The Small Business Administration has created an online application for companies to apply for 8(a) Business Development and Small Disadvantaged Business certification.
Intended to reduce the time and cost of applying for certification, the new application replaces a four-page written application that also required significant supporting documentation, according to the SBA.
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The initiative will let more small firms compete for federal contracts, SBA Administrator Hector Barreto said.
The 8(a) program helps small businesses owned, operated and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged people. It provides management, technical, financial and federal contracting assistance.
About 8,300 companies are certified by the 8(a) program, and nearly $9.6 billion in federal contracts were awarded to these firms last fiscal year.
See www.sba.gov for details.
Bill would expand programs at SBA
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) has introduced a bill that contains a number of provisions intended to stabilize and expand SBA programs.
Called the “Small Business Reauthorization and Manufacturing Assistance Act of 2004,” the bill would increase the size of loans in the 504 loan guarantee program. General loans would be backed up to $1.5 million, up from the current $1 million limit. If the project achieves one of nine public policy goals, such as being located in a rural area, the maximum loan would grow to $2 million, up from $1.3 million. If the loan is for a manufacturing project, the maximum would expand to $4 million, up from $1 million.
The bill also would extend current fees paid by borrowers under 7(a) loans. Otherwise, the fees would increase 40 percent to 100 percent, according to a news release from the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, which is chaired by Snowe.
Owners in Guard gain protection
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has signed a law that offers protections to business owners who are called up for military service.
Under the new law, business owners who are put on active duty in the United States armed forces or the Illinois National Guard and have to close their firms will not have to pay unemployment benefits for the workers who lose their jobs. When the business owner returns, the person’s unemployment insurance rate is not increased.
The law is the result of a Peoria dentist who was called into active duty in the U.S. Air Force. When he returned from six months of duty in Germany, he saw a more than 3,000 percent increase in his unemployment insurance rates because he had let go three employees when he shut down his business, according to the governor’s office.