• Small Business Enterprise (SBE)
• Minority Business Enterprise (MBE)
• Women-owned Business Enterprise (WBE)
• Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE)
• DOT Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB)
• California Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE)
• Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB)
• SBA Business Development Certification [8(a)]
• HUBZone Historically Underutilized Business Zone

For each classification there may be from 1 to five organizations certifying businesses and each one has a different group of agencies or business types that accept their certification. Care must be taken is selecting the correct certifications for your business.

Benefits:
As an example, last year the federal government set-aside over $55 billion dollars in federal contracts for certified businesses. Added to federal set asides each State, County and Large City agencies set-aside over $500,000 for certified businesses each year. You may not want to bid on these large government contracts, however, the large companies that do win large contracts must pass on a percentage of their contracts to certified small and minority or women owned businesses.

What does it take to become certified?

• You must be the business owner(s) of the company with over 51% ownership
• You must meet the requirements of that business enterprise classifications
• You must have whatever licenses and qualifications required for running your type of business.
• You must have put your own money into your company.
• Certifying agencies would like you to be in business at least 2 years and be profitable.

Certification is all about getting into the agency database and if you are not in their database how are they going to find you?
One of SBCA's Core services is packaging certification applications for clients that do not want to become experts in the certification applications

Types of Certification:
Below are the major types of certification available today from the federal government:

Federal Certifications SBA
The federal government under the Small Business Administration currently has three business building programs:
-8(a) Certifications Program
-Small Disadvantage Business (SDB)
-Historically Underutilized Businesses Zone (HUBZone)

8(a) Certification Program
The 8(a) program is a set-aside for small disadvantaged businesses. Entrance to this program is through an intensive application format. Once certified as an 8(a) firm, you are given an opportunity to bid on federal government contracts. This is the most difficult certification to obtain. The major hurdle is writing the economic and/or social narrative. This narrative is 95% of determination of your qualifications for 8(a) certification.

Small Disadvantage Business (SDB)
The SDB program is for companies that want to work with Prime contractors like Boeing, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), General Service Administration (GSA) and other Prime contractors who have contracts with the Federal government. Entrance to this program is also through an intensive application format. Boeing and other Prime contractors are required to subcontract a percentage of their total contract dollars to certified SDB firms.

Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUB Zone)
The HUBZone Program stimulates economic development and creates jobs in urban and rural communities by providing Federal-contracting preferences to small businesses in the zone. These preferences go to small businesses that obtain HUBZone certification in part by hiring staff that live in a HUBZone. The company must also maintain a "principal office" in one of these specially designated areas.

We provide Certification Assessment of your business to assist you in determining which programs you qualify for and which are best for your business we will then Package your applications for 8(a), SDB and HUBZone regardless of where you live in the United States. SBCA has a 100% certification approval rate for its clients

Federal Certifications DOT
The federal government under the Department of Transportation currently has one business building program which is the DBE:

State Directed Disadvantage Business Enterprise (DBE) Program
Each state has a DBE program for dispersing funds given to the state from federal grants. These funds come with some strings and one of those strings is that the project funded by the Federal Government must have a DBE goal. In many cases this goal can be as high as 27% certified DBE participation.

We provide Certification Assessment of your business to assist you in determining which programs you qualify for and which are best for your business. We will then Package your applications for DOT nationwide. SBCA has a 100% certification approval rate for its clients.

Local Certifications
Within each state, several major certifying agencies certify small businesses. Many of these agencies require different types of certifications depending on who is funding the project.

E-mail us at info@1sbca.com for your local information

• Local and City Authority
• County Authority or Affirmative Action Program
• State Affirmative Action Program
• Public Utilities Certifying Agency
• Major Corporation & Regional Purchasing (3 or more)

We package certification applications for all of the above agencies nationwide. The certification packaging process is different for each certification. The process steps in the 8(a)/SDB or the DOT/DBE program are very similar to the process we use with local certifications programs.

We provide a Certification Assessment of you and your business to assist you in determining which programs you qualify for and which are best for your business. SBCA has a 100% certification approval rate for its clients.