Running head: SMALL BUSINESS PROGRAMS 1

Small Business Program and Source Selection Plans

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Examine the purpose of the federal small business program to include a historical aspect of

the government regulations that created the program.

Introduction

Set aside contracts are meant to benefit the small businesses in reducing the competition

of acquiring and winning contracts from the federal government. Being a contractor, I will

facilitate the sale of the installation of security fencing around the base of the towers along the

Arizona-Mexico border that shall be used for long-range cameras. I must draft a portion of the

main contract of the small business set aside contract which will base on the different aspects to

be discussed into detail. The federal small business programs fall under an organization often

referred to as SBA, US Small Business Administration.

SBA organization began its journey back in 1932 as a Reconstruction Finance

Corporation (RFC) headed by President Herbert Hoover. It aimed at lending to small business

and overcoming the financial crisis of the Great Depression. Its development foresaw the

creation of the Smaller War Plants Corporation (SWPC) in 1942, which aimed in helping the

small business in acquiring contracts to participate in war production and financing their

operations. This organization, however, terminated its operations after the end of the war

handing over its powers to the Office of Small Business which encompassed in the Department

of Commerce. This move was, however, unending as there was a need to create an organization

that catered for the small business interests during the Korean War, which referred it to as Small

Defense Plants Administration.

In 1952 RFC was abolished leading to the formation of a new agency that catered for

small business, the SBA. On 30th July 1953, Congress developed the Small Business

Administration, whose main purpose was to help, advice, protect, and promote the interest of
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small business (Organization, 2019). Today, the SBA is widely known over the country as it has

a minimum of one office in each state with an annual budget of around $ 985 million serving

more than one million small business owners and entrepreneurs (Heil, 2016).

The purpose of the small federal program is to assist with the accessibility of capital, the

development of the entrepreneur culture, governmental contracting as well as in advocating the

voice of the small business people. They also aid in conducting research and enhancing an

enabling environment that used in assessing the impact or the regulations.

Evaluate the small business set-aside program regarding the eligibility to participate.

Small business set-aside programs are eligible to participate in the competition of the

government contracts, only after meeting some basic requirements for enrollment. These

requirements include getting proper documentation, meeting some standard based on the size of

their portfolio, registration with the federal government's Systems for Award Management

(SAM) and showing evidence of complying with the law.

The small businesses have get registered for them to be allowed to sell their products. In

this case, they have to acquire a Dun & Bradstreet, DUNS number that is unique in identifying

any business in terms of its physical location, which is a requirement when applying for

contracts. The number is freely provided to all business for easy inspection. DUNS number is

vital as it can be applied in verifying the credit ratings of a business. For proper documentation to

take place, the businesses also require to have the NAICS code, North American Industry

Classification System that is used in matching the goods and the services the business provides

to the public by assigning the NAICS code when relating the products of one line production.
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Small business also needs to meet some standards set by the SBA in terms of their sizes.

The size standard help in creating the size of the product to be offered to a business. The smaller

the size of their business, the less the size of the contract they acquire. This is achieved through

the NAICS code that SBA assigns to different businesses. Businesses have also been provided

with a Size Standards Tool, which is a tool that business can use to verify their sizes. For

instance, non-manufacturing businesses with receipts averaging below $ 7.5 million are

considered small businesses.

For business also to be allowed to participate in the competing for contracts they also

have to register their business with the System for Award Management, SAM which is a system

that is used by the government and its affiliates in seeking for suitable contractors. SAM has a lot

of corporate advantages as it acts as a tool of marketing one's business as it acts as brochures in

luring government agencies to acquire a contract.

Finally, for the business to be eligible to participate in contracting, they have to prove

their compliance with the law. The Federal Acquisition Regulation is an agency that incorporated

into the corporate business to facilitate business compliance with the laws and the regulations

that have been laid out.

Assess the dollar threshold reserved for small business contracts in the scenario.

For the small business to acquire a contract, it must have a required amount of dollars to

acquire a contract. In this case, the business will be able to acquire the contract as the cost of the

project is 100,000 dollars which is within the range to which the small business can be able to

acquire the government contracts.

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Several methods used in awarding contracts to the small business which vary from the

cash flow they operate to the number of employees the small business has. For instance, a

business or companies that have 500 employees or fewer are considered small businesses. These

include factors such as small purchases valued between $3500 and $ 150,000, which often

termed as reserved exclusively as it is meant for small business to acquire. The other option

comprises of the contracts that are above $ 150,000 which are very competitive and can only be

awarded through contracting using negotiation in which small business compete against each

other, and the winning side awarded the project based on the fair market price.

In different occasions also the small businesses negotiate directly with each other to

decide the party that wins the contract based on their discretion, especially in the contracts that

exceed $150,000. For contracts ranging from $0 to $ 2500 small business do not have set-aside

and therefore cannot be able to compete for government contracts. A small business may also be

regarded as partial set-asides if they only have a single acquisition and can only be set aside by

the contracting officer except during a construction contract.

Analyze the contract formats for government contracts to include universal and
commercial formats.
Universal and commercial contract formats are the most common contracts that are used

by the businesses in requesting for contracts from the federal government. This is often referred

to as solicitation, where business competes with each other in the acquisition of products against

each other.

Universal contract format is a type of contracting format that is widely used by a different

organization, business, or even the government in acquiring goods and services which are
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conducted through negotiation methods. The contract is only considered when the party entering

into the contract has inadequate capital to finance the operations.

On the hand, commercial contract format is a method of acquiring commercial items that

permits the buying and selling of products. It may also take a form of leasing, purchase, or sale

of intellectual property rights such as copyrights, patents, designs, or model to be used in the

creation of new products.

Determine which format to use for the small business contract described in the scenario.

A business contract refers to a document that outlines the terms and conditions that the

parties involved will abide by as according to the provisions of their contract. In this case, the

most suitable format is the commercial contract format, which will allow the easy acquisition of

the commercial items. The commercial items, in this case, refers to the items that are used by the

public for use other than those of the government which is sold, offers for sale or licensed to the

public for use.

The commercial contract format will be the most appropriate format to be used by the

business in fencing around the base of the towers along the Arizona-Mexico border. This is

based on the fact that the project has to be conducted as there is no room for negotiation to take

place, unlike universal contracting. The method is also preferred, considering it involves

purchasing or acquisition of inputs that will be used in construction.

A simple sample of the commercial contract format may take the following direction

according to PAR 12.303(2019).

a) Standard form

b) Continuation of any block from the standard form which may include block10 which

indicates the applicable percentage, block 18 which represents the remittance address,
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block 19 for line item numbers, block 20 and 25 which represents schedule of services

and accounting of data respectively.

c) This part contains the contract clauses, which include contract terms and conditions,

addendum and contract terms and conditions which are required to implement statutes

and orders.

d) This part consists of any contract document, exhibits or attachments.

e) Solicitation provisions are entailed by the instructions to the commercial items, any

addendum, evaluation, and any other representations and certifications (PAR, 2019).

Determine the purpose of the source selection evaluation plan.

A source selection evaluation plan can be defined as an important document that is

important in explaining how proposal made up are to be solicited while being evaluated to make

decisions. It is very important as it explores the outline of a plan which is used in the acquisition

of goods and services (Rossi, Lipsey & Henry, 2018).

The purposes of the source selection evaluation plan are to illustrate how proposals can

be analyzed to be used in making selection decisions. The SSP helps the business to maintain the

right focus. When the business maintains its focus on the outcomes of their plan, they tend to

increase the trade space, which increases the solutions they offer while making decisions.

The source selection evaluation plan helps in communicating important changes in the

industry. Through the use of different solicitation offers and notifications, the request for

proposal makes the process transparent. This promotes the accountability of the individuals that

ate used in the ranking the different projects.

Create a ranking of criteria for evaluation plans for this scenario.

Evaluation criteria can be defined as the standard that used in the evaluation of proposals

to select the most advantageous proposal which considers the requirements that have been laid
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out in consideration of the best value of money (World Bank, 2016). In this scenario, the

evaluation criteria will be based on the factors affecting the projects environment.

These factors include the quality, sustainability criteria, consideration of risks, and

innovation. In terms of creating the ranking, assessing each factor will be valuable as it helps the

organization in evaluating themselves against others. In considering the risk, the process must

mitigate the relevant associated risk. In innovation, the criteria are meant to design the delivery

of goods and services. To rank a plan, an individual should account the economic and social

benefits that are flexible for sustainability.

In conclusion, the study has discussed into detail about the small businesses programs

that have been facilitated by the existence of US Small Business Administration which aims to

protect, aid and assist small business to acquire government contracts. The origin of the

organization can be attributed to RFC operations in 1932 that later was abolished and dissolved

to form SBA. The study has also identified the conditions that the small business have to meet to

be eligible to acquire federal contracts. Some of them include registering with SAM, acquiring

the DUNS number among others. The study has also assessed the threshold required for a small

business which includes attainment of $ 3500 to $150,000 to be able to be granted a fair position

in winning the contract. The study has furthermore discussed and established the different

formats of government contracts, which include universal and commercial formats. Regarding

this scenario, the small business shall adopt the commercial contract format. The study has

furthered into determining the purpose of the source selection evaluation plan and the criteria of

ranking evaluation plans.

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References

Farsite.hill.af.mil. (2019). FAR -- Part 12 Acquisition of Commercial Items. Retrieved from:

http://farsite.hill.af.mil/reghtml/regs/far2afmcfars/fardfars/far/12.htm.

Heil, M. (2019). Missing the cut? How the threshold effects distort US small business lending

trends. Finance Research Letters, 28, 82-86.

Organization. (2019). Organization. Retrieved from: https://www.sba.gov/about-

sba/organization.

Pubdocs.worldbank.org. (2016). Evaluation Criteria. Retrieved from:

http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/201591478724669006/Guidance-Evaluation-Criteria-

FINAL.pdf

Rossi, P. H., Lipsey, M. W., & Henry, G. T. (2018). Evaluation: A systematic approach. Sage

publications.