Are You Eligible For The Minority Business 8a Certification Program?

The minority run enterprises in the United States of America have grown in numbers in the last decade yet they could not establish themselves fully due to certain constraints on the socio-economic frontier. The aim of SBA is to draw in response from the minority business owners who are finding no way to boost their small business presence. The SBA therefore came up with the 8a certification program, which is undoubtedly the best thing to happen to the US minority owned businesses. If you belong to one of the minority communities in the USA, you stand a chance to grab this unique opportunity provided by the Small Business Administration (SBA) by earning the 8a certification for your enterprise.

Minority Business 8a Certification Program

To start with you have to apply to the SBA for obtaining the 8a certification. Before you start processing your 8a application you must take a break from all the activities and make sure that your personal and business status both stands eligible for obtaining the coveted 8a business certificate. To make things easy here are the prime eligibility criteria -

1. The applicant business firm must be ‘majority-owned’, that is the owner must have 51% or more of the ownership rights (in case there’s more than one owners)

2. All applicants must be American citizen either by birth or through naturalization.

3. The applicant business firm must be owned directly by individuals who belong to one or more of the minority communities of the United States of America. The term ‘minority’ is variously defined by the SBA, more prominently it indicates people who belong to one or more of the socially and economically segregated groups like the aboriginal American Indians, the Alaskan natives, the Hawaiian islanders as well as includes the black Americans and Hispanics naturalized American’s.

4. The applicant’s business must essentially be a ‘small’ business in every sense of the term.

5. The applicant small biz firm must display its promise and potential for future growth and success.

6. The small business must also have a considerably good track record in the same field in the last 2-3 years prior to applying for 8a certification.

Once your business meets all the of the above eligibility parameters, as decided by the SBA authority, you’re free to apply for the coveted SBA 8a Certification program and take your entrepreneurship initiative to the next levels of prosperity.

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How 8a Certification Benefits Small Business Development?

The small business development programs conducted by the SBA is launched with the intention of helping entrepreneurs from economically weak and socially segregated communities that are native to the American soil, to gain business success with federal government help. The 8a certification program is foremost among the different initiatives launched over the years by the SBA. However, to realize the several 8a certification benefits the eligible businesses have to keep their eyes and ears open. The aim of SBA or Small Business Administration is to help spread word about the several 8a certified advantage and benefits offered by the federal government and inspire U.S owned small business owners to apply for the coveted certification. Let’s take a look at the various 8a certification benefits and how it helps in small business development.

Benefits of 8a Certification Small Business

• All successful candidates can receive sole-sourced contracts. Sole sourced or ‘no-bid’ contracts enable the 8a firms to clinch government projects without having to contest with other established business houses, as is the norm outside the government run marketplace. Thus, one of the prime 8a certification benefits is that it helps the 8a certified companies to get government contracts and help to establish them in the highly competitive marketplace.

• 8a certified firms are free to form joint ventures with other approved firms and bid on huge federal projects as a team. The high point of these joint venture initiatives is that the contesting firms can work on big federal agencies and increase their business revenue as well as earn valuable experience and increase their business network in the process. Moreover, working with a recognized department of the federal government adds to the business portfolio of the 8a approved firms and helps in improving their market presence and reputation.

• Participating firms can cash in with the “Mentor Protege Program” and obtain a detailed know how of the 8a certification benefits. The mentor ship program will help the newly inducted 8a firms to understand the tricks of the trade and help them to get acquainted with the workings of the federal marketplace.

You might be wondering that in spite of these several 8a certification benefits why aren’t most small business firms aware of the 8a certified advantages? Well, you can put the blame on the lack of public promotion and advertisement for that. But the good news is, recently the SBA themselves have started to take huge initiatives in terms of promotion of the 8a certification benefits. With ample support from 8a consultants and agencies, the situation looks promising. For a detailed know how on the 8a certified advantage I invite you to visit 8acertification.net. Get inspired!

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How To Evaluate Your Eligibility For 8 A Certification in 4 Steps?

We have been discussing all about the 8 A Certification and its efficacy in helping small businesses flourish, for as long as we can remember. However, little is being said about how a business owner can self-evaluate his/her company’s market standing in order to decide whether they need to apply for SBA 8a Application or not. This post will shed light on this less-discussed issue.

Simply put, here are 4 steps of eligibility to evaluate whether your business requires 8a certification -

1. If you are at social disadvantage – Are you an American Hispanic, an Asian American? Or do you belong to one of the Native American tribes or even a member of the Black American community? In either case, the SBA will consider you as a member of the socially disadvantageous people residing in the United States of America and give you permission to submit 8a certified application. Moreover if you have ever been at the receiving end of any sort of discrimination against you concerning your ethnicity and financial as well as social backwardness, the SBA will grant your case a special status and allow you to pursue the 8a certification program for your enterprise. Further you might be asked to provide a “proof of discrimination” against you / your business, which you may have faced in the mainstream US society , in fields other than business like career, society and education, just to name a few.

2. If your net worth is below $250K – The SBA has designed this 8 A Certification program for those businesses that are economically weak, which means the owners of such businesses must not hold personal assets worth USD 250K and above. If your personal net-worth is below this fixed sum, then obviously you can prepare to submit your SBA 8a Application.

3. If your business indeed fall under the small business clan- “How do I know whether I’m a small business or not?” Well, let me tell you this. A company is determined as small business depending on the number of employees it has as well as the gross income it generates in a single financial term. The NAICS code helps to determine your company’s true status. So get the NAICS code for your business from the SBA website to find out your business size –small, medium or big.

4. If you have a full 51 percent or more business ownership – the SBA has made it clear in their rule book that before submitting their SBA 8a Application, the 8 A Certification aspirant business must provide documents to the SBA which would clearly act as a proof indicating that the owner has 51% or more single ownership of the firm concerned.

These are just the 4 major steps to finding out whether your business is eligible to apply for the 8 A Certification. If you have any comments on any of the information shared, or if you wish to add a keynote on the same, feel free to comment below. Stay connected to Ez8a 8 A Certification blog for more.

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Learn The Several Benefits Of Timing An 8a Certification

Are you a small business owner looking forward to cement your financial stability in the highly competitive market place? Then you must get your business 8(a) certified. However, deciding when to go forward with an 8a application process is something that businesses don’t realize more often. In fact, it’s not an easy decision either. But then, waiting for the right time to apply might hinder your chances of getting your business 8a certified at all. In some cases it might be too late for your company and since you didn’t apply upfront you end up missing out on the lucrative opportunity that SBA 8a has to offer to small businesses. So due to a miss-timing of the 8a application your small business misses out the opportunity of becoming a large federal contractor. But all of these can be avoided if you have known the 8a certification benefits and properly timed your application.

EZ8A - 8a certification benefits

Here’s our video explaining all about properly timing your 8a application and what benefits would you be getting out of it. Watch it here –

Now that you know that timing of your 8a application is crucial don’t waste valuable moments. Get In touch with a certified 8a consultant, learn the 8a certification benefits and set your business on the road to unprecedented prosperity.

For more tips and suggestions on small business success and how 8a certification can help fulfil your business goals, stay connected to ez8a.

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