Free tools to share with your APEX clients
FedReady helps small businesses find and bid on federal contracts. The tools below are free and need no account, so you can use them in a counseling session, send clients to them afterward, or list them on your resource page.
- Free, no account. Nothing on this page needs a sign-up or a payment.
- Registration stays free. We tell clients that SAM.gov registration is free and that they never need to pay anyone to do it.
- Not a government site. FedReady is a private company, not part of the government or the APEX Accelerator program.
A one-page handout for clients
Pick your program and the sheet names it as the client's free counseling contact, with a short link that opens the tools. Print it, or save it as a PDF to email.
Registration and readiness
- SAM registration status check
- Confirm a registration is active before a client bids, see when it expires, and let them sign up for a reminder email before renewal. Search by UEI, CAGE code or name, with no SAM.gov sign-in.
- NAICS code lookup
- Search codes by keyword or by a company that does the same work, with each code's size standard and open contracts.
- SBA size standard checker
- Check whether a client counts as small under each of their NAICS codes, from receipts or employees.
- SBA certification screener
- A two-minute first pass at 8(a), WOSB, EDWOSB, HUBZone, SDVOSB and VOSB before you go through the rules with them.
- HUBZone map checker
- Check an office or employee address against SBA's HUBZone map, with the zone type and its expiration date.
- CAGE code and UEI lookup
- Look up a client's or a teaming partner's CAGE code, UEI, registration status and certifications.
Market research
- Federal contract search
- Open SAM.gov notices in plain English, by kind of work, set-aside or NAICS code. A client can track one notice by email with no account.
- Recent contract awards
- Who won federal contracts in the last 90 days, by agency and NAICS code, with amounts. No sign-in, unlike award search inside SAM.gov.
- Expiring federal contracts
- Contracts ending in the next 12 months by NAICS code, for clients planning ahead for the recompete.
- Agency procurement forecasts
- What agencies plan to buy before it reaches SAM.gov, by agency and NAICS code.
- Subcontracting finder
- Primes with small business subcontracting plans in a NAICS code, for clients who should start as a sub.
- Small business contractor profiles
- A competitor's or partner's certifications and contract history in one page.
Pricing and learning
- Service Contract Act (SCA) price calculator
- The Department of Labor wage rates for a county turned into a bid rate, for guard, janitorial, grounds and similar service work.
- Plain-English guides
- Background reading to send home after a session: registration, set-asides, sources sought, pricing and more.
- Government contracting glossary
- Short definitions for the terms clients ask about, each linked to its guide.
Linking from your resource page
Use https://www.fedready.us/apex/ followed by your state's two-letter code, such as fedready.us/apex/co for Colorado. It opens the free tools page. The code lets us count how many visitors and new accounts come from APEX links in each state. It doesn't tell us anything about who they are.
We send business owners to you
Each state's page on FedReady, such as government contracts in Colorado, lists that state's APEX Accelerators from the official directory. Our guide to APEX Accelerators tells business owners to start with you. If your program's listing is wrong or out of date, email us and we'll fix it.
Where the data comes from
Notices and registrations come from SAM.gov, past awards and spending from USAspending.gov, size standards and HUBZone maps from the SBA, and wage rates from the Department of Labor's wage determinations on SAM.gov. Our methodology page has the details.
Questions or corrections
Email hello@fedready.us. It goes to Cyrus Hakimi, who runs FedReady.