Edward (BO) and Government Contract: 20 Years Waiting – 55 Days to Win

People often find government contracting hard due to the complex regulations and strict compliance requirements that must be met, the lengthy and detailed bid process, and the intense competition from established firms. Also, the strict evaluation criteria, slow payment processes, and ongoing monitoring can be daunting. The risk of penalties for non-compliance further adds to the challenge, making the entire process appear overwhelming, especially for newcomers or smaller businesses.

Those are what people think when it comes to chasing after government contracts. However, these hardships mentioned above are just exaggerated, government contracting game is easier than you think.

To prove this point, we have Edward (BO), the owner of Vertical Horizon’s Construction Group. He used to be drowned in misgivings and myths about government contract. It all changed when he tried to bid on several contracts and realized that it wasn’t that hard.

Edward (Bo) – Postponed Taking on Government Contracts for 20 Years

The first thing about Edward is he has been always familiar with construction since he was a little boy.

He said, “My father was a general contractor, and I became a general contractor in 2011. Since I was a little boy, I was always used to working around the house. My dad would get me out of bed on Saturday mornings to go work on people’s houses and things like that. He had some rental houses that he invested in, and working on those, getting them built from the ground up, so I was real familiar with construction.”

Edward has been intrigued by government contracting since 2004, inspired by relatives who landed multi-million dollar deals in disaster recovery. Despite this early exposure, life kept him on a different path. With four kids to provide for and a steady job that demanded his time, he was always caught up in the daily grind—juggling side hustles and a constant stream of work from loyal customers.

Although the allure of government contracts was always in the back of his mind, it wasn’t until recently that he decided to take the plunge and seriously pursue the ambition.

“Recently, more information has become available about government contracting. There was this big stigma around it for the longest time, that it was something really hard to get into and that you had to know somebody. I kind of felt the same way. Even though I had relatives in it, they were still connected, had a lot of money, and political connections. I always figured that was the route I would have to take to get there, so I never really pursued it,” Edward stated.

What changed his mind is the people who won contracts and they shared about their stories on YouTube. That how all the stigmas in his mind were shattered. It was the end of July 2024 that he decided to go on his SAM account that has been registered for over 10 years to explore opportunities.

The first contract that he wanted to bid on was a contract for doors and windows. He attended the site visit, and the contracting officer told him that the job was canceled due to some mold found on the site. Seizing the opportunity, Edward mentioned that his company could handle mold remediation. The officer took his information, and about a week and a half later, the job was reposted as a mold remediation project.

This time there were probably over 30 people on the site visit, some of them are big names in the construction world, which made Edward a bit worried because of all the competition.

Edward invited a high school friend who has a mold remediation company to visit the site. After calculating, she was confident in her numbers, so the duo decided to go for it.

Edward recounted that, although he had attended pre-bids before, his first government pre-bid was overwhelming. He prepared his bid packet, completed the necessary forms, included a scope of work and a highlight of his company, and used a free online cover page template with some modifications.

After submitting his bid, he attended another pre-bid for a small job, like garage doors, where he encountered the same contracting officer who mentioned they were close to announcing the winner of the previous bid. The next day, Edward received an email informing him that he won the $18,000 contract.

“I just wanted to get through the process, and once I did, I realized it was possible, which really helped build my confidence to keep pushing forward. After receiving the award letter for the initial contract, I got another award letter a few days later for the garage doors contract, which was worth $3,200,” said the contractor.

If You Deliver Excellent Work, Contracting Officers Will Refer You to Larger Firms

According to, Edward, he doesn’t view the government but instead, he treats government contracts like any other customer. Since he knows that bigger jobs will come later on, he always applies a markup of 15 to 30% to remain competitive and win the bid.

He highlighted, “My focus is on performing the job well and building trust with the contracting officer. With any job, curating the relationship is really important. I want them to trust me, know I’ll do a good job, they can refer me to others.”

He added to his point, “I didn’t really look at the money part of it because everybody gets their day as far as money and opportunities go. We all get an opportunity to make more money, but you have to be able to perform, you know. Same as you always say with set-asides, you know, that’s just icing on the cake. You just want to make sure you’re giving a good product and that your customer is satisfied with your work.”

To that end, Edward next move is really to build a strong foundation of experiences to thrive further in the future.

One beautiful thing about government contracting is when you deliver excellent work, contracting officers will refer smaller, high-performing companies to larger firms, particularly when these large companies have subcontracting goals they need to meet. That’s what happened with Edward.

After getting his first two wins, Edward wrote up a couple of proposals for sole-source contracts and was contacted by someone in Maryland about a landscaping and lawn care job in Texas and Louisiana. The contact was impressed with Edward’s write-up, which he had created using ChatGPT, and informed him that the solicitation would be released soon, encouraging him to look out for it.

Edward received a referral from his previous work with Homeland Security and the Coast Guard. A representative from a major prime contractor in the Southeastern U.S.—a firm with over $2 billion in government contracts over the past decade—reached out to him. She was referred to Edward by a contractor officer who praised his work.

He recalled, “So, long story short, she basically told me everything she needed me to write up for her, and I wrote up an AC repair, swap out, and put a new AC system on top of a roof, a package unit, 10 tons, for $45,000.”

Where Does Edward Find the People that He Needs?

You won a contract, but you have no experience in the field of that award, and now you have to find subcontractors to perform the work. While people go online and try to find good ones, Edward suggests to diverse the method of finding people.

Edward reveals his approach to finding quality subcontractors and contract opportunities. Instead of relying on pricey online searches where competition is fierce, he prefers to hit the streets. He drives through new subdivisions, checking out ongoing construction and meeting tradespeople directly.

“The best way to find guys is to ride around new, up-and-coming subdivisions, look at the work they’re doing, walk through their houses they’re working on. You can vet the people that way,” Edward suggested.

He added, “When you see new construction going on, see guys working, stop and take a look at their work. Give them your phone number, give them your card, and exchange information. That’s my favorite way to find people.”

He also values networking at PTAC and SBA events, where exchanging business cards can lead to valuable connections and insider recommendations. For those searching for subcontractors, Facebook Marketplace can be a goldmine, but he advises verifying that they have insurance to avoid unreliable workers.

There are Jobs that Don’t Require Insurance

Many people think that they have to get an insurance in order to be qualified to work with the government, however, it’s optional, just as the story of Edward. Despite having a contractor license in Louisiana, none of the jobs he worked on required him to use it; they only required a working knowledge of the equipment.

Edward shared that he had insurance coverage, including General Liability and Workers’ Compensation, but didn’t need it for the government jobs he completed or the upcoming AC job.

Recently, He had bid on a landscaping job in Omaha, Nebraska, and a contract of a generator replacement in Louisiana. Despite offering a competitive price, a lowball bid from another contractor won the job. For both of these contracts, bonding wasn’t required.

However, Edward advises people to Google insurance companies to find and compare bonding options and rates. Researching online helps identify companies that offer bonding services, understand the requirements for different bond amounts, and get quotes.

“Usually, you can get bonded up to $100,000 if you have a moderate credit score, like 650 and up. When it gets up to a quarter million and above, they want to look at your books a little bit harder, see what’s going in the account, see what you made for the year. So, 250 and up, that’s you know that’s kind of what you’re looking for,” he shared.

If you can’t secure bonding for larger amounts on your own, Edward recommends partnering with someone who has a higher bonding capacity.

Edward said, “If you can’t get bonded for that much, you may have to partner with somebody who can. There’s always a way around it. Look for somebody who’s been there and done that, see what their bonding capacity is, and maybe they can partner up with you on that. You guys can get past that too, so don’t let that hinder you.”

And if you partner with other companies, even big ones, they don’t require an insurance from you, according to Edward.

“The only thing I had to do was sign an agreement stating that if I broke anything, I would put it back in new condition. That was it,” he said.

You Don’t Need to Bid Sometimes

One of the myths about government contracting is that you have to always bid to win contracts. That isn’t necessarily true when there are many other ways to secure contracts in Edward’s experience.

Sometimes, they might find a job too small or not profitable enough due to their higher margins. He encourages others to submit bids even if the process seems daunting because opportunities can still arise despite initial challenges.

“Sometimes the job may be too small for them, their margins may be too large for what they’re expecting. You never know what happens, so I encourage everybody to just bid, even if it looks a little intimidating initially,” he concluded.

Edward Future Move – Targeting the VA – Leverage The SDVOSB

In the contracting game, there are various contract opportunities available in fields like construction, staffing, and medical services opened for veterans. To access these specific contract vehicles, companies typically need to be certified as a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB). That’s what Edward is aiming for.

Edward said, “I’m a disabled vet so I was looking at some roofing jobs with the VA; they do a lot of roofing throughout the country, so I’ve been looking at those types of set-asides. But I do want to, because I’ve been really, I’m like a being-the-contract-like-a-one-and-done thing, but I do want to focus on some of those longer-term contracts.

“I do want to, even if it’s like routine maintenance, things like that, I would like to focus on something like that where I just provide personnel and products and, you know, fulfill these obligations that the government has as far as maintenance goes,” he continued.

Besides targeting contracts with the VA, he is also interested in the Corps of Engineers, noting that the Corps has more stipulations. While he currently focuses on construction, he aims to diversify into areas like medical supplies and become a general service provider. However, he prefers to stick with what he knows for now but is keen to explore new opportunities in the future.