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Field Notes

Notes from running a small web development business.

Honest documentation of building a business from scratch: web development, AI search optimization, federal contracting, and the realities of running a one-person operation from Huntsville, Texas.

We Built a Free Website Grader. Here Is What It Checks and Why.

A free website audit tool that scans your homepage, internal pages, robots.txt, sitemap, and structured data. Four category scores with specific findings you can act on. No login required. We explain what it checks, why those things matter, and how the scoring works.

We Scanned 200 Local Business Websites. Here's What We Found.

We built an automated tool that scans local businesses, grades their websites, and generates competitive intelligence reports. After scanning 200 businesses across plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and more, the results paint a clear picture: only 15% of local businesses have websites that meet basic modern standards.

How to Make Your Small Business Visible to AI Search Engines

A practical guide to SEO and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) for small businesses. How to structure your website so Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity can find, understand, and recommend your business. Includes schema markup examples you can copy and use today.

Part 2 Of My Journey on Getting Started as a Federal Contractor

What actually happens when you sit down at SAM.gov and start filling in fields. UEI validation, NAICS code strategy, banking details that matter more than you think, and what the approval timeline really looks like.

How to Get Started as a Federal Contractor: My Journey and What I Learned About It

A few weeks ago, I became a SAM-registered federal contractor. CAGE Code 18MC2, cleared to work as a subcontractor supporting NASA Johnson Space Center. Getting here taught me more about federal procurement in three weeks than I learned in three years of casually thinking about it.

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Federal Contracting
How NAICS Codes Actually Affect Your Contract Eligibility
What Prime Contractors Actually Want From Subcontractors
The Cash Flow Problem Nobody Warns You About in Federal Contracting
Small Business Set-Asides: What They Are and How to Position For Them
Building the Business
Why Custom Software and Federal Contracting Overlap Pretty Well Actually
Building a Capability Statement That Doesn't Look Like Everyone Else's
What Prime Contractors Actually Need From Technical Subcontractors