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5 Mistakes Small Businesses Make on Their First Government Proposal (And How to Avoid Them)

2026-02-09 · PropForge Team

From Excitement to Overwhelm

You've been scrolling through SAM.gov. Your company fits the requirements perfectly. The contract value is solid. You hit apply, and suddenly your inbox has an RFP (Request for Proposal) that's 50 pages long, demanding a proposal response that's somehow both detailed and concise.

The initial excitement hits a wall of reality: What exactly are they asking for? How do I organize all of this? Is my company actually ready for this?

If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. Over the past few years, PropForge has worked with dozens of small businesses at exactly this moment—registering on SAM.gov, finding their first government opportunities, and realizing that winning a government contract requires a different approach than their private sector work.

Here's the good news: the mistakes most small businesses make on their first government proposal are completely predictable. And once you know what they are, they're easy to avoid.

In this guide, we'll walk through the five most common proposal pitfalls we see, and more importantly, how to sidestep each one. These aren't theoretical problems—they're real obstacles that have cost small businesses contracts they could have won.

Mistake #1: Ignoring the Evaluation Criteria

This is the mistake that costs more proposals than any other, and it's usually completely unintentional.

Most first-time proposal writers focus on the same thing they focus on when writing their website or company brochure: How can we present ourselves in the best possible light? They write beautifully, tell compelling stories about their company, and craft polished overviews of why they're great to work with.

But here's what they're missing: the evaluators aren't reading your proposal the way a customer reads your website. They're scoring it against a rubric.

That solicitation document you received? Buried in the instructions section, there's an "Evaluation Criteria" table that tells you exactly how points are distributed. Maybe it says:

This isn't a suggestion. This is your roadmap.

The proposal that wins isn't necessarily the best-written one. It's the one that directly, thoroughly addresses every single evaluation criterion. If Past Performance is 30% of your score, and you dedicate only two paragraphs to it while your competitor writes a full section with detailed project references, they're going to win—even if your company is actually more qualified.

The fix: Before you write a single sentence of your proposal, create a compliance matrix. List every evaluation criterion down the left side and every section of your proposal across the top. Then mark where you'll address each criterion. This ensures nothing falls through the cracks and you're proportionally weighting your content to match the scoring.

Mistake #2: Writing a Brochure Instead of a Proposal

Walk into most proposal writing meetings with small business owners, and you'll see something like this:

"We are a premier provider of [service] with a commitment to excellence and customer satisfaction. Our team brings decades of combined experience to every project. We pride ourselves on our ability to deliver..."

Sound familiar? These aren't bad sentences. They're just—irrelevant.

A government proposal isn't your chance to talk about how great your company is in general. It's your chance to show that you can solve this specific problem for this specific government agency.

The evaluator reading your proposal has one question in mind: "Can this company do what we're asking for?" Every sentence should answer that question. If it doesn't, it's taking up space.

Compare these two openings:

Generic approach: "Our team has extensive experience in logistics and supply chain management across multiple industries."

RFP-focused approach: "For the proposed contract supporting GSA procurement logistics, our team will implement a four-phase warehousing strategy: initial inventory reconciliation (Week 1-2), system integration with GSA's existing databases (Week 3-4), staff training and documentation (Week 5-6), and full operational handoff (Week 7). This mirrors the timeline specified in Section 4.2 of the SOW."

Which one shows you understand the job?

The fix: Before you start writing, read the RFP's Statement of Work (SOW), technical requirements, and evaluation criteria until you can practically recite them. Then, every section of your proposal should mirror the structure and language of the RFP itself. Use their headings. Reference their requirements. Show that you've read it carefully enough to address exactly what they're asking for—not what you think they should be asking for.

Mistake #3: Underestimating Compliance Requirements

Here's a story we hear too often:

A small business spends three weeks crafting the perfect proposal. The technical approach is solid. The past performance section is strong. The pricing is competitive. They hit submit, feeling good.

Two weeks later, they get a rejection email. The proposal was deemed "non-responsive."

Why? Page 47 of the solicitation instructions stated that proposals over 30 pages would be rejected. Their proposal was 31 pages.

Or maybe the font size was one point smaller than required. Or they numbered their sections differently than the template specified. Or they forgot to include a required attachment that wasn't explicitly mentioned in the main RFP text.

These aren't edge cases. Non-compliance rejections happen constantly. And here's the brutal truth: your proposal won't even be read by an evaluator if it fails the compliance check. A perfectly written proposal that violates the format requirements is worth exactly zero points.

Government contracting has a reason for all these seemingly arbitrary requirements—consistency, accessibility, standardization. But from a small business perspective, it just feels pedantic. Yet it's non-negotiable.

Common compliance traps:

The fix: Create a detailed compliance checklist straight from the solicitation. Go through the instructions section line-by-line and list every requirement. Then, before you submit, go through your draft proposal with that checklist. Have someone else verify it too—fresh eyes catch mistakes faster.

Mistake #4: Leaving Past Performance Blank (or Weak)

New businesses think this mistake doesn't apply to them. After all, they're new to government contracting. They don't have government contracts to reference.

Wrong.

The evaluation criteria say "past performance," not "government contract past performance." This is where many small businesses leave points on the table.

Here's what actually counts as past performance:

The key is relevance. You're trying to show the evaluator that you've done something similar to what they're asking for.

Let's say you're bidding on a federal communications contract, and your background is mostly in private sector telecom. That's not a weakness—that's actually strong relevant experience. You've done the work in a competitive market with demanding clients. Now you're applying those skills to government contracting.

The fix: Reframe your experience through the lens of the RFP requirements. Write past performance narratives that show:

  1. What we did: A specific project that matches the scope
  2. Why it was relevant: How it demonstrates we can handle this proposal's requirements
  3. What we delivered: Concrete outcomes and metrics (saved X amount, delivered Y on time, improved Z by 10%)
  4. Who can verify it: Client name, point of contact (make sure you have permission before listing them)

Even early-stage businesses have done something. Highlight what you've got. Just make sure it's specific and it connects to what the government is asking for.

Mistake #5: Waiting Until the Last Week to Start

The typical small business government proposal timeline looks like this:

Most government RFPs allow 30 days for responses. (Some allow 60.) By waiting until the last week, you've cut your time to about one-sixth of what you have available. That means:

Plus, you're writing under stress. Stress leads to mistakes.

The fix: Change your timeline. On Day 1 of the RFP release:

  1. Read the entire RFP and create your compliance checklist (takes 2-3 hours)
  2. Create your compliance matrix and outline your response (takes 1-2 hours)
  3. Start gathering materials: past performance data, team resumes, references, org charts

By Day 3, you're ready to write. You now have 27 days to work—plenty of time to write well, review thoroughly, and improve iteratively.

Better yet: Don't treat each proposal as a one-off project. Build a proposal content library. Write detailed company overviews, team capability statements, and management approaches that you can reuse and customize across multiple RFPs. When you get a new solicitation, you're not starting from scratch—you're adapting and tailoring existing strong content.

Your First Proposal Doesn't Have to Be a Disaster

Everyone makes mistakes on their first government proposal. It's part of learning how government contracting works. The good news is that the mistakes are learnable and avoidable.

You now know what the most common pitfalls are:

  1. Ignoring evaluation criteria instead of structuring your response around the scoring rubric
  2. Writing marketing copy instead of directly addressing what the government is asking for
  3. Overlooking compliance requirements and getting rejected before anyone even reads your proposal
  4. Treating past performance as irrelevant when you can actually showcase relevant private sector work
  5. Waiting until the last week and submitting a rushed, generic response

Avoiding these five mistakes puts you ahead of most first-time proposal writers.

But if you're like many small business owners, you're juggling proposal writing on top of actually running your business. You're learning the ins and outs of SAM.gov while trying to maintain client relationships, manage your team, and hit your other business goals.

That's where PropForge comes in.

We've helped dozens of small businesses navigate their first government proposals and win. We know how to create compliance matrices, reframe your experience as relevant past performance, and transform your proposal from a brochure into a targeted, competitive response that evaluators actually want to read.

Ready to submit a stronger proposal? Learn how PropForge can help you win your first government contract at propforge.ai.

Your next opportunity is probably already posted on SAM.gov. Don't let it slip away because of these five avoidable mistakes.

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