The federal government is the single largest purchaser of goods and services in the world, spending more than $400 million in the federal marketplace. In fiscal year 2019, the federal government awarded $132.9 billion in federal contract dollars to small businesses, the highest amount ever awarded to small businesses. It also added a record-breaking one million jobs to the American economy, with the combined $132.9 billion in prime contract dollars and $90.7 billion in subcontracts awarded to small businesses.
Every year, the federal government’s goal is to award at least five percent of all federal contracting dollars to women-owned small businesses. This is the second time in the SBA’s Procurement Scorecard history that the women-owned small business contracting goal of five percent has been met, and $26 billion in federal contracts was awarded to women-owned businesses in fiscal year 2019.
The SBA’s Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contracting Program remains on the frontline of helping women-owned businesses succeed. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 requires the SBA to produce a study every five years regarding the participation of women-owned businesses. As a result, the SBA is preparing a new disparity study to look at underrepresentation of WOSB and Economically Disadvantaged WOSB in the federal marketplace to establish the NAICS codes where these groups would be eligible for set-aside and sole source contract awards. For the first time ever, the SBA will allow for public comments on the study’s methodology. Public comments can be submitted here.
The SBA also has started a WOSB Ready campaign, to enable and encourage women-owned small businesses to get prepared and ready to do business with the federal government. If you’re a woman-owned business and are interested in government contracting, review our guide to federal government contracting. Women-owned small businesses can learn more and stay up-to-date with program changes at https://www.sba.gov/wosbready.
The SBA also has valuable resources to assist women-owned small business to access the WOSB Program. Small businesses can visit their local resource partners or procurement technical assistance center (PTAC) for one-on-one assistance. You can find your nearest resource partner or PTAC at https://www.sba.gov/local-assistance.
The SBA remains committed to helping women-owned businesses level the playing field to compete, succeed, and thrive in the federal marketplace.