8A Certification, unlike the typical applications available in any other walk of life is very hard to obtain and yet is extremely beneficial for small scale businesses. It is a U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) program that has been initiated to provide help and assistance to all the qualified small scale business owners, who lag behind in the rat race due to economical and or social disadvantages. Over the past few years this program has been extremely important and rewarding for thousands of minority entrepreneurs.
The name of the certification program has derived from its origination out of the Section 8(a) of the Small Business Act. In receipt of the SBA 8A, small scale business owners get access to a wide variety of services for business development and also become eligible for receiving federal contracts on the basis of soul-source or limited competition.
Through their resource partners, the Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) and Women’s Business Centers (WBCs), SBA provides one-on-one counseling for free in order to assist applicants to prepare the application package for the 8A Certification program. Each of them offers in-person business counseling and workshops along with a few more networking opportunities to the applicants at the central and at all the other easily accessible branch locations.
Other than the free one-on-one business counseling assistance, SBA also conducts seminars and workshops, publishes and supplies printed resource guides from and all SBA’s District Offices to help and guide the applicants. Each of these resources is considered as valuable reference tool for small scale businesses. The resource guide (available for free) published by the SBA District Offices is known to be the roadmap that leads to all the valuable products of SBA.
Benefits of the 8A Certification Program
In addition to the business development assistance from SBA and other government agencies there are several other benefits that can be enjoyed by any qualified small business after receiving the certification. Here are some of the key benefits of the SBA 8A Certification:
• Business development assistance from Small Business Administration and other government agencies
• Opportunity to receive “soul source”
• Opportunity to bid for “set-aside” contracts irrespective of size in competition with any other participant of the same program
• Each participant remain in the 8A Certification program for a time span of 9 years
• During this tenure they are constantly encouraged to enhance their knowledge both competitive and institutional
However, there are certain eligibility requirements that applicants must meet if they intend to apply for the 8A Certification – the company must be owned and run by socially and or economically disadvantaged individuals, abide by the rules and regulations for application review and evaluation etc. Even though it seems to be a long and complicated procedure, considering its various privileges, the 8A Certification is extremely beneficial for any kind of small scale business.
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