By Holly Powell, Procurement Analyst. North Carolina Military Business Center
Effective August 18, 2008, the U. S. Small Business Administration increased all revenue based small business size standards, adjusting them upwards by 8.7% due to inflation. Therefore, you may want to re-examine whether your firm now qualifies as a small business for federal contracting purposes. The following information provides a quick recap of the current size standards:
Construction – General building and heavy construction contractors have a size standard of $33.5 million in average annual receipts. Special trade construction contractors have a size standard of $14 million. The size standard for Land Subdivision is $7 million in average annual receipts. The size standard for Dredging is $20 million in average annual receipts.
Manufacturing – For approximately 75 percent of the manufacturing industries, the size standard is 500 employees. A small number have a 1,500 employee size standard and the balance have a size standard of either 750 or 1,000 employees.
Mining – All mining industries, except mining services, have a size standard of 500 employees.
Retail Trade – Most retail trade industries have a size standard of $7 million in average annual receipts. A few, such as grocery stores, department stores, motor vehicle dealers and electrical appliance dealers, have higher size standards. None are above $29 million.
Services – For the service industries, the most common size standard is $7 million in average annual receipts. Computer programming, data processing and systems design have a size standard of $25 million. Engineering and architectural services have different size standards, as do a few other service industries. The highest annual receipts size standard in any service industry is $35.5 million. Research and development and environmental remediation services are the only service industries with size standards stated in number of employees.
Wholesale Trade – When acting as a dealer on federal contracts set aside for small business or issued under the 8(a) program, the size standard is 500 employees and the firm must deliver the product of a small domestic manufacturer, as set forth in SBA’s nonmanufacturer rule, unless waived by the SBA for a particular class of product. However, for those procurements made under the Simplified Acquisition Procedures of the FAR and where the purchase does not exceed $25,000, the nonmanufacturer may deliver the goods of any domestic manufacturer.
Note that the new size standards have been incorporated into Central Contractor Registration (CCR) at www.ccr.gov, however, the size standards were not automatically incorporated into Online Representations and Certifications (ORCA) profiles. If you are registered at CCR, you need to update your ORCA profile at https://orca.bpn.gov/ in order for the adjusted size standards to appear in your ORCA profile.
See the link to the complete SBA Table of Small Business Size Standards at www.ncmbc.us under Links, Contracting Registration. Questions may be referred to Holly Powell at powellh@ncmbc.us.
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