I worked for a small business that did work for the DOD. Our sales guy explained the rules of government contracting. Rule 1: get the money. The government is a

I worked for a small business that did work for the DOD. Our sales guy explained the rules of government contracting. Rule 1: get the money. The government is always talking about contracts that are coming. Rule 2: keep the money -the government is always looking for ways to charge back to your contract for things they need to do. Rule 3: get more money- use your current work to the inside track on future work. At the end of they day the contract is a fixed amount for a defined statement of work. How you get there is a shell game of billing hours, equipment, overhead and allowed profit. (Cost plus contracts are a different animal altogether)