Over the past 3 years small businesses sales to the Department of Defense (DoD) have been steadily increasing. In fact yearly sales have risen on average 4.5 Billion dollars each year and this year it’s even higher. The chart above shows the total small business sales to DoD was $31.5 Billion dollars in 2017 compared to $39.6 Billion in sales as of June 25, 2018 up almost 26% from last year. Small businesses received $8.1 Billion dollars more in prime contracts selling to the DoD than they did last year, this trend is likely to continue till the end of the year.
Small Business set-asides are specific procurement goals which Congress puts forth under the Small Business Act in order to set-aside a percentage of U.S. Government contracts to small businesses.
The U. S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is responsible for ensuring government participation of these goals. The 2018 small business goal for DoD is to have 22% of their contracts awarded to small businesses. DoD monitors all contract awards to small business daily in order to keep meeting these goals. This chart above was created from data gathered from these awards on June 25, 2018.
The DoD budget increased by $33 Billion from 2017 to 2018 this is also an indicator for an increase in small businesses sales as the goal is based percentages of sales. In fact the DoD budget has increased by over $20 Billion dollars every year since 2015. With only 3 months of Government spending left this year in order for DoD to continue to meet their small business procurement goals they need to award more government contracts to small businesses, probably close to $20 Billion or more this year.
Meeting DoD small business procurement goals is not just a concern of the U.S. Government it should also be a concern of every small business to help them meet or exceed their goals. Actively searching for Government contracts and taking advantage of these set-asides is a crucial activity often missed even by the “seasoned contractor”. As part of research for this article we used the BidLink database and search engine reviewing NSN’s, parts which had been solicited using set-asides such as HUBZone, small business. There were government solicitations we found with no associated contract award possibly due to the fact that no companies with the correct set-aside responded. Are some of the government contractors sleeping on the job and missing these government opportunities?
BidLink has been a leading provider of industry marketing data relating to DoD procurement for the past 18 years. Find defense contracts and research competition. Learn more at www.bidlink.net
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