Unica Enterprises had been in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) Business Development Program for about a year when it landed its first big federal job. The contract, at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, was worth roughly $750,000 a year.

At the time, the Dallas janitorial company was bringing in about half a million dollars annually. A $2 million award from the Department of the Navy came next, followed by another $1 million contract. Revenue that had been under $1 million was suddenly on its way past $3 million.

Eric Marceleño, Unica’s chief operating officer, walked through that stretch and everything that followed during his session, “From 8(a) to Open Market: The Financial Playbook,” at the 2026 ISSA VEO Conference in Dallas. His wife, Nancy Galvan, founded the company in 2007. Unica graduated from the 8(a) program in April after nine years.

Marceleño didn’t pretend the program is easy. He acknowledged the complaints about paperwork and hoops are accurate. The upside is a customer that pays on time, every time, and a door into contracts most competitors can’t bid on. He was just as clear that the certification isn’t the finish line. In his words, 8(a) is “a runway, not a destination.”

Nine years goes faster than expected

“The clock starts on day one,” Marceleño said. “I remember when we started in 2016, we’re like, 2026 is a long way away.”

He breaks the term into stages. The first three years are for learning how to work with contracting officers, how to price and how to build relationships. Unica waited until roughly years four through six to seek out mentors in earnest. Marceleño would start on day one if he could do it again.

By the middle of the term, SBA begins watching how much of a firm’s revenue comes from 8(a) contracts versus everything else. Program rules set rising targets for outside work in the later years, so the 8(a) share has to keep shrinking. The goal is to avoid a company that reaches year nine with nearly all of its business tied to contracts it can no longer get.

Unica nearly fit that description at one point. Around years four and five, about 90% of its work came through the program. By graduation, that figure was closer to 20%. Today the company’s client list includes DFW International Airport, the City of Arlington and convention centers in Dallas and Fort Worth. It won a contract for the DFW Airport Rental Car Center as it approached graduation.

“Diversification is key,” Marceleño stated. “You really have to look at it from year one. You can’t wait until year nine to start talking about diversification.”

The trouble with too much honey

One of the biggest perks of 8(a) certification is access to sole-source contracts, which are negotiated directly between the firm and a contracting officer with no competing bids. Those awards start small and tend to grow. Marceleño compares them to honey in front of a bear. Once you get a taste, you want more.

The catch is that sole-source work disappears the day a company graduates, along with the healthier margins that come with it. Marceleño said one of the things he would change is learning to compete for work much earlier, while the program still offered a cushion.

“That honey is great, and you’re going to love it for nine years,” he said.

When revenue quadruples overnight

The Navy contracts changed Unica’s size almost instantly, and the company had to figure out how to deliver. About half of the scope was janitorial work the team knew well. The rest covered roughly 10 services Unica had never performed, including grease trap cleaning and swimming pool maintenance. The company brought in subcontractors to cover them.

Cash was the other pressure point. Unica had banked with Chase for about a decade by then, and that relationship produced a line of credit when the company needed one most.

“You quadruple your revenue overnight,” Marceleño noted. “How are you gonna handle that?”

The back office was thin, too. “Back then, there was no HR team,” he said. “It was just Nancy and myself.” Unica now has a dedicated HR team and operations managers, and it is hiring ahead of the growth it expects.

He ran the site himself

With so much riding on the Naval Air Station contract, Marceleño made an unusual choice. He took on the project manager role himself and spent four to five days a week on-site.

“We were so paranoid about our reputation, about performance, that I became the project manager on that contract,” he admitted. “On a contract that big, you mess that up and they won’t come back to you again.”

He doesn’t necessarily recommend that approach for every owner. For Unica, it paid off twice. Marceleño learned the business from the ground up, and the relationship built with the Navy helped open doors to more federal work, including a contract at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio.

Reputation also shapes which contracts he would pass on today. Taking lower-margin jobs early is fine if the work fits the company’s expertise. Signing on as prime for unfamiliar work because a larger partner promises to guide you is riskier. “When you go prime, you’re always gonna be looked at as an expert,” he warned.

Learn what the numbers are saying

Marceleño spent more than 20 years in corporate America before joining Unica in February 2016. None of it prepared him to price a service contract.

“I didn’t know direct labor, overhead, profit,” he said.

That gap matters more as contracts grow. A $4 million contract that loses 10% is a liability dressed up as a win. Marceleño urged owners to learn their fully burdened labor rates, cash flow, margins and gross profit, whether through a class or regular sessions with a CPA and bookkeeper. Reading a P&L and knowing what to question should be routine.

Federal wages follow different rules

Asked how pricing federal work differs from commercial bids, Marceleño pointed first to labor costs. Under the Service Contract Act, the U.S. Department of Labor issues wage determinations by county, listing minimum pay for roughly 100 job categories.

“When you work on the federal side, all of the salaries for your employees are mandated by the federal government,” he explained.

In Dallas County, he said, a janitor on a federal contract must earn about $16 an hour. Employers also owe a health and welfare fringe benefit, currently a little over $5 per hour, which employees can put toward health insurance. Marceleño said nearly all of Unica’s workers choose to take it as cash instead.

Because every bidder works from the same wage determination, federal pricing starts on a level field. Commercial work is a different story.

“It’s hit or miss,” Marceleño said. Some public clients, including the City of Dallas, require a living wage on their contracts. Where no such rule exists, bids depend on market research and past pricing, and a competitor paying $12 an hour can undercut one paying $16.

Still, he sees the federal experience carrying over. State agencies, municipalities, airports and colleges buy services in ways that closely mirror federal procurement, so the skills a firm builds competing for federal work help it win local and commercial contracts too.

A milestone rather than a cliff

Marceleño’s top advice for any 8(a) owner starts with partners. Unica eventually built strong relationships with firms from El Paso to San Antonio to South Carolina, and he wishes that work had started sooner.

“I wish we had done it earlier,” he said. “I wish we had done it day one.”

Mentors, prime contractors, joint venture partners, bankers and contracting officers all belong in that circle. Handled well, he said, the end of the program shouldn’t feel like falling off an edge.

“We don’t want graduation from the 8(a) program at nine years to feel like a cliff,” Marceleño explained. “It’s going to be more like a milestone.”

Six months into life outside the program, Unica is holding its own. “We’re thriving,” he said, adding that he expects the next five years to be out of this world.