Help With Health-Care Benefits

National -- The SBA has taken its show on the road with a 13-city tour to explain how the new small disadvantaged business (SDB) program works and who it impacts.

From now through May, the SBA is holding inexpensive two-day meetings nationwide to inform federal employees, entrepreneurs, prime contractors and subcontractors about how the SDB program will work, how it will impact each aspect of the government procurement process and how it differs from the SBA's 8(a) business development program.

The SDB program entails new guidelines, implemented in October, that are designed to improve the application of affirmative action policies when it comes to government procurement. Under the program, small firms can no longer self-certify themselves as economically and socially disadvantaged; proving social disadvantage will be easier; economically disadvantaged firms will be determined by financial status; and special pricing credits will be given to SDB firms operating in specific industries with historically discriminatory practices.

An estimated 30,000 firms nationwide will be affected by the SDB program, including many women-owned firms that may have had problems qualifying in the past. For meeting locations, call (800) 558-0884.

Contact Sources

James Evans, jimevans@aol.com

Louisville Community Development Bank, 2901 W. Broadway, Louisville, KY 40211

This article was originally published in the January 1999 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Help With Health-Care Benefits.