Security guard services is one of the cleaner entry points into federal contracting. Agencies buy it on repeat, the work maps to a single NAICS code, and a large share of the opportunities are set aside for small and diverse firms. If you already run guards on commercial sites, the jump to government work is shorter than you'd think. The hard part is registration, positioning, and knowing where the work actually posts.
Here's the path, step by step.
The NAICS code and the size standardThe federal code for this work is NAICS 561612 - Security Guards and Patrol Services. It covers armed and unarmed guards, roving patrol, gate and access control, visitor screening, and security escort duties. When you register and when you bid, this is the code that puts you in front of the right contracting officers.
The SBA small business size standard for 561612 is $29 million in average annual receipts. SBA proposed raising it to $34 million, so confirm the current figure on SBA's size-standards table before you certify your size. Below that threshold, you're a small business and eligible for every small-business set-aside in this space. That's most firms in the guard industry, which is why the small-business pipeline here is so deep.
Set your primary NAICS to 561612 in your SAM.gov registration. You can add it as a secondary code too if guard work is part of a broader services business, but lead with it if security is your core offering.
Which agencies actually buy guard servicesGuard contracts are spread across government, but a handful of agencies post the bulk of the work:
- Department of Defense (DoD) - installation security, gate guards, anti-terrorism and force-protection support
- Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - facility and site security across its components
- Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) - hospital and medical-center security
- General Services Administration (GSA) - federal building security
- Department of Energy (DOE) - site and facility protection
Typical contract values run $100K to $5M, with multi-year base-plus-option structures common. That range matters: it's large enough to build a real book of business on, small enough that primes and small firms compete for it directly rather than it getting swallowed by the largest contractors.
The set-asides that get you inThis is where certification turns into awarded work. Contracting officers are required to set aside contracts for small business when they reasonably expect at least two competitive small-business offers. In guard services, that bar is met constantly, so a large share of 561612 work never reaches the open market.
The set-asides that apply:
- Small business set-aside - the baseline. Stay under the size standard and you qualify.
- SDVOSB (Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business) - very common in guard work, partly because so many guard-firm owners are veterans. The government-wide SDVOSB goal is 3% of prime dollars, and these contracts can be sole-sourced.
- 8(a) Business Development - sole-source and set-aside awards for socially and economically disadvantaged owners, over a nine-year program term.
- WOSB (Women-Owned Small Business) - set-asides in industries where women-owned firms are underrepresented.
- HUBZone - if your business and a share of your workforce sit in a designated HUBZone.
If you fit more than one of these, you widen the pool of contracts you can chase. A veteran-owned firm with SDVOSB plus small-business status can bid both the broad small-business set-asides and the veteran-only ones. Our certification guides walk through eligibility and the document list for each program so you can figure out which ones you actually qualify for before spending time on an application.
If you want to go further than self-prep, CertifyAll captures your business details once and handles the federal certification filings for you.
Where the opportunities postTwo places carry almost everything:
SAM.gov is the system of record. Register your business there first (it's free, and you'll need a UEI). Then use the Contract Opportunities section to filter by NAICS 561612, by set-aside type, by place of performance, and by due date. Save the search and check it on a schedule. Posted opportunities include solicitations, sources-sought notices, and pre-solicitation notices, and the sources-sought stage is where you signal interest early.
GSA eBuy is where agencies issue task orders to contractors who already hold a GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract. Getting on the MAS is more work upfront, but it makes you pre-approved to sell, and a meaningful slice of recurring guard work flows through it. You don't need a Schedule to start winning on SAM.gov, so treat MAS as a phase-two move once you've proven you can deliver.
The prime vs. subcontract routeYou don't have to win a prime contract on day one. Many firms break in as a subcontractor to a larger prime that holds the contract but needs guards staffed at a specific site. This is the fastest route to past performance, which is the single biggest thing contracting officers weigh on competitive bids. A few completed subcontracts give you the performance record to bid prime work credibly.
Concrete example of how this stacks up: a small SDVOSB-certified guard firm subcontracts gate-guard staffing under a prime's DoD installation contract for two years, builds a clean performance record, then bids and wins a $1.2M VA medical-center guard contract as a prime on an SDVOSB set-aside. That's a common arc, and it's faster than waiting to win prime work cold.
To find primes who need guard subcontractors, our subcontract finder surfaces opportunities where a prime is staffing work in your NAICS and location.
Get your capability statement rightBefore you bid or pitch a prime, you need a capability statement: a one-page document with your core competencies, your NAICS codes, your certifications, your past performance, and your CAGE code and UEI. Contracting officers and primes expect it, and a vague one gets you filtered out. Be specific about the guard services you provide, the sites you've covered, and the certifications you hold.
Our capability statement builder formats this the way government buyers expect, including the NAICS and certification fields they look for first.
A reasonable next stepIf you're trying to figure out where to actually start, look at who's already winning guard work near you and which primes are staffing it. Run your NAICS and place of performance through the subcontract finder to see active opportunities and the primes behind them. Even one subcontract gets you the past performance that makes every later prime bid stronger.
