WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the voice in President Biden’s Cabinet for America’s more than 34 million small businesses, announced that small businesses received more than $183 billion in prime contracts from the federal government – 28.8% of all federal contracting dollars – in fiscal year 2024, which ended Sept. 30, 2024. Prime contracts are awarded to small businesses to work directly with the government. These prime contracting awards once again exceed the federal government’s 23% small business contracting goal and broke last year’s record of $178 billion in prime contracts going to small businesses.

“Four straight years of increased small business contracting opportunities reflects the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to leveling the playing field for small businesses looking to do business with the federal government – the world’s largest buyer of goods and services,” said SBA Administrator Guzman. “While there is more work to be done to ensure more entrepreneurs can share in this growth, the SBA celebrates the record levels of small business contracting achieved over the course of this historic presidential administration.”

Along with the record-breaking totals, the preliminary prime contracting numbers reveal small, disadvantaged businesses received $78.1 billion, another record again surpassing FY23. Additionally, service-disabled veteran owned small businesses received the highest amount ever at $32.8 billion. Nearly all categories tracked continued to see a year-over-year increase in federal contracts for goods and services.

Dollars and Percent of Prime Contracts Awarded (rounded) 

In alignment with the Biden-Harris Administration’s goals, SBA Administrator Guzman has led a multi-year commitment to expand small businesses’ access to federal contracting and modernize the customer experience so they can better compete for government contracts which can help boost their revenue and growth. Under her leadership, the SBA made transformational reforms to its trainings, certifications, and regulations to better position small businesses to bid and win contracts to take advantage of the more than $630 billion in federal contracting opportunities.

Recent actions include the launch of two new online tools to assist small businesses with securing federal contracts:

1. MySBA Certifications, a streamlined federal contracting certification tool that launched in late 2024 and allows small business owners to apply for multiple federal contracting certifications through one secure login and with a single application. It built on and enhanced the agency’s successful launch of VetCert in 2023, which was a streamlined application system for veterans and service-disabled veterans. Previously, SBA’s small business certification programs ran through four separate systems and different teams with distinct applications, compliance, and review procedures. Prior to launching MySBA Certifications, SBA cleared a backlog of applications to certify 18,219 small businesses – a single-year record and a nearly 40% increase over FY23.
2. GovCon Match, which helps small businesses find federal government agencies that might be interested in buying the small business’ products or services. Developed in cooperation with the University of Virginia’s School of Data Science, GovCon Match uses a custom algorithm to find agencies most likely to contract with the small business.

Seeking to create more contracting opportunities for small businesses, SBA recently proposed regulatory changes to increase small-business participation on multiple-award contracts and in subcontracting. These follow regulatory updates to the Historically Underutilized Business Zone program for businesses that operate in HUBZones.

SBA also launched two new innovative in-person cohort style training programs for small, disadvantaged businesses and Veteran Owned 8(a) firms through the Empower to Grow Program, a virtual and in-person coaching and training program to help disadvantaged small businesses grow in the federal marketplace. 

As a follow-on to the FY24 data, the SBA also has released FY25 agency contracting goals for federal agencies detailing how much of their contracting dollars should be awarded to small businesses. In setting these goals, the agency continued to press forward for reaching President Biden’s goal of 15% for small, disadvantaged businesses by 2025. Each agency has individual prime contracting and subcontracting small business goals which may differ from government-wide goals.

Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the SBA also began releasing disaggregated data tracking the federal government’s contracting with small and minority-owned firms broken down across several racial and ethnic categories – a move advocated by Administrator Guzman to promote transparency and accountability in contracting.

 Dollars and Percent of Prime Contracts Awarded (rounded); Dept. of Energy M&O data not included

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About the U.S. Small Business Administration 
The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow, or expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.

SBA Press Team
U.S. Small Business Administration
press_office@sba.gov