How to Win Government Security Guard Contracts: A Guide for Small Guard Companies

This guide is for owners of small, licensed security guard companies, often with a few dozen officers or fewer, who want to win government guard work but have never bid on a solicitation.

Agencies at every level hire contract guards: federal office buildings, research labs, warehouses, ports, courthouses, clinics, housing authorities, and special events. Many posts are one or two officers on a fixed schedule, which suits a local company that already knows how to staff and supervise posts.

You will learn which NAICS codes to use, how to register for free, where to find guard contracts, what the licensing and suitability requirements look like, how the Service Contract Act wage determination works for guards, how to price a post hour with a worked example, how to write and submit a proposal, what happens after award, and why small guard companies lose.

1. Pick the right NAICS code

Each solicitation has one NAICS code, which defines the work and sets the small business size limit for that job. Listing the right codes in your registration is how contracting officers and search tools find you.

The size standards below come from the current SBA table and are measured in average annual receipts, generally averaged over your last five completed fiscal years.

• 561612 Security Guards and Patrol Services: $29.0 million. The main code for armed and unarmed guards, patrol services, and access control posts.
• 561621 Security Systems Services (except Locksmiths): $25.0 million. Used for installing, servicing, and monitoring alarm, camera, and access control systems.

2. Decide: bid yourself or team with a prime

There are two realistic ways in for a small guard company.

You can bid as the prime. You register, find the solicitation, write the proposal, and sign the contract. You keep the full margin and build your own federal past performance, but you also handle every staffing report, clause, and compliance requirement yourself.

Or you can work as a subcontractor to a prime that already holds registrations and knows federal paperwork. You give the prime your price for staffing the posts, the prime bids, and if it wins, your officers work the contract. You learn federal post orders, inspections, and invoicing while the prime carries the bid.

Many companies subcontract first and then bid smaller posts directly. Pick a path now, because it decides how much of the following work falls on you.

If you subcontract, the prime will usually ask for your price by post and labor category, proof of state licensing and insurance, your training program, and references. Put the agreement in writing: posts covered, rates, how added hours are handled, and when you get paid.

3. Register in SAM.gov (it is free)

You need an active SAM.gov registration to hold a federal contract. It is free. Anyone charging to register you is a private company, not the government.

SAM assigns your business a Unique Entity ID (UEI) and a CAGE code. You will need your legal name and address exactly as the IRS has them, your EIN, banking details for payments, and your NAICS codes. You will also answer representations and certifications, including your small business status.

Expect a few weeks for a new registration to activate. Renew it every year. If you qualify for SBA programs such as 8(a), HUBZone, women-owned small business, or service-disabled veteran-owned small business, apply with SBA too. Many guard contracts are set aside for those firms, and service-disabled veteran-owned guard companies are common in this market.

Have this ready before you start the registration:

• Your legal business name and physical address, exactly as they appear with the IRS.
• Your EIN (or SSN for some sole proprietors).
• Bank routing and account numbers for electronic payment.
• Your NAICS codes and a point of contact for government business.
• Answers to the representations and certifications, including small business status.

4. Find security guard bids

Search SAM.gov Contract Opportunities for NAICS 561612, filter by state, and save the search with email alerts. Also try keywords such as guard services, security officer, access control, and patrol.

Know the federal thresholds that took effect October 1, 2025. The simplified acquisition threshold is $350,000, and the micro-purchase threshold is $15,000 in general but only $2,500 for services covered by the Service Contract Act. Purchases above the micro-purchase threshold and up to the simplified acquisition threshold generally must be set aside for small businesses when the contracting officer expects offers from at least two capable small businesses at fair prices. Short-term posts and single-site guard jobs often fall in that range.

Respond to Sources Sought notices, because they help agencies decide on small business set-asides. And look beyond federal work: state agencies, counties, cities, transit and port authorities, housing authorities, and school districts all buy guard services through their own portals.

Research past awards on USAspending.gov before you bid. Searching by agency and place of performance usually shows the incumbent guard company, the award amount, and the contract dates. That gives you a price check and tells you when the next competition is likely.

5. Check licensing, suitability, and training requirements

Guard contracts have more people requirements than most trades. Read them before you decide to bid.

Your company and your officers must hold whatever guard licenses the state requires, and armed officers need the state firearms permits and qualifications for the work location. Solicitations often require proof of these with your proposal or before start of work.

Federal sites usually require background checks or a suitability determination before an officer can work a post, and some require specific training such as first aid, CPR, or screening equipment training. Federal Protective Service guard contracts at federal buildings have their own training and certification requirements. Military installations require base access credentials.

The time it takes to get officers cleared is real. Your proposal should explain how you will recruit, screen, and credential enough officers, including backups, before the start date.

Count the training hours, too. If officers need specific courses before they can stand a post, those hours are paid time under the wage determination, and someone has to pay for the instructors and materials. Build that cost into your price instead of discovering it after award.

6. Read the solicitation and the post orders

A guard solicitation usually includes a Performance Work Statement (PWS), a list of posts with hours, the pricing schedule, instructions to offerors, evaluation criteria, clauses, and a wage determination.

Map every post: location, armed or unarmed, days and hours, duties (access control, screening, patrols, alarm response, visitor logs), and any vehicle or equipment you must supply. Add up total annual hours per post. A post staffed around the clock is 168 hours a week, which is more than four full-time officers before anyone takes leave.

Look for supervision requirements, reporting, the Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP) and what counts as a missed post, uniform standards, and the phase-in schedule. Then study the evaluation factors. Some guard contracts are awarded on lowest price among technically acceptable offers, and others on best value.

Watch for equipment and vehicles the contractor must provide, such as radios, flashlights, metal detecting wands, patrol vehicles, and fuel. Also note whether the government provides a guard booth, phone line, or computer. Every item you must furnish belongs in your price.

7. Understand the wage determination (Service Contract Act)

Guard services over $2,500 are covered by the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act. You must pay at least the hourly wage and fringe benefits in the wage determination attached to the solicitation.

Guard positions usually appear as Guard I and Guard II, with Guard II typically covering officers with more responsibility, such as armed posts. Match each post to the right classification. Then read the fringe section: health and welfare per hour, paid vacation, and paid holidays.

If the current officers are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, the wage determination may be based on that agreement, with rates higher than the standard ones. This is common on guard contracts, so check carefully.

Wage determinations are posted on SAM.gov and change over time. Read the contract's price adjustment clause so you understand how wage increases in option years are handled.

8. Visit the site

If there is a site visit, attend. Walk each post and note where officers will stand or sit, shelter from weather, restroom access, radio coverage, patrol routes, gate locations, lighting, and where you can keep logs and equipment.

Ask about expected visitor and vehicle volume, how alarms are monitored, and who the officers report to on site. Submit questions in writing by the deadline, and acknowledge every amendment in your proposal.

Ask whether the current officers are expected to stay on. Hiring experienced officers who already know the site can make your phase-in much easier, and your proposal is stronger when it explains how you will recruit them fairly.

9. Price the post hours (a worked example)

Guard contracts are usually priced per hour or per post per period. Build your billable rate from the wage determination, fringe, payroll taxes and insurance, training and licensing, uniforms and equipment, overhead, and profit.

Example only. These numbers are made up to show the math. Use the actual wage determination and your real costs.

Say one unarmed post is staffed 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, or 2,080 hours. Suppose the wage determination shows $22.00 an hour plus $5.00 health and welfare, and your payroll taxes and workers' compensation add $3.00. Loaded labor is $30.00 an hour, so labor is 2,080 x $30.00 = $62,400.

Add $3,000 for uniforms, equipment, and training, $500 for licensing and background checks, and $2,000 for your share of liability insurance. Direct costs are $67,900. Add 10 percent overhead ($6,790) to reach $74,690, then 7 percent profit ($5,228.30). The annual price is about $79,918, which works out to roughly $38.42 per billable hour.

In a real bid, add the paid vacation and holidays in the wage determination, relief coverage when your officer is out, supervisor time, and any overtime the schedule creates. Check your rate against prior awards on USAspending.gov before you submit.

Most guard contracts run as a base year plus option years. Price each year when the schedule asks for it, and read the price adjustment clause, which often allows adjustments for wage determination increases in option years. Do not assume it covers every cost; insurance and equipment increases are usually yours to absorb.

10. Write a proposal that answers the evaluation factors

Follow the instructions to offerors exactly: their forms, order, headings, and page limits. Evaluators check each requirement off a list.

A strong guard proposal covers your staffing plan for every post, how you recruit and screen officers, licensing and training, supervision and field inspections, how you cover call-outs so no post goes unmanned, your communications and incident reporting, and a phase-in plan with dates for hiring, credentialing, and training.

For past performance, list similar guard contracts, including commercial, residential, or event work, with contacts who will answer. Show the number of posts, hours, and how long you held the account.

Submit early and in the exact way required. Late proposals are generally rejected. Confirm your SAM registration is active and every amendment is acknowledged.

Many guard solicitations ask for a project manager or site supervisor by name, sometimes with a resume. Name a real person with real guard experience, and make sure that person is available and willing. Evaluators notice when the same supervisor is promised to every job.

11. After award: CO, COR, and getting paid

The Contracting Officer (CO) is the only person who can change the contract. The Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) or facility security manager oversees the posts day to day but cannot add hours or posts. If you are asked to add coverage, get a written modification from the CO first, or you may not be paid for it.

Expect a post-award meeting, credentialing for every officer before they work, and inspections against the QASP. Keep accurate sign-in sheets and daily activity reports. They support your invoices and your performance ratings.

Invoices are electronic. Defense agencies use Wide Area Workflow in the PIEE system, and many civilian agencies use the Treasury's Invoice Processing Platform (IPP), which is free for vendors. Keep payroll records ready, since Service Contract Act compliance can be reviewed.

Your performance will usually be rated in the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS). Evaluators read those ratings on future guard contracts, so filling every post, every shift, on the first contract is the best marketing you can do.

12. Why small guard companies lose

The most common reasons are avoidable.

• Pricing the hours on the schedule but forgetting relief, vacation, holidays, and supervisor time.
• Classifying armed posts at the lower guard rate in the wage determination.
• No credible plan to get enough officers licensed and cleared by the start date.
• Missing proof of a state license or required training that the solicitation asked for.
• A generic proposal that does not address each post and evaluation factor.
• Late submission or a missing amendment acknowledgment.

Two ways to win your first guard contract

You can bid under your own name using the steps above, starting with single-post and short-term jobs. If you want help writing the proposal, XL Eagle writes proposals for vendors who bid themselves, for $19.99 (www.xleagle.com/proposal-writing/).

If you would rather not take on federal registrations and paperwork yet, you can team with a prime. XL Eagle LLC (UEI K6SYWSWZAMY9, CAGE 11R42) is a federal prime contractor: you give us your price, we write and submit the bid under our registrations, and if we win, your officers do the work as our subcontractor. It is free to you; our margin is added on top of your price. We have won $2.3 million across 47 federal awards from 7 departments, from grounds maintenance for NOAA in Texas to facility relocation for the U.S. Navy at Puget Sound.

Frequently asked questions

Conclusion

Government guard contracts are won on staffing discipline: correct wage determination pricing, a believable plan to license and clear officers, and no missed posts. A small, well-run guard company can do all of that.

Register in SAM.gov, set up your saved search for 561612, and read the next guard solicitation in your area from start to finish. Price every post hour, including relief, and you will be ready to bid.