US Federal Contractor Registration: the Difference Between Self-Identifying and Certifying for Federal Set-Asides in System for Award Management

ST. PETERSBURG, FL--(Marketwired - July 23, 2015) - Thousands of businesses believe that by self-identifying for a specific federal set-aside in System for Award Management (SAM) they now qualify for that set-aside. The hard fact is that businesses must be registered in a separate corresponding registration in order to qualify for a specific federal set-aside. When a business registers in System for Award Management (SAM.gov) they are asked on a portion of the section if they identify with a few listed federal set-asides.

System for Award Management (SAM) asks every contractor when registering if they are a woman owned business, veteran owned business, total small business, minority owned business, located in a HUBZone, etc. However, a common misconception is that businesses think by checking the box for these set-asides that it automatically applies for that set-side. This could not be further from the truth. The real truth is that most of these set-asides have entirely separate registration processes that are located on different federal websites.

These case specific set-aside registrations must be completed and submitted in order to apply and bid on the following types of set-asides:

* Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB)

* Economically Disadvantaged Woman Owned Small Business (EDWOSB)

* HUBZOne - Historically Underutilized Business Zone

* Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business or VetBiz

For example, businesses that state that their company is a WOSB in SAM are self-identifying that they are a Woman Owned Small Business. However they are not actually a federally certified or recognized WOSB. Every business must be certified in order to receive small business federal set-aside contracts. Since the inception of SAM in July of 2012, businesses that are brand new to government contracting are not aware that they must be registered in separate registrations in order to qualify for specific federal set-sides. Please contact an Acquisition Specialist to find out which federal set-asides

The Small Business Act of 1994 put into order that 23% of the total value of all prime contracts awards for each fiscal year be devoted to small business government contractors.

* 23 percent of prime contracts for small businesses;

* 5 percent of prime and subcontracts for women-owned small businesses;

* 5 percent of prime contracts and subcontracts for Small Disadvantaged Businesses;

* 3 percent of prime contracts and subcontracts for HUBZone small businesses;

* 3 percent of prime and subcontracts for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.

US Federal Contractor Registration is the world’s largest third party registration firm that has been educating contractors since 2010 on these common misconceptions. They help businesses register in SAM, 8a, WOSB, VetBiz, HUBZone, GSA Schedules and several other registrations to make sure vendors are properly certified to back up their small business claims. Vendors that would like to learn more about federal set-asides and enrollment into specific set-aside registrations can call the Contractor Helpline at 1(877) 252-2700 Ext. 1.

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