Glossary / Business
Small Business
A Small Business, for federal contracting purposes, is a business that meets SBA's size standards for the applicable NAICS code. Size is measured by average annual receipts over the most recent 5 completed fiscal years or by average employee count over the last 24 months, depending on the NAICS. Firms self-certify as small when they register in SAM.gov under specific NAICS codes. SBA's size standards table is the authoritative source. Affiliation rules under 13 CFR 121.103 can aggregate size across affiliated entities, so JV and investment structures can trigger size issues.
Why it matters to your pipeline
Small-business status is the most fundamental socioeconomic classification in federal contracting. Federal agencies have 23% governmentwide small-business goals, with set-asides and sole-source tools to meet them. Losing small-business status (through revenue growth, affiliation, or acquisition) is often a major strategic transition, and many firms plan for it years in advance, moving into vehicles like OASIS+ Unrestricted or MAS that can serve both small and mid-tier competition.
When this term shows up in an opening GovSmith finds for you, your vCM explains what it means for that pursuit and does whatever it calls for. You decide; we do the work.
Example
A services firm with $36M in revenue last year remains small under NAICS 541512 ($34M standard) because its five-year average is $33.5M. It uses this window to win two final 8(a) sole-source awards before graduating to the full-and-open market.
Find out what applies to you
Some terms will matter to your business right away and some won’t for years. A vCM can tell you which are which.