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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Features And Efficacy Of GSA Schedule Contract For Small Business Owners

The abbreviation of GSA in association with the schedule contracts stands for General Services Administration. This is a term which is exclusively prevalent in the United States and is a legal organization which gives in for long-term contracts which are essentially government wide by nature. These contracts are addressed to the commercial firms, regarding the wide scaled provision of all kinds of products and services which are relevant and prevalent in the commercial facets of functioning. The outstanding feature of these kinds of contracts is that these are characterized to give out products and services at remarkably reasonable prices that are also attached with discounts as well. Various commercial organizations in the United States have undergone such contracts with the GSA and that they are still up to continuing the same on account of the fact that the services offered by these contracts are really effective in saving funds at large.

GSA Schedule Contract For Small Business Owners

A GSA Schedule Contract is something that is also referred to as the Multiple Award Schedule Contract and that it gives in for one of the most significant vehicles of the government contracts whatsoever and this is on account of the fact that these contracts are high in smoothening the government sales procedures and their execution in the United States.

These contracts, with the help of their pre-determined terms and conditions on pricing, cater the companies sell to the government buyers and in this regard it has to be mentioned that one of the most significant features that can be attached on to the Advance GSA contracts is the GSA which gives in for advanced and organized negotiations that effectively build a bridge between the federal government who is seeking to purchase various goods and services and the manufacturing companies who are up to selling the same to the government. However in this regard it is necessary to point out that GSA services are used at large by the state, federal as well as the local leveled governments, all of which are highly provided with almost every kind of a good or a service required in their functioning.

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5 Pointers Why 8a Certified Advantage Outweigh Cost And Time?

It’s not unknown how tough the US marketplace had evolved into in the post 9/11 world. A dwindling economy continued for over half a decade and now that the US market is getting back on its feet, thanks to the recent economic measures on the home front, companies are expecting to see prosperous days ahead. In this current economic scenario, it goes without saying that this is the perfect time for entrepreneurs to launch their startups and for small businesses to explore the hidden frontiers of prosperity - the federal marketplace - by cashing in with the 8a certified advantage.

8a Certified Advantage

Many small business firms are confused as to how the 8a certification outweighs the cost and time involved in getting this coveted approval from SBA. Here are 5 pointers to help your decide –

1. Sole Sourcing – it is a powerful vehicle that enables the federal agencies to award contracts (including purchase of goods and products and procuring for services) from 8a certified companies without having them to bid for the project. On the other hand sole sourcing enables the 8a certified small business firms to win contracts without entering into project bidding with their closest competitors, directly from the federal marketplace.

2. Limited Competition – Once you get your business 8a certified you actually limit the competition on getting federal contracts! You will be surprised to know that there are approximately 24 million businesses operating in the US soil, not surprisingly only 8500 of these firms gets to enjoy 8a certified advantage. So you have plenty of free space to jump into!

3. Huge Federal Spending - the federal government spends a lot of dollars each year on federal contracts with the 8a certified firms for procuring goods and services at pre-negotiated rates. Last year the amount of federal spending for 8a program was a staggering $30 billion. Now could you believe that? It’s only feasible if you get your small business certified through SBA 8a application.

4. Large Contract Amounts – Now that’s another catch for applicants who wish to benefit from 8a certified advantage. Contracts are quite large for all 8a approved firms. You must know that federal contracts are awarded up to $4 million for products and services and up to 6.5 million for manufacturing deals.

5. Honest and Fair Pricing - yes, only in the federal marketplace you’ll get to benefit from the honest and better pricing structure. The 8a certified firms gets a full and open source price adjustment is offered by federal customers to 8a firms up to 10% of the fixed contract amount.

So you can see from the above that once you can see your SBA 8a application through the certifying authority you’re in a win-win situation. Take benefit of the 8a certified advantage and set your business rolling on the fast lane of success.

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