Qualifications
Veteran – First you must be a veteran who served in the military and was not dishonorably discharged.Service-Disabled – You must have incurred or aggravated a disability while serving (excluding disabilities caused by misconduct, alcohol/drug use or absent without leave).
Degree of Disability - The degree of disability is not specified.
Own Company – The company must be owned and controlled by the service-disabled veteran meaning it is at least 51% owned by the disabled veteran. The veteran must also control and actively participate in the management and operation of the company.
Small Business – The company must qualify as a small business under the appropriate NAICS code (varies by industry but generally less than $7 million revenue or less than 500 employees).
Certification Process
The veteran needs to have a letter from the Veterans Administration, discharge papers or statement from the National Archives stating you served and are disabled. You then represent the company as service-disabled veteran owned – there is no additional certification process through the Small Business Administration. You will need to register on the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) and On-Line Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA) and be shown as service-disabled veteran owned.Contract Types Available
Procurements can be set-aside solely for bidding by service-disabled veteran owned businesses.Some contracts can be issued on a sole source basis to a qualifying service-disabled veteran owned company. Sole source contracts will be less than $5 million for manufacturing work and less than $3 million for all other contracts.
Service-disabled veteran-owned companies can also bid on small business set-aside and unrestricted set-asides.
Other Information
Service-disabled veteran owned companies can form a joint venture with another small business, even if the other business is not veteran owned. This joint venture can then submit bids as a service-disabled veteran-owned small business.The government’s goal is for at least 3% of Federal contracting to go to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.
To find opportunities for service disabled veteran-owned small businesses check FedBizOpps. Hint – Set the set-side drop down in the search box to service-disabled veteran-owned to limit the results. I did a search for service-disabled veteran-owned set-aside procurements that were currently active and there are 249 listed.
SBA has a streamlined loan program called Patriot Express which provides startup funds for veteran owned businesses.
