If your business is woman-owned — and you’re interested in doing business with the federal government — you probably have been following developments surrounding the Small Business Administration’s Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB) set-aside program.
(For a quick recap of the new WOSB program, please read http://gtpac.org/2011/02/sba-releases-wosb-certification-forms-and-implements-repository.)
As you may know, there are two ways that a WOSB can become certified to partipate in this new federal program: go through a third-party certifying body or self-certify.
Most WOSB’s wanting to get on-board with the program quickly are opting to self-certify. (Update: It was not until 7/8/2011 that the SBA announced its approved list of third-party certifiers. This information may be found at http://gtpac.org/2011/07/sba-names-third-party-wosb-certifiers.)
Self-certification is a viable option for all WOSB firms, but knowing what information must be submitted and learning how to upload this documentation to SBA’s website are keys to getting self-certification done.
The Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC) is making two resources available to assist WOSB’s in understanding the WOSB program and the self-certification process.
- First, GTPAC is continuing to conduct workshops, both in classroom and on-line, on the subject of the new WOSB program. You can find these workshops and register for them on the training page of the GTPAC website — http://gtpac.ecenterdirect.com/Conferences.action. When you visit the training page, just type the term “WOSB” into the Keyword Search box, and then hit the “Search” button. All upcoming WOSB training sessions will then be displayed.
- Second, GTPAC has now posted a PowerPoint tutorial on-line which explains and walks-through the SBA’s on-line Repository uploading process. The tutorial specifies what documentation a WOSB must upload to the Reposity in order to become self-certified, along with instructions on how to establish an account and actually upload the documents. This tutorial can be found at http://gtpac.org/useful-links/downloads. Once you are on that page, just click on the link marked “Uploading WOSB Docs to SBA’s Online Repository.” You’ll find many other resource documents on that same page, including the WOSB certification application forms.
If you need help with any step in this process, please feel free to contact your nearest GTPAC Counselor. All contact information for the GTPAC team can be found at http://gtpac.org/team-directory.
