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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Prevalence Of 8 A Certification In Contemporary Business Procedures

Business is literally defined to be an economic activity which gives in for a prominent platform to carry out the basic economic activities like the buying and the selling of products and services in exchange of something that is considered to be of equal worth whatsoever. This activity has been in prevalence since quite a long period of time and the fact remains that the features of the business procedures have undergone considerable modifications over years and at present they simply exhibit the best of what businesses are suppose to be.

8 A Certification Business Procedures

Businesses are active in almost every part of the world and that America is one of the most significant places in this regard as because it gives in for business activities to be carried out in an extra-ordinary extent. It is here that the mention of the feature of 8 a certification is required. This is a program which essentially forms an integral part of the SBA authority, the abbreviation of which stands for the Small Business Administration. This is an authority that has been given in by the Americans so as to cater the scope and chances of the business authorities that are grounded on the land of the United States of America.

8 (a) certification is a program which gives in for a specialized status to those business authorities which are not financially stable or rather are not capable of establishing themselves as mainstream business procedures amongst the others that are existent here in the same land. The main objective that has been attached on to the initiative of this feature is to make way for these business procedures to compete in the field of business functioning amongst those who have reached the position of the marginalizing high profits whatsoever. One of the noteworthy criterion that an 8a small business beholds is that it has to be proved that it is a small-scale business procedure that is socially deprived on grounds of finance and resources; that is to say that the authorities of the 8 a certification are liable to be vigilant on the facts that the business organizations which seek to be registered with the provisions of this program essentially need to be proved lacking on grounds which are associated with no faults of their own. It is only then that the same will be able to get help and support from the authority.

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Top Ideas To help You Achieve Success As An Entrepreneur

Winners don’t do different things. They do normal things in a bit different way. The maxim is true in its entirety. If you are an entrepreneur by profession and are in the habit of seeking constant streams or sources of ideas you should get the point that every time you might not need a concept which is as new as a new penny just out of the mint. In order to achieve success as an entrepreneur you mint have to mine a little harder. Probably you are going to find a perfect mix and match of the traditional methods as well as some mint fresh concepts useful for your ultimate objective. Here is a quick peep at some quintessential ideas which are going to help you a lot in terms of accomplishing your objectives and set your mark as a visionary entrepreneur of this era.

Overcome pessimism

Pessimism can prove to be biggest hurdle for your success as an entrepreneur. It is an impediment as well as a predicament. So you do need to make it sure that you are going to overcome pessimism at any cost. In order to overcome the problem of pessimism you can make use of the technique which renowned and astute motivators would like to describe as ‘auto-suggestions’. It is a particularly useful method which is often adopted by professionals, sports people as well as top notch sales people so that they can tide over the negative feelings that threaten to unhinge their mindset.

Go for a certification program

If your business is in a state of its formative years or in its startup phases then you do need to go for a certification program. You can consider the 8a certification program in this regard. With the help of this kind of a helpful program you are going to win your spur in your respective field of business in due course of time.

Use latest technologies

Use latest technologies such as crowd sourcing, social sharing through internet, life style apps, specific tools for enhancing productivity (TENXER, EVERNOTE). These technologies are gradually turning out to be the tools that change the way business are done on global platforms.

Take care of official red tapes

Take care of official red tapes are going to be a pain in the neck if you are not careful enough about them. Do everything in your power to make sure that the obstructions are well taken care of. If you have to pull strings, then pull strings. Use your connections. You would be surprised to know that an 8 a certification program can prove helpful in this regard. If you are 8a certified then you get to face less amount of stringency from official circles.

In order to give you a final word on this issue, you must make it a point that you are not going to get distracted while making your earnest initiatives. If you have to achieve success as an entrepreneur then you do need to make it a point that you are going to turn out to be more productive in a true sense. You need to reinstate or concretize your business vision. You have to tap into your expertise or potential and most importantly you have to keep asking questions that keep you motivated and help you brave through oddities.

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Is Your Business Small Enough To Obtain 8a Certification?

You may own a business, which you consider it to be small. But what is most important is that whether the Small Business Administration considers your business to be small. The SBA will only consider your company to be small if it finds out that you adhere to the size standards set by them. This means only if your company meets the SBA size standards, it will be considered to be a small business by the Small Business Administration. Unless your firm is small, it won’t be able to get the 8a certification.

Now, the question is what is a small business according to the SBA. The SBA defines it either on the number of employees the firm has or on the basis of the annual receipts over the last three years. A manufacturing and mining company should not be having more than 500 employees if the firm wants it to be considered small by the SBA. A non manufacturing firm on the other hand are judged on the basis of their annual revenue, which is set by the SBA as 7 million dollars. This means a non-manufacturing firm shouldn’t have earned more than the specified amount in a year if it wants its business to get approval from the agency for SBA 8a certification.

The Small Business Administration even defines a small sized business as an enterprise, which:

• Has a business location in United States
• Is established for making profits
• Operates mainly within the United States or contributes largely to the economy of U.S. through paying taxes or using American materials, products or labor
• Is operated and owned independently

8a Small Business Certification

The company can be a partnership, sole proprietorship or corporation. Since all the federal agencies should use the size standards set by the SBA for the contracts, you must choose NAICS codes, which best describe the firm and then see if it meets the size standards for the chosen NAICS codes. If you want, you can even make use of the Size Standards Tool for finding out the size of your business.

After you find out that your business is small, there are few more things which you need to make sure your company meets. Your firm apart from being small need to prove to the SBA that it is economically and socially disadvantaged, majority of the company is owned by a disadvantaged individual, the firm has been in business for a minimum of two years and so on. To find out all these requirements of the SBA 8a certification, get in touch with an 8a certification consultant who can explain you in detail about the requirements.

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8a Certification: Determine Whether Your AGI is Below $250K

8a certification is a business development program for small businesses. Obtaining this certification is not an easy affair. The United States Small Business Administration is very stringent when it comes to approving the certification for small businesses. It scrutinizes the application in details and if it finds any SBA 8a certification requirement not being met, it rejects the application straightway.

If you are a small business wanting to get 8a certified, you need to make sure you first know the requirements for SBA 8a certification thoroughly. You need to be a ‘small business’ as per the SBA rules, you should be socially and economically disadvantaged not having more than $250K as your average AGI over the past three tax years, the small business need to be owned and controlled by disadvantaged individuals, your business should be 2 years of age at least and the business owner needs to have a good character.

8a Certification

Here we have discussed about how to determine if an 8a applicant’s average Adjusted Gross Income, which should not be more than $250K over the past three tax years.

Before starting, let’s first learn what is an AGI. It’s a tax term for an amount used in the calculation of the individual’s income tax liability. It’s calculated by taking the gross income of the applicant and subtracting the maximum allowable adjustments.

How to determine your AGI for 8a certification?

An easy way to determine if your AGI has exceeded $250K threshold is to add the AGI number for the past three tax years, which is the on the first page of the Form 1040. Add these three numbers, divide them by three and then find out what’s the result? If the amount exceeds $250,000, you need to do more analysis. If the number is not more than $250,000, then be happy you have not exceeded the threshold and that you have met one of the major 8a certification criteria.

If you’ve found out that your AGI is more than $250K, then a further analysis might help you. Sometimes it happens that married couple file their taxes jointly. In such a case, you need to separate your part of income, which is reported on tax return. After doing this, add up the AGI numbers for the last three years and then divide them by three again. If the number exceeds $250,000, you need to do more analysis. If it is below $250K, you can be happy that now you have met the criteria.

However, if the average AGI is more than $250K, there is one more way to see if you still exceed the specified threshold. If your company is an S-Corporation or an LLC you can:

• Deduct the income, which is related to the enterprise and that was reinvested into the business, less any distributions.

• Deduct the income, which has been used for paying the S-Corporation or LLC federal taxes within one year of the income distribution.

Determining your AGI for 8a certification is a complicated affair. Advance 8a can assist you to determine your Adjusted Gross Income should you require more help.

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