Small Business Administration
Every GovConFeed story on Small Business Administration — contract awards, policy, enforcement, and protests, newest first.
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Guides
8(a), HUBZone, WOSB, SDVOSB: How the Four Small-Business Certifications Compare
How the four SBA contracting certifications compare: 8(a)'s nine-year sole-source runway, HUBZone's 35% residency rule and 10% price preference, WOSB's NAICS-limited set-asides, and post-VetCert SDVOSB — with current FAR sole-source thresholds, common application mistakes, and how the programs stack.
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Guides
Sources Sought and RFIs: How Your Response Shapes Set-Aside Decisions
Sources sought notices and RFIs are where contracting officers build the market-research record FAR 19.502-2 requires before setting work aside for small business. A GAO decision shows agencies must verify real capability, not just count names in a database — making a specific response one of the highest-leverage documents a small business writes.
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Guides
Joint Ventures in Federal Contracting: SBA Rules, Mentor-Protégé, and the Two-Year Rule
How joint ventures qualify for small-business set-asides: SBA's eligibility rules, why set-aside JVs must be unpopulated, the mentor-protégé advantages, the two-year rule that limits a JV's shelf life, and the agreement defects that keep costing contractors awards at SBA's Office of Hearings and Appeals.
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Guides
NAICS Codes and SBA Size Standards: How the Government Decides Whether You're Small
One NAICS code on a solicitation decides whether you can bid a set-aside at all. Here is how size standards actually work — the 5-year receipts average, the 24-month employee count, affiliation traps, the new recertification rules, and the 5-day window to protest a competitor's size.
