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Archive for July, 2018

27 Jul 2018

Hot Flash! Quick News for Veteran-Owned Businesses

In the dwindling hours of Friday, here are three news items of note for veteran-owned small business owners:

VA Releases More Info On National Veteran Small Business Engagement (NVSBE) – Every year, the VA holds a conference for veteran-owned small businesses that seek to do work with the agency. This year, the focus of the NVSBE is on the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Facilities Maintenance (AECFM) industry. As cited on the website, the basis for the focused theme of the Engagement is to address VA’s most critical needs and performance gaps that are listed in VA’s Strategic Capital Investment Planning (SCIP) Process Project List. Access additional information regarding the conference, which takes place in New Orleans from October 31 through November 2, here.

CVE Website Working Again – After literally months of hiatus, it appears that the VetBiz portal, which businesses access in order to register to do set-aside work with the VA, is somewhat functional again. If you were waiting on the system upgrades in order to apply for verification or re-verification, now is the time to try again. Access the new VetBiz portal here. Also, here’s the VA’s fact sheet on how to get an account with the new system, as old accounts are now defunct.

VA to Hold Another Townhall on Tiered Evaluation – I covered tiered evaluation in detail last week. This is the VA’s means to complying with the Kingdomware mandate of setting aside schedule work for SVOSBs and VOSBs. If you have additional questions or concerns about this process, take advantage of the Q&A portion of the townhall that will be held on August 7 from 1:00 – 1:30 PM ET. Register here. (Do it soon, if you’re interested – the alert I received was for July 31, but when I tried to register, that time/date was gone).

That’s it and that’s all. Enjoy your weekend!

*Did you find this article informative? If so, sign up for Sarah Schauerte’s legal blog on veteran business issues at: https://legalmeetspractical.com. Remember to click the link sent to your email to activate your subscription!

 

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20 Jul 2018

SBA OIG: Boots to Business Program Needs Polish

The Small Business Administration’s (“SBA”) Boots to Business (“B2B”) program, established in 2014, is an entrepreneurial training program offered by the SBA as part of the Department of Defense’s Transition Assistance Program. It provides transitioning service members interested in exploring business ownership or other self-employment opportunities with the information to develop business plans, and it also connects service members to SBA resources partners and start-up capital.

Just yesterday (July 19), the SBA’s Office of Inspector General released an audit report that examined: 1) the efficiency of the program; 2) its achievement of goals and objectives; and 3) recipients’ compliance with agreement requirements.

To complete the audit, the SBA selected three cooperative agreement recipients with awards totaling $6.7 million, then interviewed SBA program officials and recipients (referring to resource centers, not individual veterans), as well as conducted site visits and phone interviews (of both program resources and participants) and attended day courses run by the program.

In a nutshell, while the SBA noted improvements, it also found several areas where the B2B program could be improved: the SBA did not meet established performance goals for the number of participants or the graduation rate from the 8-week course; the SBA did not ensure that recipients measured and reported performance outcomes; and the SBA was unable to determine what one recipient spent on the B2B program or to assess the validity of reimbursement requests (resulting in the OIG finding $419,912 in unsupported questioned costs).

To correct these issues, the OIG made seven recommendations. While SBA management concurred with six of seven of them, its planned actions resolved only three out of the seven. For additional detail, access the report here. Further details and planned actions are sure to follow, which is exciting given the important purpose of this program. We need more resources like this for our veteran entrepreneurs!

For those of you who are small business owners (or prospective small business owners), consider attending a two-day B2B program on your military installation. These are open to all transitioning service members and their spouses. Although this is a fairly new program that still needs to have the kinks worked out, that doesn’t mean that YOU as a veteran business owner can’t take advantage of the resources it has to offer. Access more information and the schedule of courses here. You can also email the program at [email protected] or call 202-205-VET1 (202-205-8381).

Did you find this article informative? If so, sign up for Sarah Schauerte’s blog on veteran small business issues at https://legalmeetspractical.com. Remember to click the link sent to your email to activate your subscription!

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12 Jul 2018

VA Tiered Evaluation: Loophole or Solution to Kingdomware?

For veteran-owned small businesses (“VOSBs”) that hold a Federal Supply Schedule (“FSS”), the 2016 Supreme Court Kingdomware decision was supposed to be a major coup against the VA. The Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision to hold that the “Rule of Two” is mandatory – when it comes to orders off the FSS, contracting officers are required to set them aside for VOSBs if, after conducting market research, they have a “reasonable expectation that two or more. . . VOSBS. . . will submit offers and that the award can be made at a fair and reasonable price that offers best value to the United States.” 38 U.S.C. 8127(d). The VA utilizes the hierarchy set forth at VAAR Subpart 819.70, which entails first attempting to set aside a contract for SDVOSBs, then for VOSBs, then small businesses, and finally, other-than-small businesses.

And what is “market research?” According to a July 2016 policy memorandum that was issued to implement Kingdomware, contracting officers must:

  • Search the VetBiz VIP database by NAICS code.
  • Determine if two or more SDVOSBs/VOSBs are listed by the NAICS code.
  • Determine if these identified SDVOSBs/VOSBs are capable of performing the work and likely to submit an offer/quote at a fair and reasonable price that offers the best value to the government.

Ever since the Kingdomware decision came down, VOSBs have been complaining that the VA has not been following it. On the VA’s end, the complaint is that it can’t get a “fair and reasonable price” by setting aside solicitations for VOSBs and SDVOSBs.

Now, the VA’s solution is tiered evaluation, which it presented at the National Veteran Small Business Engagement in December and expounded upon in a June 20 town hall presentation held by Tom Leney, the executive director of the VA’s Office of Small & Disadvantaged Business Utilization.

As explained by Mr. Leney, tiered evaluation is used to ensure that the VA receives a “fair and reasonable price” and to prevent the time and expense of re-soliciting a contract (due to not receiving two or more offers from SDVOSBs or VOSBs, or receiving a fair and reasonable price).

There are three different types of tiered evaluation, all of which utilize the same process for evaluating offers: the VA will open competition to all categories identified (noting that it is utilizing tiered evaluation), and consider offers by order of preference, moving down to the next tier if it is unable to make an award at a fair and reasonable price:

  • Tiered evaluations limited to SDVOSBs and VOSBs.
  • Tiered evaluations limited to SDVOSBs, VOSBs, and small businesses.
  • Tiered evaluations including large business concerns.

This makes sense, to a degree. If the VA is encountering trouble making an award at a “fair and reasonable price,” it saves the VA time and effort to use tiered evaluation. However, as Mr. Leney pointed out, whether a price is “fair and reasonable” is determined by comparing it to the Independent Government Cost Estimate (“IGCE”). Okay fine, but what about that IGCE? What if it’s out of date? What if the scope of work has changed? What if it’s two percent less than the price offered by an SDVOSB? Can the VA make the award? What about three percent? Where are the guidelines for evaluating prices compared with the IGCE? If the veteran companies’ prices are one percent higher than the IGCE, can the VA use tiered evaluation to justify making the award to a small business or a large business instead?

Mr. Leney also noted that if found that the IGCE is not realistic, the VA could then cancel the solicitation. However, there was no information provided as to how the VA would make that determination or the path forward.

If the intent and effect is truly to prevent re-solicitations due to the VA setting aside work to SDVOSBs and VOSBs but ultimately not being able to make the award, great. But right now, tiered evaluation is concerning because of the lack of firm guidance or parameters for the VA to follow. And without firm guidance or parameters, the worry is that tiered evaluation is more of a loophole than a solution.

What do you think?

Like this cake, VA tiered evaluation has four layers: SDVOSB, VOSB, small, and other-than-small.

Did you find this article informative? If so, sign up for Sarah Schauerte’s legal blog on small business issues at: https://legalmeetspractical.com.

 

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09 Jul 2018

Five Expenses Every Startup Business Should Consider

One issue I see small businesses dealing with across the board is figuring out what expenses are worth it. Do you really need to hire a registered agent to accept service of process? (Generally, no). Do you need commercial office space? (It depends on your business). As a startup business cognizant of the bottom line, it’s important to know what’s worth it and what isn’t; however, many times it’s impossible to differentiate until you’ve already spent the dough.

From my experience, both as a small business owner myself and one who deals almost exclusively with small businesses, here are five expenditures every small business should consider:

  1. A virtual office – Many small businesses don’t actually need commercial space, especially when just starting out. At the same time, in the interests of looking professional and not revealing personal information (i.e., your home address), using a corporate address is a good idea. Sometimes, a family member or friend might allow you to use their business address effectively as a mail stop or point of contact; however, that option isn’t always available. Consider investing in a virtual office – for less than a hundred dollars a month, you’ll have access to an office for purposes of meeting with clients (you pay by use), as well as a professional address. Just know that when it comes to some official registrations, you cannot use it as the point of contact because they’ll want an actual “physical” address.
  2. A virtual phone solution – Rather than obtain a separate phone for your office, consider a virtual phone solution. Businesses such as Onebox offer services such as an auto attendant (when a client calls, they dial a number separate from your personal phone number and they hear a message from an auto-attendant before being routed to you), professional greetings, teleconference line, voicemails transcribed to texts/emails, and online faxing. In addition to providing you with a professional phone number, services such as Onebox will only set you back about $35/month versus the much higher amount you’d spend on obtaining a separate phone for your business.
  3. A great web developer – If you are relying on obtaining clients from the general public, or know that prospective clients will be checking up on you via the web, consider investing in a professional website. Not all web developers are created equal, however, so get referrals and understand the market rates. (I know a web developer I would unreservedly recommend).
  4. Professional business cards – It’s always a good idea to have professional business cards on hand. I use Vistaprint and always have an eye out for promotions; if you catch a good one, you can get about 50% off site-wide.
  5. A LinkedIn premium account – This expenditure depends on your industry, but LinkedIn in general is a great way to get your name out there and connect with prospective clients, teaming partners, and other contacts. Joining is free, but you can upgrade your account (watch for promotions), and then send messages to those outside your network for free as well as see who’s viewed your profile.

What do you think? As a small business owner, can you think of any expenses that were worth any penny? Any that were a waste?

*Did you find this article informative? If so, sign up for Sarah Schauerte’s legal blog on veteran small business issues at: https://legalmeetspractical.com.

In The Office, the Michael Scott Paper Company invested in a pancake breakfast to draw in clients (Season Five)

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