Small Businesses Awarded Record $105.7B in Prime Contracts

Recently, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced that the federal government met its small-business federal contracting goal for the fifth consecutive year. The end result was that small businesses across the country were awarded 23.88 percent in federal contract dollars totaling $105.7 billion, an increase of $5 billion. This marks the first time that more than $100 billion in prime contracts has been awarded to small businesses. The federal government earned an “A” on this year’s government-wide scorecard. 

The results are in

In fiscal year 2017, the federal government exceeded the service-disabled, veteran-owned small business and small-disadvantaged business goals. Prime contract dollars in all categories increased. The federal government also exceeded its subcontract goals for awards to women-owned small business and small disadvantaged businesses and awarded $75 billion in subcontracts to all small businesses. The fiscal year 2017 prime and subcontracting awards to small businesses equate to nearly 1 million jobs created to support the nation’s economy. 

Making the grade

The FY 2017 Small Business Procurement scorecard analyzed the prime contracting and subcontracting performance, and other contributing factors which resulted in an overall “A” grade for the federal government. Eight agencies received A+, 12 received a grade of “A,” three received a “B” grade, and one received a “C” grade.

What it means for small business

The SBA continues to collaborate with federal agencies to expand small-business opportunities for small-business contractors to compete and win federal contracts. Every year, the SBA works with each agency to set their prime and subcontracting goals and their performance is based on the agreed-upon goals. Each federal agency has a different small-business contracting goal, determined annually in consultation with the SBA. 

Opportunities for New York state firms

If your small business is looking to compete for contracts, I encourage you to attend our annual government contracting event, the 2018 Albany Matchmaker. Set for July 24 in Albany, the matchmaker offers one-on-one appointments with purchasing agents from federal, state, and local agencies as well as large prime contractors from across the Northeast. You can learn more at the event website: www.sba.gov/albanymatchmaker. If you’d like to read more about the Small Business Procurement scorecard and the detailed explanation of the calculations, please visit http://go.usa.gov/Nxxd. For additional information on government-contracting programs and services available through the SBA, visit www.sba.gov/contracting.

Bernard J. Paprocki is district director for the SBA’s Syracuse district office. He is responsible for the delivery of SBA’s financial programs and business-development services for a 34-county region in upstate New York.