Set-Aside Alert exclusive analysis:

SDBs led the pack in 2021-2022 new entrants to gov contracting

But the total of new small biz govcon entrants dipped

      Small Disadvantaged Business (SDBs) new entrants--defined as SDBs that won their first federal contract--far outnumbered other types of small business new entrants in fiscal 2021 and 2022, according to the government’s new Supplier Base Dashboard.

      There were 7,353 SDB new entrants in total for both years, according to Set-Aside Alert’s recent review of the dashboard. That was comprised of 3,819 SDB new entrants in 2021, and 3,534 in 2022.

      That was far more than the number of new entrants listed as Small Business Women-Owned, HUBZone or Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned, and, surprisingly, the SDB new entrants also exceeded the number of new Small Business entrants not in a socioeconomic category.

      While the relatively high numbers of SDB new entrants is likely encouraging for President Joe Biden’s stated goal of increasing SDB procurements, total new entrants sagged slightly in 2022, compared to the year before.

      Furthermore, when measuring in terms of the amount of money awarded, the longstanding small and not-small businesses captured more than 90% of total contracting award dollars in both 2021 and 2022, while new entrants got less than 7%.

      The new dashboard, created by the General Services Administration, covers only two years. It acknowledges overcounting in the small business data, due to many small business vendors having multiple certifications.

      Nonetheless, the dashboard offers insights about current trends.

      There were several more bright spots for small business contractors:

• In both fiscal 2021 and 2022, there were more new small business entrants than other-than-small new entrants. For example, there were 7,769 small business new entrants in fiscal 2022, while only 3,290 other-than-small new entrants; and
• There were 37,589 longstanding small businesses--those three years older or more-- that won federal contracts in fiscal 2022, compared with 14,700 longstanding other-than-small businesses.

Dashboard Data

      Here is the chart of the percentage of award dollars going to new and recent entrants vs. the dollars going to established firms.

      Here is the number of new entrants and established firms that won contracts that year.

More Information:
Supplier Base Dashboard: https://bit.ly/41SDHPA

SDBs led the pack in 2021-2022 new entrants to gov contracting

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