The Department of Veteran Affairs provides an advantage to Service Disabled and Veteran Owned Firms in conducting business with the VA. This is because of the Veterans First Contacting Program that Congress established believes in the concept that Veterans would be the best providers of goods and services to fellow veterans.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), places the highest priority on making their purchases from SDVOSB firms. This is then followed by VOSB firms. This places these firms ahead of 8(a), HUBZone, Woman owned and other small businesses. This is the only agency within the federal government that gives priority to veterans in this manner. The VA is also the only agency that gives preference to veteran business owners who are not service disabled over other SBA certified firms. The VA is one of the largest federal procurement organizations, awarding billions in contracts to Veteran owned small businesses annually.
Why this is an important opportunity that Veterans need to learn about? Listed below is the number of Veterans and the subset of those Veterans that own businesses in the United States.
Listed below are the sales figures for Veteran Owned Businesses working with the Federal Government.
Federal Government
| Veteran Ownership Type | Federal Sales | Number of Firms | Average Sales Per Firm |
|---|---|---|---|
| SDVOSB | $32.5B | 21,545 | $1.5MM |
| VOSB | $41.6B | 5,372 | $7.7MM |
Now let’s compare those numbers to the sales figures for those same firms working with VA sales.
VA
| Veteran Ownership Type | Veterans Administration (VA) Sales | Number of Firms | Average Sales Per Firm |
|---|---|---|---|
| SDVOSB | $11.3B | 21,545 | $.52MM |
| VOSB | $12.1B | 5,372 | $2.3MM |
As you can see over 1/3 of SDVOSB business and ¼ of all Veteran Owned Federal Business comes from the VA Administration and this is because of the special advantage these firms have with the VA that create this advantage.
Note: Veteran Owned Businesses that do business with the federal government tend to be larger concerns than their SDVOSB peers.
Many eligible firms are not taking advantage of the opportunities that are available in doing business with either the Federal Government or even the extremely low hanging fruit that the Department of Veterans Affairs provides.
To qualify for this program the service-disabled veteran or veteran needs to obtain their certification from the SBA. The SBA took over administration of these certifications as of January 1, 2023.
If you have any contracting questions for Veterans, please feel free to give us a call as we are always happy to help!
