First Look & Live Demo: SBA Veteran Small Business Certification Program

Hello everyone and welcome to our live webinar hosted by the SBA Office of Veterans Business Development. Today you will get a first look in live demo of the new Veteran Small Business Certification platform. Please submit your questions for a Q and A session following the demo using the panel on the right of your screen. At any point during the webinar. All questions will be saved for the designated Q and A period and we will try to answer as many questions as possible. Note that this webinar is being recorded. It will be posted on SBA's YouTube channel later for viewing or you may view a recording directly from this link to start. Please welcome Associate Administrator of the Office of Veterans Business Development, Mr. Larry Stubblefield to kick off the event. Over to you Larry.

Thank you Brian and good afternoon and thank you for attending Today's webinar on SBA's new Veteran Small Business Certification Program. Unfortunately, Administrator Guzman was called away to the White House and is unable to be here. Having said that, Administrator Guzman's commitment to the veterans small business community is unwavering. She plays a crucial role in helping to create access to opportunities for our service members, their families and veteran small businesses across our nation. Throughout the process of establishing the new SBA Veterans Small Business Certification Program, she ensured veterans have been involved from start to finish. She has led listening sessions with veteran business owners across the country to help inform the process and at sba, we all share her enthusiasm for continuing to support the veterans small business community through this new program. Here at the sba, our mission is to create pipelines to opportunity and capital, especially for our veterans and other underserved communities, expand networks for our customers and bolster the skills and know how of entrepreneurs so they can strengthen their balance sheets. The new certification program will be the gold standard in customer experience and support for veteran small businesses, helping to ensure we grow our base of veteran federal contractors. Adding this certification to SBA's portfolio of capital bonding and contracting programs will enable us to better serve our veteran entrepreneurs and and help them grow their businesses through Federal procurement opportunities to allow SBA to process applications from new entrants into the program and grow the base of certified firms. Administrator Guzman intends to grant a one time one year extension of certification to current BOSBs and SDVOSBs verified by the VA as of the transfer date on January 1, 2023. Additionally, the legislation that mandated the transfer of responsibility from VA to SBA also provides for a one year grace period for self certified SBVOSBs until January 1, 2024. You'll hear more about the extension and one year grace period later on in today's webinar. We are excited to continue working closely with the Department of Veterans affairs to ensure veteran small business owners receive the world class experience they rightfully deserve and have earned. Now let me discuss a few of our focus areas. Next slide please. The National Defense Authorization act of 2021 officially requires CBE's responsibilities to be transferred to the SBA as of January 1, 2023 and for SBA to establish a government wide certification program after a public comment period and interagency clearance. The final rule was published in the Federal Register on November 29, 2022. Many thanks to all of you who provided input during the comment period. The SBA program name for verifying vosbs and sbvosbs is the Veteran Small Business Certification Program. We're excited about this transition because it will provide veterans a one stop shop for their small business certification and contracting needs. And oh by the way, January 9th is the first day the program will be open to receive applications. Next slide please. So in regards to funding and I know this is this has been a big topic in the veterans small business community because most of you know that when the legislation for the program was passed, there was no funding provided for the transfer. So I'm happy to report that SBA was successful in working with the HILL and OMB to secure funding for fiscal year 23. And in regards to technology, early on, Administrator Guzman decided to leverage existing technology that was put in place for the SBA Covid relief programs to build our own system in house rather than import VA's certification management system. The vendor we brought on board, who is also at sdvosb, developed the application processing system in record time. Veteran business owners actively participated in usability testing and have been invited to participate in a pilot program. We are very proud of the fact that our application processing system was built by Veterans for Veterans. And in regards to personnel, the SBA is working very hard with SBA or I'm sorry, with VA to secure the right personnel for the new program. The legislation allows the current CBE staff to either remain at VA or come over to the sba. The employees have chosen to join SBA and we will be working to onboard them throughout the month as well as needed contracting support. And in regards to policy, we will have a deeper dive into the policy piece of the program in just one moment. In the meantime, if you have questions about CVE's transfer to SBA or if you would like to receive monthly email updates, please email us@cve transferba.gov at this point. I will now turn our webinar over to Aditi desalt, who is a senior advisor in the Administrator's Office to highlight key policy changes within the program. Over to you, Aditi.

All right everyone, thank you so much again for joining us today and we are very excited to be bringing the veterans certification program over to sba. And I'm going to run through a few of the key policy highlights for you so you can understand how these changes will impact your veteran owned small business and how SBA can continue to support you as you pursue federal contracts. So as Larry mentioned, on January 1st of 2023 some key things will be happening. Any service disabled veteran owned small business will need to be certified by SBA to receive sole source or set aside contracts government wide. So this is a change from previously where self certification had been accepted across the federal government for these types of limited competition awards. But now you have to actually have your certification from sba. So there was no change with this program in terms of the goal. Hopefully everyone on this call is familiar with the federal government having a mandate to spend 23% of overall contracting spend with small businesses. And then there are subcategories for the different socioeconomic subcategories like women owned small business and 8A and socially disadvantaged businesses. But of course this one today, that's that we're talking about is the 3% goal for SDVOSBs. So that goal remains at 3% across the government. And a key way that our agencies meet that goal and exceed that goal is through using the sole source and set aside opportunities. And that's why it's important for you to contemplate getting certified under this new program in order to meet that goal. For veteran owned small businesses, there are still going to be opportunities at the VA under their Vets first authority there. There are no changes in terms of what the requirements for set asides under that program are. The VA is the only one that has the mandate to do set aside and sole source awards to veteran owned small businesses after they've considered SDVOSBs. And you still need to be certified as a veteran owned small business to pursue those opportunities. So that is the same as it was, you know, or as it is today. You need to be certified by the va, but moving forward next year you'll need to be certified through the SBA program. So all the certifications, regardless if you're veteran owned or service disabled veteran owned, are going to be coming through the Small Business Administration. So we will have the Certification system where we manage your application, where you're going to apply or reapply or manage your certification if something changes with with that over the course of your your three year program term. And we will also have a new search tool for contracting officers and the public to search for certified companies, SDVOSBs, VOSBs and joint ventures that have that designation over@sba.gov so it'll be. The VA has a current system, we're going to have a version of that over at SBA to continue to serve both the acquisition community and the public that's interested business with veteran owned small businesses. One of the great program changes that we are implementing here is that we are going to. Well, part of the purpose of why this certification is moving to SBA is because we're already certifying other types of small businesses including eight and women owned small businesses. So if you have one of those designations and would like to apply to become a veteran owned small business or an sdvosb, you'll have a simplified process for that certification based on your woman owned or eight status. And over time we plan to continue to harmonize the rules and the process as well as the systems for managing those different certifications. Because you know, you're one business, you should have one program that allows you to get all the designations that you need in order to be competitive with the marketplace. So this is one important step for us meeting that very important goal. And we will be continuing to make improvements over over many months to come in order to better serve those companies that have multiple designations or could have multiple designations. Next slide please. So Larry mentioned this at the top of the hour, but this is very, very important. You know, what do you have to do now and what do you have to do in a few months? So if you are currently certified as a veteran owned small business or a service disabled veteran owned small business through the va, you're in pretty good shape. What is happening as of January 1st is that we're going to add one additional year to your certification. So instead of a three year program term, you'll have a four year term. So you know, if you're certified, you know on January 15th is your expiration date of 2023. We're going to bump you out one more year so that you don't have to do anything until 2024. So you won't see that if you go look at your your VA system right now, if you go yourself right now, you're not going to see that date reflected until the new system the new search tool that I just referenced a minute ago is in place and that's where you'll see your updated certification date. This is different from some of our previous flexibilities on different programs. You won't have to take any action. There's no request process. This is something that will automatically happen for you as your information is moved into the SBA system. So if you already, like I said, this applies to those companies that are already VA verified either as veteran owned small business or a service disabled veteran owned small business. So if you are work in progress for the va, so many of you may know that the Veterans Administration closed their certification system in late October and if you had a recertification pending with them or an initial verification pending with them, they are diligently working right now and partnering with us to make sure that these actions get taken care of. So to process those certifications before the transfer over to sba. So if next week you get your certification decision, you also will have that four year program term because you'll have your process completed at the VA and we'll add that year to you as a currently certified or currently verified by VA company and participant. So the VA is making great progress on their backlog of those applications. So if you have any questions about your application status with va, please do reach out to them and we are supporting them as they're continuing to clear out all those pending activities. So and if your certification has expired, as in you were certified but you let it lapse for some reason, unfortunately right now there's not a whole lot you can do. You'll have to apply as a new applicant under the SBA program in early January. In the meantime, and this is actually good for everybody to know if they're not currently VA verified, we highly recommend that you go to SAM.gov and get your house in order there. Make sure that your profile is up to date, make sure your address information is correct. Because everything that we will be doing in our SBA system will be pulling. Well we'll be pulling some information from sam.gov and you'll need to have an active accurate representation in SAM in order to initiate our application. So another piece of of this is for companies that have been self certifying. Congress in creating this program understands that going from being able to just check a box in that SAM.gov reg registration to having to complete an application process over at SBA is a little bit of work to do. So SBA has given both the public and SBA a one year ramp up where self certification for 2023 will still let you pursue contract awards, both set aside sole source and actually under full and open as well. So you don't have to actually get your certification before you can pursue a contract next year, but you do need to submit an application. So when we talk about a one year grace period, that's for the self certified that have been previously working within the program. You have one year to continue to use that self certification, but you must also apply. So make sure you've got that on your list of things to do next year as you continue to want to pursue work within this program. A few other key program changes is that certification will no longer be for a specific NAICS code or multiple NAICS code. So hopefully everyone's familiar with the SAM.gov registration process and going through the process of selecting which NAICS codes, the North American Industrial Classification System codes you've been operating under. So if you're a professional services company and you do management consulting, you probably have a couple of those picked out like 541something, something, something. They're six digits long. You might have a few of those there. The VA program used to certify you specifically for individual NAICS codes. SBA will not be doing that. Instead, we will offer certification based on if you're small or not. So many companies have a few and many companies have many NAICS codes listed in their SAM.gov profile. As long as you are small in at least one of them, you will be able to gain entry to the program and that may change over time. Which NAICS codes are small in, which ones you're not small in. And that's okay as long as you're small in one of them continuously and it doesn't have to be the same one, it can change. So that's a very important program change. The term that we're using is currently operates and the way that you declare to SBA that you are currently operating in a NAICS code is by having that in your SAM.gov profile. So that again, back to my advice from 45 seconds ago. Please do make sure Right now, if you're looking for something to do to get ready to apply to this program, head over to your SAM.gov profile and make sure that your NAICS codes are up to date and accurate. So a key milestone that we've hit for this program is we have published the final rule for this program. It was published in the Federal Register a week ago. So this, that rule has a lot more information about the particulars of the program where we've made some significant changes from how VA had been making decisions about their their companies and which companies could be in the program. So if you had previously applied to the VA and had been denied or decided that the program wasn't right for you because of the extent of documentation that was being requested or for other reasons, it's a great time to look at the rule and look at the additional information SVA is putting out about how our program rules will be a little bit different and provide different opportunities for companies that are interested in participating in the program. This rule will also, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, it's one of many steps that we will be taking to continue to harmonize and simplify our rules across our programs for what it means to be an owner, to be a controlling owner of a company, what operations look like, and other facets of our certification programs that are slightly different in the way that they're written in our regs, but not different for how you as potentially a woman owned small business who's also a veteran, is operating, it's still the same person. So we're trying to make our regs reflect that reality. A few other things worth noting is that our Office of Hearing and Appeals will handle both appeals of certification decisions as well as protests for contract awards. So SBA is working with that office in order to make sure that they are ready to go and support both the acquisition community with a protest process, but also the veteran owned small business community with the denial and appeal process. So they'll be ready to go in early January as well. And last but not least, veterans have previously been able to partake in the Surplus Property Program. That will continue, but it will require that you are certified by SBA in order to participate in that program and receive those benefits. So another reason, another great reason to get certified is to take advantage of the Federal Surplus Property Program through your state and take advantage of the excess property that could be helpful for your company that is no longer helpful for the federal government. So those are some of the key highlights. I think now it's time for us to take a quick look at the system. So I'm going to be transitioning over to my colleague Ariel and I see that there is a robust set of questions populating in the Q and A. Keep going. We will get to as many as we can after the Demo section is complete and we will then continue to answer those questions on our FAQ pages on SBA.gov as well as in additional communications from the Agency about the program. Right?

Great. Thank you Aditi. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you all for taking the time out of your day to hear from our team. My name is Ariel and I am very excited to share our platform and show you how to apply for certification with sba. Before we get started, our vision for this tool is to provide a positive and reliable certification experience for Veteran owned small businesses and service disabled Veteran owned small businesses. In order to do that, what we've tried to achieve with this application is to simplify the veteran owned small business process to access set asides and sole source contracts from the federal government. So really reflecting some of the changes that Aditi had talked about for simplifying the process with the rule and taking that into an online experience and making that as usable as possible for our veteran community. So I will start screen sharing to show you all what I'm working with. Okay, I think everyone can see my screen. So what you're looking at here is our homepage for the Veteran Small Business Certification Program. What's included here on this page is a search for certified Veteran owned and Service disabled Veteran owned small businesses that have been certified. We also have certification eligibility clearly displayed before you even go in and access the application. So our certification eligibility is listed here as having at least 51% veteran ownership, that the business is registered with SAM.gov and that they are small according to SBA size standards. One of our tenets for designing this product is that we aren't providing any dead ends or being unclear about what next steps you need to take to move forward with your certification. So you'll notice that under the registered small business requirement we link directly to sam.gov so that you can go look up your business. And for the small business size risk standards, we link to SBA Size Standards tool so you can look up any naics that you might be operating in and make sure that it aligns with SBA's size standards for small businesses. So I'm going to move forward and select that I want to register to move into the application. All new applicants will need to set up an account here and provide a few personal details as well as setting up security questions so we make sure that we're protecting your account and your privacy. Anyone who was previously certified by CVE will need to set up a new account since as Larry mentioned, this is different from VA system, but if you have been previously certified, you'll be able to go in and claim your existing certification and have it display. I already have an account set up so I'M going to log in here from the regular sign in page.

Okay.

And we are logged in. The first thing that you're going to see here before even moving into the application is our dashboard feature. This is where you can claim an existing certification that you have for your business or be invited into a pending application that maybe is being entered in by your business partner. We also have an in app message feature. So if there are any questions coming from an analyst who's working on processing your application, they'll send you a message. You'll receive an email with the contact information that you've provided in your profile. But all of the messaging for the apps will be securely maintained within the application. So we want to keep as much of that within the app as we possibly can. You'll also be able to see any pending requests for certification and this is where you'll be able to apply for certification as well. So after I select apply for certification, it's going to take me straight through to a guided process for entering information. It's going to bring up again the requirements just so that everything is clear and upfront before beginning the application that again you need to be registered within. With SAM.gov, you need to have 51% small veteran business ownership and also meet size standards and just getting confirmation that you've read the above requirements. We really want to start this application by understanding who the person is who's coming in. So we have a couple different roles that have been designated and a little explainer as well. You'll see this throughout the application. We have help text. We also have this need help section at the bottom of our application where we'll populate this with additional FAQs that will match what process in the application you may be on. So we want to make sure that we're presenting information within the app and not making folks go to different websites to try to find information as they're submitting their application. So I'm going to start and keep things a little simpler and say that I am the veteran owner of my business. It provides a little bit of information about me. I'm going to enter in my ownership information as if I was a sole owner. And note that I'm not applying for service disabled status. I'm just entering it in as a veteran owned small business. And then that takes us to a pre assessment where we're going to confirm our eligibility criteria. And you'll see that once again we're presenting options if some of these criteria aren't met. So I have own 100% of my business. So I'm selecting yes for is 51% of the business directly owned by veterans? If I hadn't done what Aditi had mentioned and made sure that everything was ready in SAM.gov and I selected no. Here I'm reminded that I must be registered at SAM with SAM.gov to proceed with the application and I also can't select save and continue. So this error message comes up and says that I need to go to sam.gov to update my information. So I'm directed to the next best step for proceeding with my certification, even if that isn't proceeding through the certification at this time. So I'm going to go back and say yes. And then just some general information about why you want to certify your business. If you're interested in competing for contracts, if you're interested in participating in the Surplus Personal Property program, and if you don't want to share that information at all, you can select I do not wish to disclose it and then move forward. Here's where you would search for SAM.gov information and find your business. We have two key data integrations for this application pulling data in from sam.gov that's going to validate your business as well as your naics and then we also have are working with VA to pull in veteran status from their information. VA is the ultimate determinator of veteran status. So we're connecting with their Veteran status API to bring that information in and do all of that validation within our app. So here you would select search for your business. You can look it up by your SAM UEI and I'm going to stop sharing just for a moment to enter in the this information and then I'll show how it's reflected after I do so. So I am just entering in UEI and an MPIN. And I will start sharing again. And so now I can see that I have the results of my business. I'm going to confirm that that's correct and then for good measure say yes, the business information that I've entered up here is correct and as I mentioned, this is coming straight from sam.gov so here it's pulled in my specific NAICS code and confirmed that it is small according to SBA size standards. So I get the message that my business is eligible to apply and I can move forward. I can see any additional NAICS codes for this business. This is the only one that we have and so we can move forward in it. So we move into veteran eligibility here I can see that I've already established that I am the veteran owner of the business and I have 100% ownership of my business. So I don't need to enter in any more information. If for example, I only had 40% ownership and I needed to update this, you can see that it's reflected that I do not have the 51% ownership necessary to move forward and I would need to add another veteran owner. So that wasn't available to me before. We're really trying to only present you with options that you need to answer in order to proceed with the application. So some of this may look different when you're entering in your own personal information. And that's by design to make sure that we aren't requiring extra information that doesn't necessarily apply to your business. So I'm going to go back and edit my ownership percentage back to 100 just to keep us moving forward. And again, I've noted that I'm a veteran business owner but not looking for not a service disabled veteran owned small business owner. So that's at 0%. But I can still move forward because I've met the eligibility criteria here. If I had additional business owners, it would be the exact same workflow where I would add in owners if I hadn't met 100% of ownership for anyone who might be a non if I have a non veteran business partner. And it notes that I have a little more information that's required just around my personal ownership. So here I scroll down in this modal and look at these owner questions. We have again these little tool tips. So is the owner listed above a board member for this business? I'm just going to select no, but this will depend on your own individual situation. And this is just about understanding more details about ownership and ultimate control of the organ of the business. So I'll add those the needs more information modal has gone by the wayside and I will move forward and each owner is going to have to fill out a questionnaire. We'll see that after this. So it's just noting who is going to be receiving that. And since I'm the sole business owner, it's just going to be me. And now we're getting into questions around management and control of the organization. This is what's going to help us determine what documentation we need from you again or from any applicant again. We're trying to make it as dynamic as possible. So depending on the answers that I submit here, I'm going to get different documents associated with my business. So I'm going to select llc. We're looking for which veteran listed below has control of the business. There is only one, so I'm adding in that name, checking the formal job title and again asking some specific questions around business operations and then a couple questions around less common situations that might apply to your business and might require additional documentation. But we don't expect to see this for the majority of businesses. So I'm just going to quickly move through so that we can get closer to Q and A. And again, this need help stays consistent throughout the application. So you never need to go back or forward to navigate to an FAQ page if you need help in the moment. And we have an application guide on the page as well. So here is the documentation page. We have required documents as well as optional documents that you might need for your application and little tool tips, again to talk about, you know, what this document might mean or why we're asking for it. But again, it's going to be determined based off of the questions that you'd answered on the about your business page, where we're learning a little bit more about your particular situation. So I'm going to go ahead and upload these files very quickly. And we are in a lower environment, so this might take a second. There we go. You can name the file anything that you want, it will upload into the system. And then it would just be a matter of getting all of those documents that you needed. So I have four documents. This is the third that I'm uploading. This should really only take about a minute since I have them prepped. And then my last document that I'm uploading is an operating agreement. And these are test documents that I have. So if the name doesn't match the file, you're able to name the document whatever you want in the system as well. So those are all of my business documents that I need. I have a couple attestations to confirm that everything that I have submitted is true, accurate and complete. And then I save and continue. So that is the end of the business portion of the application. So we have a summary of your certification and a note that you're almost done. We have everything that we need from the business side, but we do need individual ownership information. So if you are the owner of the business and you're also filling out the application by hitting send and continue, it's going to seamlessly take you straight into the individual and personal information that we're going to need, which it's doing for me right here. So here we have the owner details brought over from the application. So this is really just a matter of me confirming that the information that I've already entered is correct. I'm going to say yes to both ownership percentage and name experience. And then I have a moment to briefly explain my managerial experience and qualifications and ownership of the business. You can. We don't have a specific format for this. It can come from a resume, it can be a descriptive paragraph, but just anything to talk about managerial experience generally. And all owners are going to get an invite to this. So if you'd indicated that you had multiple business partners, they would receive an email and it would invite them just to this owner application piece of the this application questionnaire. They wouldn't have access to the rest of the business application that's private, just to that person who's entering in the application. So I'm entering some financial details, some history. These will look very similar to the financial questions about the business, but this is about personal finances and personal information. And these will determine if there's any documentation that you need to provide individually along with the business documentation. I'm going to say no, and it's a little bit shorter. So here I've indicated that someone in my household is a federal employee at the GS13 level or higher. So I am required to upload one document. Document which I will select here. I'm just going to. Oh, there we go. And I'm just going to copy this. I've uploaded my document. We have the doc types and formats here and available. And again you have one more attestation because you've uploaded documentation and we just want to confirm that you know that they're true, accurate and complete and that you've submitted them. That takes us to a summary of both the business application and the owner summary. The last step that we have here is the submission portion. So you still need to sign and continue. So we'll have one last form and one last signature page. We're using DocuSign here. We right now are continuing to use the VA form for cbe. For those of you who are looking to recertify and who have worked with that program in the past. An SBA form is in development, but we plan to have a little bit of an explainer about why we're continuing to use this form. It's pulling over the same data, so we're using it to help with the transfer. And then there will probably be a new SBA form going forward, but for now and for the beginning of this application, we'll be continuing to use the VetBiz Vendor Information Verification form form. And so here I'm the sole business owner. It's pulling in my information and I'm going to sign right here, select my style and then select finish. And it takes me right back into a status page. So you can come back into our application and view your status at any time. Again, if you had multiple business partners or other folks who were filling out that same ownership questionnaire, you're going to be able to see multiple people listed here, all of the owners from the person's account who is submitting the final application on behalf of the business. Right now it says 0 out of 1 owners complete. But should, if I refresh the page here, update to say that I have completed mine? You just move a little bit quickly Even for the DocuSign notification to come through. Wonderful. So here it says that one out of one ownership requests are complete and that the application is complete once all of the ownership signatures, all of the signatures from owners have come through. So if I go back to my home page, which I'm selecting now, Thank you for your patience in the test environment. I have my pending request here. It's under review by the back office. And so now the application is complete and it's up to our analysts in our program office to review the application and then send any messages if there's additional information or clarification that they need from the applicant. So I'm going to sign out of my account here and once you sign out of your personal account, it takes you straight back to the homepage which has the search for certified Veteran owned small businesses and service disabled Veteran owned small businesses as well. So once again, this is going to go live in January 2023 and this page that I or the page that I showed will be linked to from the existing Veterans Assistance programs we have on SBA.gov that currently has information about CVE and the CVE transfer to SBA after we launch in January. We're going to continue to collect feedback on usage and usability and improve our application to ensure that we're serving the veteran small business community and moving towards our goal to bring more businesses into the program with certification and confidence that they've been officially recognized as as Veteran owned and service disabled Veterans with small businesses. So thank you all again for your time and participation throughout this process. If you've participated in listening sessions or provided feedback to the team. And I will turn it over to Brian to kick off our Q and A portion.

Thank you, Ariel. And it looks like There's a lot of great questions that have been submitted and we will work to address as many as we can in the time allowed.

All right, so there are quite a few questions. So one of the questions that we've received is what if we are not certified by the VA, but we are self certified SDVOSB and SAM.gov how will we apply for new certification through SBA and what is that process like? So if you are not certified by the VA, you should definitely be working on your SAM.gov profile. If you, if you haven't completed that yet or as I mentioned during my presentation, you'll want to make sure that the address information, the NAICS code information, etc. Are all up to date. Because our system will rely on data from SAM.gov as Ariel just showed you, some of it automatically populates and so you definitely want to get that in order. And then as we launch the new System in early 2023, you'll need to supply some of the documents pertaining to your company, mostly your governance documents. So if you're an llc, llc, things like your operating agreement, your articles of Incorporate or articles of Organization, and other documents that formed your company in the state in which you were formed, and additional information like your resume, your some compensation information, depending on the type of business you have and the number of owners you have, your ownership information, all of that will be uploaded into the system that Ariel just walked us through. It is a lighter document request up front than what you may have experienced with your VA certification. For example, our default is not to collect tax information. We may of course SBA may of course request additional information as we review your application if we need it, in order to make a determination that you should be a part of the program. But our initial plans are to request a lighter amount of documentation through the system to move applicants through the processing quickly and efficiently. So that is kind of a short version of what the certification process looks like in terms of documentation that's required and where you do that. The, the other piece about the from the question is regarding self certification. As I mentioned, if you are currently self certified, you may continue to use that self certification through 2023 in order to pursue those contracts across the government as, as an sdvosb sole source or set aside award. However, you must have your application submitted by the end of next year in order for for you to continue to pursue those those types of opportunities. So it's definitely important next year for you to get your house in order and get this application into us, because that is how the program is structured with the one year grace period. That self certification is definitely a ticking clock and you need to make sure you get fully certified in the next year. So another question was pertaining to if you have outside employment or if you have more than one job if you're eligible for the so I definitely recommend taking a look at SBA's program. We have changed the requirement regarding full time devotion to the company. If you can demonstrate that you own and control the company during, you know, normal operations, that the company can function, you know, and perform its, its, you know, or deliver its products and services, you can have outside employment. So that is a difference in our regulation versus the way that the VA had been conducting its program. It closely aligns with the existing programs that SBA has, including the women owned Small business program and the 8 program. It's not a strict requirement that you only have one thing and it is this thing that you do. Additionally, there is no like time and business requirement. That wasn't a requirement for the VA program, but it is for the 8A program. We will permit startup companies to enter this program if you so choose. And so sometimes, you know, especially in startup mode, you may have multiple things going on in order to keep a roof over your head. We understand that business environment and would permit companies like that into the program as long as you have controlling authority over the company and you own 51% or more of the company and have veteran status. So a few questions came up about joint ventures. So what is, what is the plan for reviewing or certifying joint ventures? Our regulation is a little bit different than the VA regulation. We are not requiring full certification for joint ventures. We're not collecting the documents to review the, the joint venture agreement or, you know, a ton of material about the joint ventures. If you are a managing venturer of a joint venture, you must first of course be certified as a VOSB or SDVOSB into this program. And in our, in our system, you will then claim the joint venture as the managing venturer and your designation as the managing venturer will push over through to the joint venture which can then pursue contract contracts as an sdvosb and V or vosb depending on the type of certification the managing venturer has. This will be clear in our search system that it is a joint venture and the designation is relying on whomever the managing venturer is. And so that's an opportunity for people to understand, you know, who are the component parts of the JV and you know, just to understand what that designation is. So that is a little bit of a change that we're not doing a full certification. Obviously if there's a protest or something like that that we could take a closer look at the joint venture at that time. Another question I saw come up a few times, very important point. All service disabled veteran owned businesses are considered veteran owned small businesses. I realized earlier in my presentation I almost spoke of them as separate designations. That's not really true. If you are an sdvosb, you only have one process to go through and you may claim both SDVOSB status or veteran owned small business status for the VA set aside contract. So just want to make sure that that was clear that it's one process. If you're sdvosb, you're automatically granted VOSB status. It's not like a two step. You don't have to do anything extra. As long as you meet the threshold for sdvosb, you will be a veteran owned small business as well. Let's see, A question is, does the Small Business Administration intend to use third party certifiers to allow and recognize that designation? Again, our woman owned small business program does have relationships with a few outside parties, outside entities that they perform certification on behalf of SBA and that company can then upload its certification to SBA and we can recognize that certification. Our statute governing this program does not provide the same authority to SBA to recognize third party verification of any kind. So if you would like to have this veteran owned small business or, or SDVOSB designation through sba, we are the only source for that. It is some, some of our commenters have noted that there are other organizations that are offering veteran owned certification. That is true that that may be. That may be the case. Those are certifications typically recognized by the private sector in corporate supplier diversity programs. There may be valid business reasons for you to get that certification. You know, if you're pursuing a contract with the Fortune 1000 and you'd like to get that certification through a private for their, their private supplier diversity program. Absolutely. Get it as I would recommend. For anybody who's about to pay a fee for something, make sure that you understand what you're paying for. Many of those private sector certification programs do have a certification fee. Our veteran owned small business program will not charge a fee for you to become certified through the sba. So you can certainly pay to have people support you in your application if you feel that you need it. But the SBA program is free. There are no fees for that. Same with sam.gov is SAM registration. That is a free process and there are plenty of resources available that are also free to support you in completing the SAM registration process and completing the Veteran Owned certification, including Larry's office. Larry, who started at the top of the hour, have Veterans Business Centers and a wide network of our district offices that are ready to go and help you get through this certification process in the new year. So you can certainly pay for it if that makes sense for your budget. But you can also find free resources to help you navigate the program. All right. Will there be a new Mentor Protege program for SDVOSB and vosbury? No. Why? Because you can already participate in that program as a Veteran owned small business or or service disabled Veteran owned small business. The SBA Small Business Mentor Protege program is available to all small businesses regardless of the designations that they have. As long as you are small, you may participate in that program. There is a separate application process through SBA in order to become a participant in that program and it is sometimes challenging to find the right mentor or the right relationship for that program. But it certainly can be extremely beneficial to participate in that program. And that is another reason why Congress believed it was important to bring the certification from the VA over to sba. So it is a one stop shop for these certifications and designations. So feel free to use that. There are again there are private sector and other federal agencies do have some Mentor Protege like programs, but the only SBA Mentor Protege program is the SBA All Small Mentor Protege program and can be is available to you right now as a small business as well. So right. Bunches of questions. Will VOSB or SDVOSB status eventually be visible in the dynamic small business services? So as I mentioned a few minutes ago, SBA will be launching its own separate listing for our database searchable database for Veteran owned small businesses and SDVOsBs in the New year. Unfortunately at outset this system will not be integrated with dsbs. They are separate systems. So it is still kind of like how the VA system has been at a different point place and contracting officers wanting to use that authority go to the VA for those determinations will be a little bit closer. It'll be an SBA.gov website that has that search tool. But unfortunately at outset that will not be the dynamic small business search. We hope that one day all these certifications end up in one searchable system and are working toward that diligently. Will the SBA use a simplified SDVOSB recertification process like the VA has? In short, the answer is yes. We are expecting a significant number of applications under this program, given the government wide availability for sole source and set asides requiring certification. And so as a consequence of that volume, plus the practical nature of not every company gets a contract under this program and maybe doesn't need the same level of scrutiny based on the amount of risk that the government has in allowing a company to have that designation. We do plan to have a simplified research certification process. One reason we have offered the one year extension to currently certified participants in the CVE program is so that we can make sure we have a strong recertification model for, you know, ease of use that balances our need as a federal government to make sure that only contracts are being awarded to veteran owned small businesses or service disabled veteran owned small businesses that, that, you know, truly are who they say they are. So we will have a risk based approach to recertification. But generally speaking, we expect that certificate recertification will be a lighter process as continuing with the way that the VA has run their program. So there's a, there's a question regarding if you are if your company has been certified through CVE and the expiration date is before the end of 2022, but you were unable to get your application recertification request into the system. So as I mentioned, our partners at VA are working very, very hard to get through applications that were submitted or recertification materials that were submitted before that October cutoff. They also tried very, very hard to contact every company that was expiring in the, in that period between late October and the end of the year. And I think they had pretty good success with getting companies to submit their recertification materials early. If you miss that window to recertify, unfortunately, you will have to start a new application within the SBA system once it's available. So if you are currently certified, but it's expiring between now and the end of the year, and you did not recertify or send your materials to VA before they close the system, you're going to have to apply as a new company in the new year. If your application is incomplete with va, should we continue that process or start it over in January? As mentioned, the VA closed their system in late October. So if your company application was not complete, you will have to start a new application in the SBA system. Will SBA make available a direct phone number for VA acquisition professionals to call if they have a question about a firm? I don't know if it's going to be a phone number. We definitely will have a means for contracting officers to contact SBA regarding a designation. I honestly just don't remember the way that we have it handled in our reg. Contracting officers obviously have the right to initiate a protest. Contracting officers obviously have a vested interest in making sure that the designation is correct as they are contemplating a contract award. So at the very least, there'll be an email address and other support within the system for contracting officials in order to make sure that, you know, all your questions are answered. So that's a great question. And we'll come up with a good set of contact information to include in the communications we'll be sending to the acquisition community as we launch this program. So I think we're coming up towards the end here, so I'll do one or two more questions before we wrap up. There are a lot more of you than there are of me and time in this call, so any questions that we don't answer, we will try to get into our FAQs, which are published online. And like I said, we will try to have other sessions around this topic because obviously it is of interest to this community. But a few more, if you have an 8A certification or other self certifications in SAM.gov, like, how long does it take to complete the process? So, as I mentioned, we have kind of no idea how many applications we're going to get in on day one, but we are definitely expecting to maintain or exceed the level of service that the Veterans Administration has been providing in terms of a roughly 30 day turnaround from from completed application to a certification. So that's what we're shooting for. Hopefully some of the streamlining we've done within the certification process will facilitate that. And we will continue to communicate to both the public as well as our partners in Congress and across the Executive branch, around our processing time so that we can get the support that we need to maintain the level of service that this community deserves. So we look forward to meeting those expectations and exceeding them. See. So, all right, I guess I'll stop. I could keep going. Probably I'll be told to keep going at some point. But, Larry, I'd like to turn it back over to you for closing remarks, I think.

Yeah, Dee, thank you. Thank you very much. And I would just like to say on behalf of everyone here at sba, we want to thank all of you, you for attending today's webinar. As I mentioned earlier, if you have additional questions, you know, please send them in to us@cvetransferba.gov and I know I speak on behalf of everyone here. At SBA when I say that we are looking forward to serving the veteran small business community through this new program. And with that, thanks again for joining us today. And happy holidays to all of you. Thank you.