Selling to government after the Procurement Act: a founder's starting point
New procurement rules took effect on 24 February 2025. A realistic first-week setup for a small supplier who wants to be visible to public buyers.
Public sector work is slow, procedural and genuinely open to small suppliers who understand the process. It is not a quick revenue fix, and treating it as one is how founders waste a quarter.
Key takeaways
- The new rules took effect on 24 February 2025.
- Opportunity notices are published through the enhanced Find a Tender service and the central digital platform.
- Suppliers can search notices and set up notifications, do that before you chase anyone.
- Register your core supplier information once so you are not retyping it per bid.
- Winning is still hard; visibility is the part you control in week one.
- There is no single universal NHS or government buying route, check the specific buyer.
What the platform does
The Cabinet Office short guides describe a central digital platform used alongside the enhanced Find a Tender service: buyers publish notices there, and suppliers register core information, search opportunities and set notifications so relevant notices reach them.
The practical benefit for a small team is that you stop discovering tenders too late to bid.
A realistic first week
This is setup work, not selling. Do it once, properly.
- Register your supplier details on the central digital platform.
- Set notification filters for your CPV-style categories and regions.
- Read three recently closed notices in your area to learn the language buyers use.
- Build a reusable answer bank: company info, insurances, policies, case evidence.
- Identify whether your realistic entry point is a direct contract, a framework, or subcontracting to a prime.
Setting expectations
Most first-time public bids lose. The value of the first few is learning what evidence buyers actually score and building the answer bank. Founders who treat bids one through five as research usually start winning sooner than founders who bet a quarter on bid one.
What to ask other founders
Guidance tells you the rules. Other founders tell you what actually happened. These are worth asking as a structured Advice or Critique request.
- How many bids did you lose before the first win, and what changed?
- Did you get in directly, via a framework, or as a subcontractor to a prime?
- What evidence did buyers score that you did not expect?
Sources & further reading
Read next
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