Hit Submit Quick Start Guide: How Get Started In Government Contracting
by Anthony Timbers
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The Quick Start Guide is a genuine orientation to government contracting for IT and cybersecurity professionals — written by the founder of a seven figure firm that holds a GSA HACS contract, CMMC C3PAO status, FedRAMP 3PAO status, PCI-DSS QSA company status, and ISO 17020 accreditation.
If you have been trying to figure out how government contracting works for a small IT or cybersecurity firm and you do not know where to start, this guide is the starting point.
What it covers:
Why SLED Contracting Beats Federal to Start — Most people default to federal contracting and spend months trying to crack something that was not designed for small firms. This guide explains why state, local, and education contracting is the right entry point and what that opportunity actually looks like in practice.
Business Formation — The true starting point for anyone. If you were thinking about getting into contracting and don't have your business set up or know how to, I walk you through it very quickly. It can be confusing how and what order to do things. I lay it out for you pretty simply.
Where to Find Opportunities — SAM.gov covers federal procurement. The enormous volume of SLED procurement happening every week is scattered across hundreds of different portals and platforms. This guide explains where to look and what tools surface it efficiently.
The Credential Stack — What credentials matter for a cybersecurity or IT firm pursuing government work, in what order, and why the sequence matters. High level overview with enough detail to orient your planning.
How Proposals Actually Work — The basics of reading a solicitation, understanding how you will be scored, and what goes into a response that wins. Enough to understand the process before you write your first bid.
Small Business Certifications — The state and federal certification programs that create real evaluation advantages on government bids and why getting certified early matters more than most people realize.
What this guide does not cover is the how behind all of it. The real costs of each credential, the specific order of operations, how to write a technical proposal that scores well, cash flow, hiring, scaling, and 10 years of stories and lessons behind the operational strategy. That is what the full playbook covers.
The complete Hit Submit playbook and template bundle is available at justhitsubmit.com.