On the heels of the Federal Acquisition Regulations being
amended to incorporate Sole Sourcing for Woman Owned Small Business, the SBA
has announced the October is Woman Owned Small Business Month!
Effective September 30, 2016, DoD, GSA, and NASA have
adopted regulatory changes that provide authority to award sole course
contracts to economically disadvantaged women owned small business and woman
owned small business. Overall, this puts Woman Owned Small Businesses on equal
footing with Service-Disabled Veteran Owned small business in receiving
preferential treatment for contracts.
Working from this success, the SBA is targeting additional
segments of woman owned business to help them succeed. The Encore
Entrepreneurship for Woman webinar looks to assist women over the age of 50
who are launching their own businesses and pursing a second career. And for the
other Women Owned Small Businesses, the What
You Need to Know section on the SBA website is a treasure trove of
incredibly useful information!
Looking back over Fiscal Year 2016, government-wide overall
spending with Women Owned Small Businesses almost reached the goal of 5% by allocating
4.45% or $15.2 Billion of $334.1B. That number is down .62% from the FY 15.
Looking forward, the Sole Source provision should increase the number
exponentially. Take a look at the full breakdown of set-aside
spending!
