The Contracting Officer takes into account what is known as “The Rule of Two”: A reasonable expectation that offers will be received by at least two responsible small businesses within a specific socio-economic category ( small, woman-owned, veteran-owned, 8(a), HUB-Zone), and that the award will be made at a fair market price.
The Contracting Officer will conduct some market research, via a Request for Information, Sources Sought or Market Research notice on FedBizOpps; a search through the System for Award Management (SAM); the SBA’s Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS) website; looking at past contracts for similar products and services; or on commercial search engines like Google