To ensure that small businesses get their fair share of Federal Government purchases, statutory goals have been established for Federal executive agencies. They are:

• 23 percent of prime contracts for small businesses;
• 5 percent of prime and subcontracts for women-owned small businesses;
• 3 percent of prime contracts for HUBZone small businesses;
• 3 percent of prime and subcontracts for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.

Each Federal agency must also set its own annual goal to make sure that various groups have an opportunity to participate in its contracts; these groups include small business concerns; small business concerns owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans; qualified HUBZone small business concerns; small business concerns owned and operated by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals; and small business concerns owned and controlled by women.

Negotiating and Establishing Goals
SBA is responsible for ensuring that the government-wide goal for participation of small business concerns is established annually at the statutory levels and for reporting the agencies' achievements relative to the goals. SBA negotiates with agencies to establish individual agency goals that in the aggregate constitute government-wide goals.

SBA also negotiates a small business subcontracting goal based on recent achievement levels, and a HUBZone (HZ) subcontracting goal equivalent to the required prime HZ goal.

Before the beginning of the fiscal year, agencies submit proposed goals to SBA. SBA's Office of Government Contracting determines if these individual agency goals, in the aggregate, meet or exceed the government-wide statutorily mandated goals in each small business category. SBA then notifies the agencies of the final goals.

Monitoring and Reporting Achievements Toward Goals
The Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) is the government’s official system for collecting, developing and disseminating procurement data. SBA uses the information in the FPDS to monitor agencies' achievements against goals throughout the year. Agencies report each award over $25,000, including details such as industry, place of performance, type of contractor, whether the contractor meets SBA's size standards, and amount. Awards under $25,000 are reported in summary form that does not include specific details. The agencies' prime contractors who win awards over $500,000 ($1 million in the case of construction) also report on their subcontracting to small business by goal category. At the end of each fiscal year, the head of each agency is required to review its FPDS report and, if required, submit to SBA a justification for its failure to meet specific goals with a plan to achieve the goals in the next fiscal year.

When mid-year data are available, SBA reports to each major Federal procurement agency on their progress toward goals for that fiscal year. Annually, SBA prepares a report for the President, government-wide and by agency, which is published in the Office of Advocacy's State of Small Business. Achievements and goals are posted on SBA’s Goaling Process Website. 

Recognizing Best Practices
SBA has worked closely with the Directors of Offices of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) to increase the reliability of small business contracting data in the government-wide database and to enhance the Small Business Procurement Scorecard, the tool by which agencies' performance against contracting goals is evaluated. This collaboration has revealed a number of best practices in making more opportunities available to small businesses—especially to women-owned small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, and HUBZone-certified firms.

To encourage adoption of successful strategies, the SBA is now publicizing some of the best practices of Federal agencies on this Website and in its published newsletter. Here are some examples: 

• Department of Agriculture’s Women-Owned Small Business Program
• Department of Homeland Security’s Efforts to Promote Opportunities for Underserved Markets
• Department of Veterans Affairs’ Efforts to Promote Veterans in Business through Collaborative VA Partnerships

To learn more about this initiative and to submit a best practice you would like to have considered for publication, contact: goaling.email@sba.gov.

More Information about Goaling
SBA’s Goaling Program Website contains information on Goaling Guidelines and Reports, and lists current guidelines as well as those from prior fiscal years. The Government Contracting Goaling Office can be contacted at goaling@sba.gov.