Is August your most busy month?

Our exclusive research suggests August was the most active month for small federal contractors in each of the last 3 years

Did you skip your August vacation plans this year? You probably should have.

For the fourth year in a row, August appears to be shaping up as the busiest month for small business set-aside federal contracting activity, based on exclusive research by Set-Aside Alert.

In each of the last three years, small business set-aside contracting activity was at its peak in August, with September and July close behind, according to data obtained from the Federal Business Opportunities website.

Current data suggests that August 2014 is on a similar track.

Our analysis honed in on small business set-aside activity, by counting set-aside awards, sources sought notices, presolicitations and solicitations, as reported on FBO.gov.

On that basis, August was most active for the last three years for small business set-aside contracting activity. That trend held true for all small business and socio-economic category set-asides for fiscal 2011 to fiscal 2013.

It was not always this way. In fiscal 2009 and 2010, small business set-aside contracting activity hit highs in September, with August ranked second.

The current trend began in fiscal 2011, with 9,210 contracting activities reported in August 2011 involving set-asides for small businesses, 8(a) firms, HUBZone firms, Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSBs & Economically-Disadvantaged WOSBs) and SDVOSBs (service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses).

August represented 15% of such activity for all of fiscal 2011.

By comparison, there were 8,746 such activities in September 2011, and 6,300 in July 2011.

The trend continued in fiscal 2012. There were 10,357 contracting activities involving small firm set-asides in August 2012, or 16% of the annual total. That compared with 9,044 in September 2012; and 7,195 in July 2012.

The pattern shows up again in fiscal 2013, with 8,959 set-aside contracting activities with small vendors in August 2013, which was 14% of the year’s total. There were 8,428 such activities in September 2013 and 7,053 in July 2013.

This year, the August rush appears to be taking shape again.

Following a reported 7,542 set-aside contracting activities in July 2014, there were 5,435 reported for August, as of August 18.

On a pro-rated basis, that suggests the monthly total could go to nearly 9,400. In addition, totals for both July and August also are likely to rise as additional data flows in within the next several weeks.

For each of the last three years, July, August and September were the busiest months for small business set-asides. Combined, they represented 39% of all small vendor activity in fiscal 2011, 41% in fiscal 2012 and 38% in fiscal 2013.

All other months averaged between 4% and 12% each.

The bulk of the activity involved set-asides for the broadest pool of “small business.” Those comprised 9,204 actions in August 2012; 7,902 actions in August 2013 and 4,796 actions for Aug. 1 to 18, 2014.

By comparison, the actions for set-asides for 8(a) firms, HUBZone firms, WOSBs, EDWOSBs and SDVOSBs combined totaled 1,261 in August 2012; 1,127 in August 2013 and 676 from Aug. 1 to 18, 2014.

For the last three years, total annual socio-economic set-aside activity has been highest for SDVOSBs, with 2,546 actions in fiscal 2011; 3,151 actions in fiscal 2012; 3,785 actions in fiscal 2013; and 3,834 actions in fiscal 2014 as of Aug. 18, according to FBO.gov.

HUBZone set-aside activity was second-highest, with 968 actions in fiscal 2011; 783 in fiscal 2012; 912 in fiscal 2013 and 954 in fiscal 2014, as of Aug. 18.

“In each of the last three years, small business set-aside contracting activity was at its peak in August, with September and July close behind...”

8(a) activity came in third, with 909 actions in fiscal 2011; 834 in fiscal 2012; 875 in fiscal 2013 and 712 in fiscal 2014 to date, as of Aug. 18.

WOSBs and EDWOSBs recorded the lowest level of set-aside activity on FBO.gov. There were 192 actions in those categories in fiscal 2011; 384 in fiscal 2012; 387 in fiscal 2013 and 293 in fiscal 2014, as of Aug. 18.

Last month, Deltek forecasted that the government would spend $168 billion on contracts in the final quarter of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The research firm said about 35% of total contract spending would take place in the fourth quarter.

Deltek also said contract spending generally peaks in September (see Set-Aside Alert issue of July 11, 2014).

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