| " The federal government's Small Business Administration (SBA) attempts to help companies with fewer than 1,500 employees win government contracts. The SBA's goal was to award 23 percent of all federal prime contracts, and 38 percent of all federal subcontracts, to these kinds of businesses. But Holman says they have "failed miserably in getting anywhere near that goal."" As a former employee of an SBA favored, minority woman owned business, let me make something very clear: The entire SBA small business process is itself gamed and owned by former employees (and their still employed buddies) of the big government contractors. Case in point: My particular "start-up" was "owned" by my COO's wife. She was CEO in name only, but had 51% ownership because she was of Fillipino descent, and therefore qualified as a minority-woman. My COO was a white male who was truly the CEO. His wife was a stay-at-home mom, but on the company's pay roll. Since the other SBA stipulation was that there was a maximum profit limit for the company, the COO and his other buddy both had their wives listed as employees to pay them each the maximium allowed salary of $300,000 a year. Think that was ugly? Then there was the other peace: My company would bid on contracts, and when we won them, would simply sub out large portions of the work to the same giant defense contractors. This is not the exception, but the norm. It is a rigged system with numerous bureaucratic rules which are exploited by the people who know the rules best. Whether or not your company actually knows how to do work is separate from the true qualifier for winning work, which is knowing the system and gaming it. Fuck all of that. I'm so happy to be in the private sector now. |