Every entity that wants to do business with the Federal Government, must be registered in SAM. A complete and active SAM registration is needed in order to get paid by the Federal Government and to apply to any of the Federal Government Contracting Programs run by SBA and VA.
The good news is that SAM registration is free to complete on your own and the process is not too difficult. To get started in SAM, you will need to set up a Login.gov account if you do not already have one. The instructions for this can be found on Sam.gov. You will need to make sure that during the registration process, you make your entity information viewable and searchable. You will also need to complete your Small Business Profile which will make your company searchable in the SBA’s Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS) System.
In order to remain eligible to do business with the Federal government, you must renew your entity’s registration in SAM every year. Once initially registered in SAM, one of the downfalls you will experience, is that the email address of your government point of contact becomes public information. Watch out for solicitations from commercial companies telling you that your SAM registration renewal is due or about to expire, and they want you to “click here to renew” for a large fee. Many of these solicitations may look as though they are coming from SAM or the Federal Government and may even include your DUNS number or CAGE code. One way to tell if an email you receive is legitimate is to check the email address that it came from. All official SAM emails come from a sam.gov email address.
