What Actually Counts as Past Performance When You Are a Brand New Business
The Contracting Corner | Performance Contracts | May 11
Welcome to everyone who just joined the community this week. You picked the perfect time to show up. This one is for you. :)
This week I have been hearing from a lot of brand new businesses.
People who just got their LLC. Just registered on SAM.gov. Just found out the government spends over hundreds of thousand on simple services every year with small businesses and now they cannot stop thinking about it.
That energy is everything to me. I built Performance Contracts because of people exactly like that.
And every single one of them eventually hits the same wall.
They find a solicitation they want. The scope fits. The price makes sense. They scroll down to the past performance section and they close the laptop.
They assume they are not ready. That they need to go get experience somewhere else first before the government will take them seriously.
I want to spend today talking about why that thinking is wrong and walking you through exactly what does count as past performance when you are brand new. This is a full guide. Save it. Come back to it. Share it with someone who needs it.
First, let’s clear something up
When a solicitation asks you to demonstrate prior relevant experience, most new business owners read that as prior government contracts only.
That is not what it means.
The Federal Acquisition Regulation, which is the rulebook that governs how the government buys things, allows buyers to consider commercial past performance. That means work you did for a private company, a nonprofit, a household, or an individual all qualifies as relevant experience as long as it is similar in scope, scale, and complexity to what the government is buying.
The government is not trying to eliminate new businesses. There are entire contract vehicles, set-aside programs, and small business goals built specifically to give new and small businesses a real shot. The system is designed to bring you in. You just have to learn how to walk through it.
So let’s walk through it.
What past performance actually is
Past performance is documentation that shows a government buyer you have done or managed work similar to what they are buying. It is one of the primary evaluation criteria on most solicitations alongside price, technical approach, and qualifications.
Buyers are looking for evidence of three things. Can you do the work. Have you done something like it before. And did you deliver when it counted.
That evidence does not have to come from a government contract. It has to come from somewhere real, documented, and presentable. Here is the full breakdown of what qualifies.
Commercial clients
If you have provided your service or product to a private business, that is past performance.
A cleaning company that services office buildings has relevant experience for a federal janitorial contract. A landscaping company that maintains corporate campuses has relevant experience for a grounds maintenance solicitation. A security company that staffed a corporate event has relevant experience for a facility security contract.
The evaluation is about scope alignment. The type of work, the size of the job, and the complexity of the environment should be comparable to what the government is buying. It does not need to be identical. It needs to be close enough that a buyer can see the connection and feel confident you have operated at a similar level.
How to document it: Client name or type, the scope of work in plain language, how long the engagement lasted, the approximate dollar value, and a point of contact who will respond if the buyer reaches out.
How to present it: Write it up like a mini contract summary. Do not write it like a testimonial. Buyers are not looking for someone to say you are great. They are looking for evidence that you delivered.
Residential clients
Residential clients count and this surprises people every time I say it.
If you are a new pest control company and you have treated 50 homes in the past year, that is documented experience performing your core service at volume. It demonstrates process, consistency, and the ability to show up on a schedule and deliver results. If you are a new handyman business and you have completed 20 jobs in your first six months, that is a track record.
Residential past performance is most applicable at the state and local government level where contract sizes are smaller and buyers have more flexibility in how they evaluate experience. But do not rule it out at the federal level either, especially for micro purchases and simplified acquisitions where documentation requirements are lighter.
The key is to present it professionally. This is not a Yelp review situation. You are presenting a body of work.
How to document it: Approximate number of clients served, type of service performed, geography, duration of your business operation, and any measurable outcomes like repeat business, referrals, or documented satisfaction you can point to.
How to present it: Aggregate it. Instead of listing individual homeowners, describe your residential client base as a portfolio. Fifty residential clients over eighteen months performing weekly pest control services in the greater Los Angeles area is a real and credible performance record.
Subcontracting work
This is the most underused form of experience in the new business community and I want to spend a minute here because it matters.
If you have worked under a prime contractor in any capacity, you have past performance. You were hired to perform a defined scope of work. You had a deliverable. You executed. That is the whole definition.
Subcontracting also matters strategically beyond just the past performance it gives you. Working under a prime contractor in your industry gets you into a real government project, gives you direct experience with government standards and documentation requirements, and builds a relationship with a company that may bring you back again. It is one of the fastest ways to build a genuine track record.
Even informal subcontracting arrangements count if you can document them. If a larger company called you in to handle overflow work, help staff a project, or manage a portion of a job they were responsible for, that is real work you can reference.
How to document it: The prime contractor’s name and contact, your specific role and scope, the duration, the dollar value of your portion of the work, and whether the end client was a government agency.
How to present it: Be specific about what you did and what you were responsible for. You are not presenting the prime contractor’s contract. You are presenting your piece of it. The buyer wants to know what you personally delivered.
Previous employment
This one surprises people even more than residential clients and it is completely legitimate.
If you worked in your industry before you started your business, the experience you built in that role is relevant to your government contracting pursuit. You know the work. You know the standards. You know what it takes to deliver at scale. That does not disappear because you now own the company instead of working for someone else.
A former hospital facilities manager who opened a commercial cleaning company has deep firsthand knowledge of regulated environments, cleanliness standards, and the kind of documentation government healthcare facilities require. A retired military logistics specialist running a supply chain consulting firm has years of experience managing exactly the kind of operations the government buys. A former city building inspector who now owns a construction company understands government project requirements from the inside out.
The framing matters here. You are not claiming your former employer’s contracts as your own. You are presenting your professional background as evidence of personal expertise and industry depth. It reinforces your capability statement and gives a buyer context for why you are qualified to do what you are proposing to do.
How to document it: Your role, the organization you worked for, your specific responsibilities, the scale and scope of the work you were involved in, and how that experience directly applies to the contract you are pursuing.
How to present it: Include it as a background section in your capability statement and reference it in your technical approach. The framing is this is who I am and this is what I have spent years doing, not this is a contract I performed.
Community, volunteer, and nonprofit work
If you performed your service in a community or nonprofit setting and it is documented, it counts.
A caterer who fed 500 people at a community fundraiser has a relevant reference. A security company owner who managed access control and crowd flow for a large nonprofit event has documented experience at scale. An IT consultant who built out the infrastructure for a local church or community organization has a real scope of work they can reference. A landscaper who maintained the grounds for a nonprofit facility has a performance record.
The standard is professionalism and documentation. You need to be able to describe the scope clearly, name the organization, provide a contact, and present it the way you would present any other past performance. If it looks like a real project it will be read like one.
How to document it: The organization name, the scope of work, the scale of the project, how long it lasted, the outcome, and a point of contact who will respond if contacted.
How to present it: Do not undervalue it just because it was volunteer work or because the client was a nonprofit. Scope is scope. Delivery is delivery. Present it with the same structure and professionalism as everything else.
How to write it up so buyers take it seriously
Finding the experience is only half of the work. How you present it determines whether a buyer reads it as credible or skips past it entirely.
Here is the format that works.
Client or project name. Name the organization or describe it clearly if confidentiality is a concern.
Scope of work. Describe what you did in plain language. What service did you provide. What was the environment. What were the deliverables.
Scale and complexity. Give the buyer a sense of size. Square footage. Number of locations. Volume of product delivered. Number of people served. Something measurable that shows the scope was real.
Duration. How long did the engagement last. An ongoing two-year relationship reads differently than a single event.
Dollar value. Include this even if it is approximate. A buyer needs to know whether your experience is relevant to the size of the contract they are awarding. If the contract is worth $250,000 and your largest past project was $8,000, acknowledge that and address it in your technical approach.
Point of contact. Include a name, title, phone number, and email for someone who will actually respond. A reference that does not pick up the phone is worse than no reference.
Do not apologize for being new. Do not explain that this is your first government pursuit. Do not add a disclaimer that your experience is mostly commercial. Present the work professionally and let it stand on its own.
The businesses that win their first contract are not always the ones with the most experience. They are the ones who organized what they had and submitted it like they belonged there. Because they did.
What to do if your past performance is very thin
If you are genuinely brand new with almost no client history, here is the path.
Start with micro purchases. At the federal level, purchases under $10,000 can often be made without a formal competitive process and without deep past performance documentation. State and local governments have similar thresholds. These smaller opportunities exist specifically to give newer vendors a point of entry.
Look at simplified acquisitions between $10,000 and $250,000. These have lighter documentation requirements than full and open competitions and are often set aside specifically for small businesses.
Pursue subcontracting actively. Find prime contractors in your industry who hold government contracts and approach them directly about working as a sub. You get real experience, a real reference, and a real relationship out of it.
Document everything you do from day one. Every client. Every project. Every dollar. Build the record as you go so that six months from now you have something real to submit.
You do not need to wait until your past performance is perfect to start pursuing. You need to start pursuing so your past performance can grow.
Frequently asked questions
Does past performance have to be from a government contract? No. The FAR allows buyers to consider commercial past performance. Work performed for private companies, nonprofits, and individual clients all qualifies as long as it is relevant to the scope being procured.
What if I have no clients at all yet? Start with micro purchases under $10,000 where formal past performance documentation is often not required. Win one. Document it well. Use it as your first reference on the next submission.
How many past performance references do I need? Most solicitations ask for two to five references. If you are new, submit what you have and make each entry as detailed and professional as possible. A well-documented reference from two commercial clients is stronger than a vague reference from five.
Can I use work experience from my previous job? Yes. Frame it as relevant professional background and expertise, not as a contract your business performed. Be specific about your role and what you personally contributed to the work.
Does subcontracting count the same as prime contracting? It counts as relevant experience. On large federal solicitations it may carry slightly less weight than prime performance but at the state and local level it is often evaluated equally. Use it and be specific about your scope and contribution.
What if my past work was informal and I do not have a formal contract to reference? Document what you have. A letter from the client, an invoice, a scope of work you created, email threads confirming the engagement. Anything that establishes the work was real and that you delivered. Then get a contact who will speak to your performance.
The bottom line
You do not need a history of government contracts to pursue government contracts. You need documented work that shows you can deliver. Commercial clients. Residential clients. Subcontracting. Your last job. Community work. All of it counts when it is presented the right way.
The laptop stays open from here.
Want to learn the first steps?
This week I am opening up my free Government Contracts 101 class and it is built exactly for where you are right now.
See you in there. 🌱
