Small Business Administration Dynamic Small Business Search

In business the need to market your company’s products and services is important in all areas of commercial and governmental contracting. In the government marketplace one of the best and most used by Contracting Officers and Prime Contractors is the Small Business Administration (SBA) Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS) http://dsbs.sba.gov/dsbs/search/dsp_dsbs.cfm.

This SBA supplemental page and website has served the government contracting community as a joint link with the government vendor’s registration database (CCR / SAM) since 2004.

Once you have registered your company as a vendor in the SAM (Systems for Award Management) site your basic information is at the same time copied in to the SBA supplemental page, if you meet the size standard for the NAICS (North American Industrial Classification System) entered into the SAM system. Only small businesses are allowed into the SBA DSBS. The size of a company is determined by the NAICS codes entered in to the SAM registration using the gross revenue and number of company employee’s entered in to Systems for Award Management Assertions section.

NAICS codes are used to define abilities and services that a company has and what it would like to make available to the federal government under a contract arrangement. These codes each have a size standard based on the company’s 3 year average gross revenue and or the number of employee’s employed by the owner. An example of a NAICS size standard: this example is a Janitorial company that can sell products under 423850 NAICS with a size standard of 500 employee’s or he can provide services, Janitorial services 561720 NAICS with a size standard for small business of 16.5 Million dollars 3 year average gross revenue. As stated previously, only companies that meet the small business NAICS size standard in SAM are “carbon copied” in to the DSBS.

So far we have only described the first step in the overall process. The DSBS is a marketing site as well as the location for SBA Certifications for the 8a Business Development Program and the SBA HUBZone programs. Companies can add a capabilities narrative, keywords to search the DSBS database, references in the form of past commercial or governmental contracts, as well as bonding information for the building trade.

By adding this important company information you can give Contracting Officers and Prime Vendors (Contractors) reasons to add you to the many types of purchases below the $25,000 threshold, which requires bids to be advertized on a government bid board at www.fbo.gov . The requirement for Contracting Officers to do market research makes the DSBS a valuable tool in finding businesses by social economic type (i.e. Woman Owned Small Business, 8a, HUBZone Small Business, and Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business). This information is useful to Contracting Officers as they determine set-aside opportunities under the Simplified Acquisition Threshold of $150,000, which is required under Part 13 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

Now that you have registered in the federal database, as well as the SBA supplemental page in the SBA DSBS, what are the benefits of these registrations?
First, this process is required for all federal procurements over $3,000, and government bids that are set-aside beginning at $150k up to $1.5 million for construction contracts.
Second, since Contracting Officers are required to do market research for government procurement, this is a way for prospective vendors to provide company contact information and a capabilities statement for bids that are less than $25,000 and that do not have to be advertized on an electronic bid board like www.fbo.gov.
Third, Prime Contractors that have government contracts over $650,000 are required to have a subcontracting plan that uses all the areas listed in the SBA DSBS. The Prime Contractors use the database for research to find businesses with whom to subcontract.
Finally, this page is used by government contractors and agencies to verify the status of businesses as either 8a, HUBZone, or both.

While business cards, brochures, and websites are a necessary part of putting your companies in front of Government/Prime Contractor Buyers and Government Contracting Officers, to not fill out your federal SBA DSBS is wasting a free marketing opportunity for your business; the SBA DSBS be used by buyers and agencies that procure products and services.

If you have been a long-term contractor and you have not reviewed your SBA supplemental page for a while, you should do so. Follow these simple steps:

1. Go to Small Business Administration (SBA) page by using the search link http://dsbs.sba.gov/dsbs/search/dsp_dsbs.cfm.

2. Go down to the “Searching for a specific profile” area and enter your DUNS number or cage code and then go the bottom and click on search. Your company information will appear if you are current in the federal registration system.

3. Click on your company name and review your information for missing or out of date company information.

4. Now that we know what we wish to enter in to our profile, the next step is to login to the Systems for Award Management (SAM) website to enter new or corrected information in the SBA profile.

5. Once logged in, the link to the SBA DSBS is the last link in the SAM menu on the left side in the update mode. This will take you out of the Systems for Award Management or SAM website and now you can make corrections or add more company marketing information on your SBA pages.

Do not forget to continue to go back and add new award information to keep your reference area up to date. This will you keep your company information fresh and available to the market research that agencies use when they plan government bidding opportunities.

If you have questions, procurement counselors at the Arkansas APEX Accelerator can be a valuable source of assistance. Call us at 501-671-2390 or e-mail us at ptac@uada.edu . We hope that this information regarding SBA DSBS will be useful to you as you pursue government contracting opportunities.