Small Businesses Receive 22.25 Percent of Small Business Contracts in FY 2012

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

In FY 2012, the federal government made real progress toward delivering 23 percent of eligible federal contracting dollars to small businesses, with 22.25 percent going to small businesses compared to 21.65 percent in FY 2011.  We also made significant impact in several key areas of small business contracting, including exceeding the goal for service disabled veterans for the first time and delivering the highest percentage of contracts to small disadvantaged businesses to date.  In addition, more agencies than ever before reached or surpassed all of their prime contracting goals.   

As a result of a government wide focus on increasing small business contracting opportunities, during the first term of the Obama administration, $376.2 billion in contracting dollars went to small businesses.  This is a $48.1 billion increase over the four preceding years even as we have reduced contracting spending overall.

Federal contracting with small businesses remains a win-win.  Small businesses get the revenue they need to grow their revenues and create jobs.  Meanwhile, the federal government gets the chance to work with some of the most responsive, innovative and nimble companies in the U.S. —often with a direct line to their CEO. 

SBA is required to report to the President and Congress on achievements by federal agencies and departments against their annual procurement goals to ensure greater accountability.  The Small Business Procurement Scorecard provides an assessment of federal achievement in prime contracting and subcontracting to small businesses by the 24 Chief Financial Officers Act agencies.  It also measures progress that departments are making to ensure small business opportunities remain an integral part of their acquisition of goods and services to meet mission objectives.  The FY 2012 Small Business Procurement Scorecard is now available on sba.gov.  

The SBA continues to focus on a number of initiatives to help the government meet the 23 percent goal, ensure the accuracy of data, and prevent fraud, waste and abuse, including: 

Significantly improving the quality of small business procurement data;Collaborating with White House and Administration Senior Officials to help ensure top-level leadership commitment from across the federal government to utilize small businesses;Training prospective and existing small businesses to acquire the confidence and skills needed to successfully  compete for and win federal contracts through GC Classroom;Strengthening, building capacity and increasing opportunities in America's supply chains for small businesses through the American Supplier Initiative (ASI); andConducting outreach and matchmaking events across the country to ensure that small businesses everywhere have direct access to federal buyers. 

In particular, SBA recently launched a strategic HUBZone and 8(a) Business Development Program Recruitment Initiative to recruit new firms into both programs that better meet the needs of the federal procurement marketplace.  SBA also recently joined with Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) and American Express OPEN to launch the ChallengeHER initiative, to inform Woman-Owned Small Businesses about the opportunities available within the federal supply chain.

Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. SBA and the Obama Administration will continue to provide small business owners the necessary tools to ensure they have the wind at their back, enabling them to grow and create jobs.

For more information about the Small Business Procurement Scorecard, visit SBA.gov.

John Shoraka is the Associate Administrator for Government Contracting and Business Development at the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Tags: Official SBA News and Views, Open For Business, Government Contracting

View the original article here

SBA Has a New Initiative to Help Veterans Access Capital and Become Entrepreneurs or Expand Existing Businesses

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Are you a veteran transitioning from active service and want to become an entrepreneur? Or perhaps you’ve been out of the service for some time and want to start a new small business or expand an existing one?

If that’s you or someone you know, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced the SBA Veteran Pledge Initiative, a new commitment by its top national regional and community lenders to collectively increase their lending activity to veterans by five percent per year for the next five years. This initiative has the potential to boost the already $2.1 billion per year in lending support that various SBA programs provide to new and existing vet small business owners.

I’ve heard stories that many veteran entrepreneurs face challenges in raising capital or have trouble receiving a conventional loan. This is why getting out the word about this new initiative is so important.  With the support of SBA’s top 20 national lending partners, and approximately 100 additional regional and community lending partners across the United States, SBA expects to assist an additional 2,000 veterans obtain loans to start or expand small businesses by increasing lending by $475 million over the next five years.

The combined goal by the top 20 national lending partners’ will provide nearly $249 million of lending, potentially impacting nearly 800 veteran entrepreneurs. The five percent increase in lending by approximately 10 lenders in each of the 10 Regions will account for the remaining $226 million in loans and more than 1,100 additional veteran entrepreneurs assisted.

I know that if we support our veteran entrepreneurs, and provide them with the tools they need, they will have a higher chance of success.  Already, veterans make up a large number of successful small business owners.  Nearly one in ten of small businesses are veteran-owned.  These 2.45 million veteran-owned businesses employ more than 5 million individuals.  In the private sector workforce, veterans are more likely than those with no active-duty military experience to be self-employed. 

I just have to echo SBA Administrator Karen Mills, speaking recently at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, who said “Our service men and women have made incalculable contributions and sacrifices for our country, and supporting them as they pursue their dreams to start or grow their own business is one of SBA’s highest priorities. Through this partnership with national lending partners and regional lenders across the U.S. we stand ready to serve veteran entrepreneurs with loan- guarantees, entrepreneurial training, and resources that are critical tools to help them start businesses, drive the local economy and create jobs for themselves and their communities.”

So for all of you aspiring and existing entrepreneurs, if you need capital for your small business, please call one of SBA's 68 local district offices, or one of its 15 Veterans Business Outreach Centers nationwide.

SBA’s resources for veterans, and its partnership with 1,000 Small Business Development Centers and some 12,000 SCORE-Counselors to America's Small Businesses volunteers, help more than 200,000 veterans, service-disabled veterans and reservists each year. 

To learn more about additional opportunities for potential and existing veteran small businesses, visit the website at www.sba.gov/veterans. 

Rhett Jeppson is the Associate Administrator for SBA's Office of Veterans Business Development.Tags: Official SBA News and Views, Open For Business, Financing, Managing, SBA News and Views, Starting

View the original article here

Innovative and Outstanding Small Businesses Receive Tibbetts Awards

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

NOTE: This blog is by Pravina Raghavan, Director, Innovation and Technology at SBA.

Today, I was pleased to join Roland Tibbetts, the father of the SBIR program, our SBA Administrator Karen Mills and Senator Mary Landrieu, Chair of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, in recognizing eighteen small businesses and three individuals for the critical role they play in research and development and commend their success in driving innovation and creating new jobs. In addition, three past participants in SBIR who represent the very best of the 30-plus-year SBIR program were named to the third annual SBIR Hall of Fame class.

The Tibbetts Awards and Hall of Fame Awards are presented to companies and individuals from all over the United States who are beacons of promise and models of excellence in high technology.

The SBIR program has been an important resource for commercializing promising technologies and spurring innovation. A study by R&D Magazine showed that between 2002 and 2006, 25 percent of the top 100 innovation came from first that received SBIR funding.

As many of you may know, the SBIR program was reauthorized a little over a year ago. Since then, the SBA has been working very hard to make the program better for our most innovative firms. We have updated the eligibility, size rules and policy directives to make the program more effective and streamlined. We’re working with our federal partners on shortening timelines from solicitation to award so that firms can get money faster. We are improving data collection and instituting robust performance benchmarks around commercialization. We will continue to put in place a SBIR infrastructure that will help turn great ideas into successful, thriving businesses.

At SBA, we believe that the SBIR program is a cornerstone of our mission as well an important factor in the President’s high growth and jobs agenda. According to the Department of Commerce, innovation has been responsible for approximately two-thirds of our country’s economic growth since World War II.

If we are going to realize our full economic potential, we need more people across the country to start the types of businesses that make our economy more competitive and more innovative.

I encourage you to take a moment and read through some of our winner’s profiles at challenge.gov.  They are great companies and are transforming their industries.  Many have graduated from the SBIR program but continue to show strong economic growth, business investment, broader social and economic impact and technical innovation.

This is what the SBIR program is all about and why we’ve come together to celebrate at the Tibbetts and Hall of Fame Awards.  

Companies

Accuray, Inc. -- Sunnyvale, CA; Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation – Cambridge, MA; Beacon Interactive Systems, LLC – Cambridge, MA; CPSI Biotech – Owego, NY; Design Interactive, Inc. – Oviedo, FL; Ecovative Design, LLC – Green Island, NY; GS Engineering, Inc. – Houghton, MI; Harmonia Holdings Group, LLC – Blacksburg, VA; Institute of Disabilities Research and Training (IDRT), Inc. – Wheaton, MD; Kutta Radios, Inc. – Phoenix, AZ; MBF Bioscience – Williston, VT; Modular Robotics – Boulder, CO; Ocean Renewable Power Company, LLC – Portland, ME; Orono Spectral Solutions, Inc. – Bangor, ME; Protochips, Inc. – Raleigh, NC; Syntonics, LLC – Columbia, MD; Tier1 Performance Solutions, LLC – Covington, KY; Torrey Hills Technologies, LLC – San Diego, CA

Individuals

Richard Flake, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL/XPP) – Wright-Patterson AFB, OH; Joe Hennessey, Ph.D., NSF SBIR/STTR Senior Advisor – Arlington, VA; Tizoc Loza, Northrop Grumman Corporation – Falls Church, VA

Hall of Fame

Aerovironment, Inc. – Monrovia, CA; Autonomous Technologies Corporation – Orlando, FL; Biogen-Idec – Weston, MA

Hi, my name is Natale and I'm serving as a Moderator for the SBA Community. Our goal is to continually improve this site to meet your needs, so we appreciate your feedback and participation.Tags: Official SBA News and Views, Open For Business, SBA News and Views

View the original article here