How to get government contracts in janitorial and cleaning services

Janitorial is one of the friendliest doors into federal contracting for a small or diverse firm. Agencies buy it constantly, the work is hard to ship overseas, and the SBA size standard is wide enough that most cleaning companies still count as "small." The catch is that price discipline and labor compliance matter more here than in almost any other service category. Win on those two and the contracts renew for years.

Here is the real path, in the order it actually happens.

Know your NAICS code and whether you qualify as small

The primary code for this work is NAICS 561720, Janitorial Services. It covers interior cleaning, floor care, sanitizing, and window cleaning for buildings. The SBA size standard for 561720 is $22 million in average annual receipts, measured over your most recent fiscal years. If your firm books less than that, you qualify as a small business, and almost every cleaning company starting out clears that bar easily.

Related codes you may also register under: 561740 (Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning) and 561790 (Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings), which catches things like pressure washing and exterior cleaning. List every code that genuinely describes your work, because contracting officers search by NAICS when they build their bidder lists.

The set-asides that apply to you

This is where being a small or diverse business turns into a real advantage. Janitorial solicitations are set aside for small business constantly, and they routinely carry the diversity-specific carve-outs too. On SAM.gov you will regularly see 561720 opportunities reserved for:

• Total small business (any small firm in the code)
• 8(a) (SBA's program for socially and economically disadvantaged owners)
• WOSB / EDWOSB (women-owned and economically disadvantaged women-owned)
• SDVOSB (service-disabled veteran-owned)
• HUBZone (firms in historically underutilized business zones)

A set-aside means only firms in that category can bid, so the field shrinks from hundreds of competitors to a handful. If you hold one of these certifications, you can filter SAM.gov to show only opportunities you can win, which is a different game than bidding open competitions against everyone. If you have not certified yet, that is usually the highest-leverage first move. We walk through which programs you qualify for and handle the paperwork at CertifyAll, and the broader certification guides explain the eligibility rules for each one.

Who buys janitorial, and where the work shows up

The buyers are who you would expect once you think about who owns a lot of buildings: the VA, the Department of Defense and the military branches, the GSA (which manages much of the federal building inventory), the Forest Service and other Interior agencies for facilities on public land, and federal courthouses. Demand is recurring. Most janitorial contracts run a base year with several option years, so a single win can mean three to five years of revenue.

Every active opportunity is posted on SAM.gov, the federal government's official contract database. Before you can bid or even be considered, you need an active SAM.gov registration. Vendors without one are rejected as non-responsive, no exceptions, so register early because the process can take a couple of weeks the first time. Set up saved searches on your NAICS codes and your set-aside type, and check them weekly.

A GSA Schedule (the Multiple Award Schedule) can be worth pursuing once you have past performance, since some facilities and custodial work flow through it. It is not where most firms start. Build a direct-bid track record first, then add a Schedule if your buyers use one.

The compliance piece that decides whether you make money: the Service Contract Act

This is the part new contractors underestimate. Janitorial work is covered by the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act (SCA), which applies to federal service contracts over $2,500. Under the SCA, you must pay your cleaners at least the prevailing wage and fringe benefits set in the Department of Labor's wage determination for that occupation and that locality. The DOL's Wage and Hour Division issues these wage determinations, and they are attached to the solicitation.

What this means in practice: you cannot bid your normal commercial labor rate. A janitor in one county might carry a far higher required wage and health-and-welfare benefit than the same role two states away. Pull the wage determination, build your price model on top of those mandated numbers, then add your overhead and margin. Firms that skip this either bid too low and lose money, or bid blind and lose the contract. Both are avoidable. Read the wage determination before you read anything else in the package.

The fastest realistic route: subcontract first, prime later

Most janitorial solicitations ask for past performance on similar-size jobs. That is a chicken-and-egg problem when you are new, and the answer is to subcontract under a prime that already holds a large facilities or base-operations contract. Big primes routinely need cleaning crews and have small-business subcontracting goals they are obligated to meet, which gives them a reason to bring you on. You do the work, you build a documented performance record, and a year or two later you bid prime on the strength of it.

To find those primes, look at who already holds the large facilities contracts at the bases and federal buildings near you, then reach out about subcontracting opportunities. Our subcontract finder surfaces prime contractors with active diverse-supplier needs so you can target the ones most likely to respond.

Put together the package buyers actually ask for

Two documents do most of the work in this market:

1. A capability statement — a one-page summary of your services, your NAICS codes, your certifications, your bonding and insurance, and your past work. Contracting officers and primes ask for it constantly. You can build one in a few minutes with our capability statement builder.
2. A clean compliance posture — current SAM.gov registration, any set-aside certifications, proof of insurance, and a wage model that respects the SCA.

Concrete example of the path working: a WOSB-certified cleaning firm registers on SAM.gov, sets a saved search for WOSB-reserved 561720 opportunities, subcontracts a year of custodial work under a prime holding a VA medical-center facilities contract, then uses that performance record to win a small-business set-aside at a nearby federal building. Nothing in that sequence is exotic. It is registration, certification, one subcontract, then prime.

Your next step

If you are starting cold, the single most useful first move is to see which primes near you already hold the big facilities contracts and have diverse-supplier goals to meet. Open the subcontract finder, filter to your region and NAICS code, and pull a short list of primes to contact this week. One subcontract is usually all it takes to unlock the past-performance record that lets you bid prime.

Sources: SBA size standard and set-aside prevalence for NAICS 561720 (cleat.ai); Service Contract Act coverage and wage determinations (U.S. Department of Labor).