As a woman, what benefits do I receive when starting a business?
By: Jeri Koehler – May 2008
We have clients bring this question before us quite often. The guy on TV with the crazy tie says that women and minorities receive special benefits. So what are these benefits and where can you find them? We addressed the idea of ‘free money in March’s newsletter. But just to clarify, there are no small business government grants because you are a woman. However, there are loan programs for women and certification programs that would allow you to compete better in the government contracting process. Let’s start by discussing loan programs for women. A few years ago, the SBA put together a micro-loan program called Community Express. This program’s goals were to increase women, minority and veteran owned businesses. However, the same program is now available for everyone in rural or disadvantaged areas, called SBA Express. So as far as small business loans are concerned, especially in rural northeast Oklahoma, there are not necessarily any benefits to womenowned businesses. There are some preferences given to women owned businesses looking to sell to the government. In 1994, the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA) was established, setting a goal for federal agencies to award at least 5% of all prime and subcontract dollars to women-owned small businesses (WOSBs). Despite continued growth in the number and economic impact of women-owned firms, the 5% goal has never been achieved on a government-wide basis. Nonetheless, 3% of federal contract dollars were spent with women-owned businesses in FY2003 – the highest share achieved since this information has been recorded. Performance is even better for the number of actions awarded: nearly 600,000 contract actions were awarded to WOSBs in FY2003, which is more than double the 272,000 actions to WOSBs in FY2002. WOSBs garnered 5.3% of contract actions in 2003, up from 3.8% in 1999 and 3.4% in 2002. So this brings up the question, how do I certify my business as woman-owned? The federal government does not require certification as a woman-owned small business. However, certification can be helpful in winning other types of contracts. For federal procurement, you may self-certify in the Central Contractor Registration. In addition, there are two private national women's business organizations that certify qualified women-owned businesses: Women’s Business Enterprise National Council National Women's Business Owners Corporation For more information, visit www.sba.gov or www.womenbiz.gov.