Is your small business doing all that it can to position itself in the Federal marketplace? The Small Business Administration recently confirmed that there are literally billions of dollars on the line!
The SBA announced that – for the second year in a row – the Federal government reached its small business contracting goal. This is only the second time since 2005 that the Government hit its intended mark.
24.99% of all Federal contracting dollars – about $92 billion in Federal contracts – went to small businesses. That is an overall increase of $8 billion and the largest percentage of small business work since the government-wide goal of 23% was established in 1997.
Small business military contractors got the most bang for the buck. While some agencies failed to meet even the minimum threshold, the DoD (which hands out the most Federal contracts) did enough work with small businesses to raise the government at-large to nearly 25%.
The DoD (A -) was joined by the Department of Homeland Security (A +), the U.S. Agency for International Development (A +), and the Department of Commerce (A +), as among the most highly-rated by the SBA when it comes to small business contracting.
The government missed the target with respect to certain small business sub-categories, but was still looking on the bright side. For example, while it did not reach the 5% goal for women-owned small businesses, the 4.7% number marks a significant increase over last year's 4.3% mark. HUB-Zone numbers were also down (1.8% achievement on 3% goal).
Small Disadvantaged Businesses (9.5% on 5% goal) and Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (3.7% on 3% goal) both fared better.
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