If your firm works on government projects, there is some news that you need to know. The federal government is changing their definition of “small business” for architecture and engineering firms.
These new definitions take effect on March 12th and they may have a significant impact on your business. The changes have to do with how much revenue a firm can generate and still be considered a small business.
The new limits are:
- Architecture services limit: $7M (was $4.5M)
- Engineering services limit: $14M (was $4.5M)
How This May Affect Your Firm’s Business
First, let me say that there is a big difference between a $4.5M/year firm and a $14M/year firm. This may really increase the number of architecture and engineering “small businesses” out there. Here are some of the changes you may see:
Firms Larger Than $4.5M but Smaller than $14M
- New opportunities to pursue federal “small business set aside” contracts.
- More opportunities to team on large federal contracts that have small business goals.
- More opportunities on state-funded contracts that have small business goals (the states often follow suit when federal rules change. Except for that time they decided not to adopt the SF330 form. 🙂 )
Firms Smaller Than $4.5M
- Significantly increased competition on federal “small business set aside” contracts.
- Increased competition when trying to team on large federal contracts that have small business goals.
- More competition on state-funded contracts that have small business goals.
Learn more about the changes in this Architectural Record article.
What do you think about these new rules? Good or bad, let us know in the comments.
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