Reminder: 2023 SDVOSB Deadline Looming

SmallGovCon has covered the SBA’s assumption of control over certification of Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses (“SDVOSB”) and Veteran Owned Small Businesses (“VOSB”) since it was first announced well over a year ago. Now, we are coming close to one of the final deadlines associated with SBA taking over these certification processes. It is hard to believe that it is already the end of the calendar year once again. But time flies when you are having federal contracting fun! With the end of 2023 comes a crucial deadline for certain veteran businesses to keep in mind–the date for self-certification to go away.

Continue reading

Clearing Things Up: OHA Remands Matter for Unclear Veteran-Owned Bylaws

SBA administers four socioeconomic programs: Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), 8(a) Business Development Program (8(a)) Women-Owned Small Business Program (WOSB) and HUBZone. The SDVOSB, 8(a), and WOSB programs all require that the key owner generally have control over the long-term decision-making and the day-to-day operations of a company. These same rules apply to the veteran-owned small businesses program (VOSB) as well. A recent decision from the Office of Hearings and Appeals at SBA reveals that the operating agreement or bylaws for these types of companies must be very clear about how they are operated.

Continue reading

SmallGovCon Week in Review: July 3-7, 2023

Happy Friday! We hope you had a nice 4th of July and a great week. It was another scorcher here in Kansas, on the 4th, but thankfully our temperatures are much cooler to finish out the week. Here’s hoping you can find time to rest and relax this weekend and perhaps, read a few articles we thought were interesting from the federal government contracting world. Enjoy!

In this week’s edition, the federal fiscal fourth quarter is upon us!

Continue reading

Back to Basics: Status Protests

In the world of Federal Government Contracting, it often feels like there are 20 different ways that your business or your business’s awards can be protested. In addition to size protests and bid protests (at both GAO and the COFC), there is also what is commonly referred to as a “status protest.” A status protest, while certainly less common than size protests and bid protests, still presents its own unique factors, procedures, and corresponding risks that contractors should be aware of. In this next installment of our Back to Basics series, we will walk you through a status protest and what impact a status protest may have on a federal contractor’s business.

Continue reading

Free Virtual Workshop: Legislative Changes that May Affect Your Small GovCon Business, February 28, 3:00-5:00PM CST

The government contracting legal landscape has gone through many important changes in 2022 and the first part of 2023, including new small business rules, SDVOSB certification requirements, recent domestic preference changes under the Buy American Act, key provisions of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act and other laws passed in 2022, and much more.  In this session, we will provide a comprehensive update on the most important government contracting legal changes in 2022, and the projected changes in the first months of 2023. This webinar is hosted by The Catalyst Center for Business & Entrepreneurship. Hope to see you there! Register here.

SBA Says Goodbye to Reasonable Commute Rule for SDVOSBs

SBA, without much commentary, recently removed the so-called reasonable commute requirement for service-disabled veterans (SDV) who owned or managed service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB). This rule used to require that veterans live near the principal office or job site, but it sometimes caused issues for SDVOSBs because of how restrictive it could be. Thankfully, SBA has removed this requirement. Since SBA brought little attention to this change, we want to highlight it in this post and say farewell to this SDVOSB requirement.

Continue reading

UTSA Apex Accelerator Webinar: Government Contracts Legal Update 2023, February 21, 2023, 10:00-11:30am CST

The government contracting legal landscape has gone through many important changes in 2022 and the first part of 2023, including new small business rules, SDVOSB certification requirements, recent domestic preference changes under the Buy American Act, and much more.  In this session we will provide a comprehensive update on the most important government contracting legal changes. This is a “no-cost” Training.  Register here.