Date Published: February 6, 2017
Similar to certain opportunities offered to service-disabled veteran-owned businesses, there are also programs available to women-owned small businesses.
These Federal programs aim to assist women-owned small businesses by offering them advantages in contract work.
The Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contracting Program.
Effective December 2015, this contracting program’s goal is to provide more federal contracting opportunities for women-owned businesses. It allows contracting officers to limit or to set aside particular requirements for completion only among women-owned small businesses. The Federal Government has contracting and subcontracting objectives for small businesses. 23% of federal contract dollars are given to small businesses. 5% of those prime contracts must be given to women-owned small businesses (WOSB).
The steps to be certified as a WOSB or an EDWOSB within the Federal Contracting Program can be found here.
Requirements to be Certified as a Women-Owned Small Businesses.
In order to qualify as a women-owned small business or a WOSB, there are a few eligibility requirements that must be met:
-The small business size standard
-Directly owned by at least 51% women
-A woman holds the highest officer position with full time normal working hours
-Women make the long term decisions for the business
In order to qualify as an economically disadvantaged WOSB ( EDWOSB), there are also eligibility requirements that must be met:
-Personal net worth is less than $750,000
-Average adjusted gross income over three years is $350,000 or less
-Value of all fair market assets is $6 million or less
Surety bonds for construction contracts- The Surety Bond Guarantee Program
Contract bonds are required to ensure that the contract agreement will be fulfilled. However, many small businesses may experience difficulties getting bonded. Reasons may be the small business poses a risk more than the surety company wants to assume.
The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Surety Bond Guarantee Program guarantees performance and payment bonds as well as bid bonds for individual contracts of $5 million or less. With this Federal program, companies are urged to bond small businesses that are experiencing difficulty getting bonded on their own. The SBA ensures 70%-90% of losses and expenses paid to the Surety Company if the small business breaches the terms of the contract. The Government guarantee assures the surety company to issue a bond they would not normally issue to a small business.
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