Just for giggles, we looked at a snapshot from SAM.gov to determine how many current opportunities are available to certain SDB categories. Here is some highly unscientific research that gives you an idea of what is being set aside for SDBs:

Searching on 26 April 2024 for all SAM.gov opportunities that are ACTIVE and Set Aside for 8(a) companies is 350.

While it is true that some opportunities identified for the 8(a) program may get shaped through Government market research to be removed from the 8(a) program, this is very rare. A common saying is that “once 8(a)…always 8(a)”. It is far more likely that hundreds of opportunities currently not in the 8(a) program could get shaped or moved into the 8(a) program because current 8(a) companies responded to RFIs and SSNs and convinced the Government that their requirement would best be met by an 8(a) company. Three Hundred and Fifty (350) may not sound like much, but that it a snapshot in time that gives a rough idea of what is available to 8(a) companies at any point in time. Not to mention, there are thousands of other 8(a) opportunities currently active right now that are only visible to prime contract holders of indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts. For example, STARS III is a current IDIQ contract that was awarded to over 1000 8(a) companies or Joint Ventures just to provide Information Technology solutions and has a ceiling value of $50B. This vehicle is available for Government orders for 8 years.

Moving forward to look at other SDB categories, here is a look at current ACTIVE opportunities set aside for Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses. SAM.gov shows 2301 active opportunities:

SDVOSBs also have IDIQ contracts such as VETS2 which is for IT support and has ceiling of $5B. It has an ordering period of 10 years through February 22, 2028.

Next, we look at the currently ACTIVE opportunities for Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSB) and Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Businesses (EDWOSB) we see 441 opportunities. 435 of these are WOSB set asides with another 6 set aside for EDWOSBs.

And finally, we look at Historically Underutilized Business (HUBZONE) set asides. We see there are another 139 ACTIVE opportunities.

We have significant experience in responding to Sources Sought Notices and they have resulted in over 30 sole-source awards. Contact SDB Growth at https://sdbgrowth.com/ for more information.