Posts Tagged ‘8a’
Is It Just Us?
We keep wondering how the work from home (WFH) model has impacted other SDMWVLGBTQBEs (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-gendered or Queer Business Enterprises). It seems overwhelming some days, just how much more work we seem to be doing remotely. And meeting fatigue, OMG! Someone suggested the other day not to…
Read MoreSize Standards Revised!
Claiming Small Business Status? It is important to know that there are sizing rules and regulations that you must use to determine whether or not your business is considered small. And, the definition of small depends on your business’s industry based on NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) codes. At the federal level, being classified as…
Read MoreCertification Alphabet Soup (or fun with acronyms)
In the world of diversity certifications there are many acronyms, some more familiar than others. This alphabet soup contains WBE, MBE, DBE, SBE, VBE, DSBE, HUB, LGBT and that’s only half of them. Some of the abbreviations are shared by government and third-party certifiers (MBE, WBE) and others are specific to the Federal government (8(a),…
Read MoreThe Rules They Are (maybe) A-Changing
Federal DBE Rules Changing – WANT TO BE HEARD? Did you know that the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is considering changes to its disadvantaged business enterprise (DBE) program — and that you can tell them what you think about these changes? You can read a summary of or a detailed document about the changes…
Read MoreNACIS 2012
The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) has updated their size standards based on a company’s NAICS codes. NAICS (pronounced NAKES) is an acronym for North American Industry Classifications System, a set of codes used to classify the type of work a business performs or product(s) they provide. The SBA uses the size standards based…
Read MoreCertification Stress Reduction
Certifying agencies care about collecting the information they need in their format .. not about making it easy for you.
Read MoreBack to Basics ~ Certifications
To celebrate this New Year of 2012, we thought it appropriate to talk about diversity certification again … how it came about and the value of being certified as a business that is minority, women, veteran, disabled, service-disabled or LGBT owned and operated.
Read MoreNarratives – What’s Disadvantaged?
Writing a narrative about your disadvantaged status? A simple definition of disadvantaged for certification purposes is “a systematic or systemic barrier to opportunity”. Your first step is a generic statement. “I perceive I have experienced professional rejection for reasons of “… ethnic origin, disability, residence, gender, race, education, or “Other, describe”. Then, you will need to write about specific instances of bias against you and how this bias has had a negative impact on your ability to enter into or advance in business.
Read MoreSmall Business and the Federal Government
Because federal agencies and their primes are mandated to meet these goals – to spend 23% of their contract dollars with small business, including 5% with SDBEs and WSBEs and 3% with SDVSBEs and HUBZone businesses – there is incentive for them to work with small certified business.
Read MoreIs an 8(a) Certification right for your company?
A major feature of this program is the ability to participate in federal procurements that are specifically set aside for 8(a) certified businesses. If your company is interested in doing business with federal agencies and it meets the disadvantaged SBA standards, the 8(a) certification program might be a good fit for you.
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