Women's Equality Day is August 26th—Unison celebrates every day by fully supporting small businesses and other socio-economic set-asides including Women-Owned Small Businesses. Recently the certification process for Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSB) and Economically Disadvantaged WOSBs (EDWOSBs) has changed. These updated regulations make it easier for qualified small businesses to participate in the WOSB Federal Contracting Program while still maintaining the integrity of the certification process. With these changes we expect even more WOSB will join our vast network of certified Sellers at Unison Marketplace.
To qualify as a WOSB, your business must meet the following requirements:
- Be a small business
- Be at least 51 percent owned and controlled by women who are U.S. citizens
- Have women manage day-to-day operations and also make long-term decisions
To qualify as an EDWOSB business within the women’s contracting program, a business must:
- Meet all the requirements of the women’s contracting program
- Be owned and controlled by one or more women, each with a personal net worth less than $750,000
- Be owned and controlled by one or more women, each with $350,000 or less in adjusted gross income averaged over the previous three years
- Be owned and controlled by one or more women, each $6 million or less in personal assets
With the updated WOSB Federal Contracting Program regulations in effect:
- Small Business Adminstration’s (SBA) new, free online certification process for WOSBs and EDWOSBs is live on beta.certify.sba.gov.
- SBA allows participation from firms certified by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Center of Verification and Evaluations, provided they meet all eligibility requirements.
- SBA allows continued participation from businesses that utilize approved Third-Party Certifiers (TPCs) to obtain WOSB or EDWOSB certification.
Unison Marketplace supports the federal government's yearly socio-economic utilization goals including the goal to award at least five percent of all federal contracting dollars to Women-Owned Small Businesses each year. The Marketplace allows Sellers to store what socio-economic certifications they hold, which in turn will group them into different Seller Communities. This makes it easy for Buyers to conduct business with WOSB or EDWOSB by selecting the appropriate set-aside within the buy workflow.Unison Marketplace gives Buyers access to thousands of qualified Sellers who meet their small business needs. Buyers come to Unison Marketplace knowing there will be a large and healthy community of small business vendors eager to work with the government. Unison Marketplace has always been geared towards promoting small business utilization. In fact, in FY19 over 90% of all contracts on the Marketplace were awarded to small businesses. Of that 90%, nearly 22% of contracts went to WOSB and nearly 10% went to EDWOSB.Find out for yourself why Buyers and Sellers continue to choose Unison Marketplace for their needs.
