporation paperwork, your IRS records, and what you typed. Everything that does not depend on SAM runs in parallel while it clears, so the code research, past performance framing, and capability statement are finished when your registration is, not after it. You will get a written status at each stage and an honest read on what is waiting on the government versus waiting on me or on you.

Common questions

How long does this really take end to end?: The work is about four weeks. The calendar depends on SAM. A clean entity validation on a company whose paperwork matches everywhere can clear in under a week; one with a name or address mismatch across the state registry, the IRS, and your incorporation documents can take a month or more and there is no expedite path. I sequence everything else to run alongside it so the wait costs you time rather than deliverables, and I tell you which stage is blocked and on whom.
Do I pay a fee to register in SAM?: No. SAM.gov registration is free, the UEI is free, and the CAGE code is free. Companies that charge hundreds of dollars for registration are reselling a free government process. You are paying me for code selection, positioning, past performance framing, and the capability statement. The registration is included because it has to happen first, not because it is the expensive part.
What if my entity validation gets rejected?: It happens, and it is usually a document mismatch rather than a real problem. I prepare the validation package against what the government actually checks, and if it comes back rejected I work the correction with you and resubmit. Rejections are inside the engagement, not an extra.
Is the capability statement really included, or is it a lighter version?: It is the same deliverable sold standalone at $750 — same one-page format, same tagged accessible PDF, same editable source, same revision round. It is better here, because the codes and past performance framing that feed it were chosen deliberately in the same engagement instead of taken from whatever you already had.
What is the federal web presence module?: A $2,000 add-on, sold only to accelerator clients, that turns the deliverables you already have into a four-page website — home, capabilities, past performance, contact — on one of three templates, with a written Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 AA conformance summary you can hand to a contracting officer. It is not custom design and it is not included in the $2,500. Ask at the handoff call if you want it.
Will you bid for me after this?: Not under this engagement. Once you are positioned, a specific solicitation is an opportunity assessment, a live response is proposal support, and continuous bidding is the retainer. Plenty of accelerator clients buy nothing else for six months and work their own outreach, which is the intended outcome.
I registered myself two years ago and nothing happened. Is this still the right engagement?: Usually yes, and it is the most common version of this client. A dormant registration with default codes, no PSC selection, and a capability statement built from a template is functionally invisible. The registration part gets shorter, the positioning part does not change, and the price is the same.
Is the strategy call credited against this?: Yes, in full. Book the $250 call first and the accelerator is $2,250. It is also the better order, because an hour on your situation is how we find out whether this is the right engagement at all.

Ready to be positioned before the next solicitation drops?

Tell me what you are bidding on and where you are stuck. If this is not the right engagement for it, I will say so and point you at the one that is.

Book a call