What is HUBZone certification? - Understand its Benefits
The HUBZone program is meant to fuel small businesses in rural and urban communities as well. The main goal is to award a minimum of three percent of contract dollars to the companies under HUBZone certification every year. The following article is meant to give you detailed information about this certification.
What does it mean to Be Hubzone Certified?
The word HUBZone stands for historically underutilized business zones created in the year 1998. The certification of HUBZone is an SBA program, where SBA stands for US Small Business Administration. It is a certification program on the company level. Small enterprises working under the HUBZone certification enjoy preferential access to opportunities for federal procurement.
The main goal behind this program is to increase employment opportunities, create economic development in distressed areas. That is why distressed urban & rural communities having a low household income, severe unemployment is known as hub zones. The department of Housing & Urban development determines the location of these distressed areas.
Eligibility Criteria of Hubzone Certification
The eligibility of HUBZone certification follows some mandatory criteria. After meeting the criteria, the application is processed within sixty days of the submission, which is pretty fast than before.
- The company’s principal office must be located in a qualified HUBZone location designated by SBA.
- The enterprise has to be small as per SBA standardization criteria.
- That small firm must be owned & controlled a minimum of 51 percent by a US citizen, or Indian Tribe, or a community development corporation.
- The firm’s 35 percent of the employees must be residents in the
HUBZone area. And the company has to maintain these criteria throughout
the contract life.
What are the Benefits of Hubzone certification?
The primary benefit of HUBZone certification is to put a limitation on the competition for the businesses, which are located in HUBZone. The companies under this contract enjoy preferential consideration. Companies joining the HUBZone program make themselves eligible for the other set-aside contracts.
The companies enjoy a minimum 10 percent price evaluation in open and full contract competitions. As we have mentioned before, the federal government awards 3 percent of all dollars to HUBZone-certified firms. Under the socio-economic programs, Hubzone-certified companies can also compete for contract awards.
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