3 Things To Know About Being A Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business
Military veterans who sustain disabling injuries while in service deserve the utmost respect. The government recognizes the sacrifices these veterans have made, and tries to give them opportunities to generate income through other avenues.
Government contracts represent the potential for significant profits for most companies. A service-disabled veteran-owned small business, or SDVOSB, may be given preferential status when it comes to bidding on government contracts.
Learn more about this unique program so that your company can take advantage of the benefits associated with being designated a service-disabled veteran-owned small business in the future.
1. The Legal Definition of Ownership
The first step in determining if your company qualifies for preferential treatment as a service-disabled veteran-owned entity is learning about the legal definition of ownership. A service-disabled veteran doesn't need to be the sole owner of a company for that company to qualify for benefits.
Majority ownership is all that is required to meet the standard. This means that a service-disabled veteran must have unconditional ownership and control over 51% or more of a business to establish primary ownership.
Make sure that your company is legally registered to the service-disabled veteran if you hope to gain preference when applying for government contracts in the future.
2. The Process of Gaining Status
In order to take advantage of the preferential treatment given by the government to service-disabled veteran-owned businesses, your company needs to be appointed the proper status.
The process by which you go about gaining this status depends on the type of government projects you want to bid on.
Projects that are overseen by the Veterans' Administration only recognize businesses that have been verified through the VA's Center for Verification and Evaluation prior to the closing bid date.
If you want to bid on a non-VA project, you will have to self-certify your company's status through a designated database.
3. The Proper Response to a Challenge
In the event that your company wins a bid because it received preferential status as a service-disabled veteran-owned entity, losing competitors do have the right to challenge your status. Your response to these challenges will help determine whether or not you get to keep the winning bid.
Become familiar with all the rules and regulations that govern service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses during the bidding process.
You can use these regulations to validate your status, and you can also use the rules to challenge the status of a company in the event that you lose the bid on a valuable contract.
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