October is Woman Owned Small Business Month!

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!

Government Marketplace- How well do you know it?

Most businesses that we talk to on a regular basis about their government sales have some kind of idea of the agencies that they want to sell their products/services to and what other companies will be going after the same opportunities. However, when we ask them where they came up with that information it is mostly based on their commercial business. While this is a great start there is a lot of information available that is specific to the government market.

So, what type of information should you be looking at? To start you want to have an idea of the following:

·         What agencies are really spending the most on your products/services

o   Who in those agencies are purchasing it

o   Does that agency have anything forecasted in your industry

o   How are they purchasing it i.e. GSA Schedule, Sole Source, etc.

o   What type of set asides do they purchase from

·         Who are the contractors that are being awarded the most contracts

o   Who are their largest buyers

o   Do they have any set asides

o   Do they hold any contracting vehicles i.e. GSA Schedule, Blanket Purchase Agreement, etc.

Being able to answer the above listed questions will give you a good idea of what agencies you should be targeting (along with why, how and when) and who you will most likely be competing with when going after those agencies opportunities.

There are a few sites that we would recommend visiting to start gathering this information:

·         https://www.fpds.gov/fpdsng_cms/index.php/en/

·         https://www.fbo.gov/

·         http://www.gsaelibrary.gsa.gov/ElibMain/home.do

And if you have any questions or want a point in the right direction you can take advantage of our free market research report to get started. Just schedule an appointment: http://government-contract-services.reservio.com/

Don’t Compete with the Big Guys, Government Set-Asides

Quite often companies don’t consider doing business with the government because they don’t think that they have the capabilities to compete with the large businesses getting all the work. I’m here to tell you that isn’t true. The government has a mandated goal that 23% of business is set-aside for small businesses. This means that only small businesses can competitively bid on these contracts and win

            In addition to the small business set-aside there are several other set-asides that are guaranteed a percentage of the total business.

8a- This set-aside is for economically and socially disadvantaged business and can be awarded sole source contracts without any competition. This is a certification issued by the Small Business Administration.

Veteran Owned- This is a self-certification for former or current military members who own at least 51% of their business.

Small Disadvantaged Business- This is for companies owned 51% or more by African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, Subcontinent Asian Americans and Native Americans. This is a self-certifying designation through your SAM registration.

HUBZone- This designation is for companies who’s employees and business is located in a high unemployment, low income area. This is an application process and 3% of business is set-aside for these companies. In addition to this companies may receive a 10% price preference on bids.

Woman Owned Business- this is a self-certifying designation through SAM with a contracting goal of 5%.

Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business- This set-aside is for former military members injured in the line of duty that own 51% or greater of their business. The government wide contracting goal on this category is 3%.