How to bid federal cleaning work when you have no federal past performance

Read the evaluation section first

Past performance is whatever the solicitation's evaluation section says it is. Notices differ:

• Some say an offeror with no record of relevant past performance will be evaluated neither favorably nor unfavorably.
• Some treat past performance as acceptable or unacceptable.
• Some require a stated number of recent examples and define what recent means.

Do not assume the neutral treatment applies to the bid in front of you. The federal acquisition rules are being rewritten under the FAR overhaul, and agencies have adopted new text on different dates. Clause numbers and wording can differ. The evaluation section and instructions in your solicitation control. Where those sections sit in the package is covered in how to read a solicitation.

What "relevant" can include

Relevant is defined in the solicitation. It often means work of similar scope, magnitude, and complexity. Federal work is not automatically more relevant than a harder commercial, state, or local contract of the same size. Hospitals, schools, offices, and military-style secure buildings can all be useful comparisons when the instructions allow non-federal customers.

Match the work you describe to the performance work statement. A grounds contract is a weak example for a sterile-lab cleaning bid unless the instructions are broad. A contract you performed as a subcontractor can be relevant when you say that clearly and the instructions allow it.

What to put in each example

Follow the solicitation's format, page limit, and required form if it has one. If it does not, a usable example usually includes:

• The customer and the type of space (offices, clinic, school), without inventing a building the customer did not give you.
• The period you performed, and whether you were the prime or a subcontractor.
• The scope and frequency in plain language, tied to tasks that also appear in this solicitation.
• A reference who will actually answer. Ask that person before you list them.
• Dollar figures only from your own records or the customer's documents. Leave a value blank rather than estimating one you do not know.

Contracting officers may also look at the government's own past-performance file for firms that already have federal contracts. A firm with no federal work will not have that file. That is expected. It is not fixed by claiming federal contracts you did not perform.

Teaming, subcontracting, and joint ventures

A teammate's or subcontractor's past performance counts only when the instructions say it does, and sometimes only for the work that firm will perform on this contract. Read that limit before you attach a partner's project list. How far subcontracting itself can go is covered in can you subcontract a federal janitorial contract.

Bidding as a joint venture adds SBA's requirements in 13 CFR 125.8 when the procurement is set aside or reserved for small business. Read that section together with the solicitation's past-performance instructions before you rely on a partner's contracts.

SBA's Mentor-Protégé program lets an approved mentor and protégé pursue work together, including through a joint venture, under SBA's current rules. An approved agreement does not by itself complete a past-performance volume. Set-aside types are explained in how set-asides work.

If you truly have no examples they will accept

Say so in the way the instructions require. Put the proposal's weight on staffing, supervision, the quality control approach, and the commercial work you do have. A thin example dressed up as federal experience is worse than a clear commercial one.

You can also build a record the next solicitation will accept:

• Answer Sources Sought notices with work you have actually done. That is not past performance for a score, but it is how agencies learn a small firm can do the work.
• Start with a smaller bid near you. How to find federal janitorial bids on SAM.gov and the open janitorial listings are the search steps.
• Subcontract under a prime and keep a one-page record of the buildings, dates, and reference when the job ends, so the next proposal is not written from memory.

General information from the Bid Brief team, not legal or contracting advice. The solicitation's evaluation instructions control. We aren't affiliated with SBA, SAM.gov, or any government agency. Last reviewed Nov 5, 2026.