Mission

We maximize opportunities for small businesses to contribute to national security by providing combat power for our troops and economic power for our nation.

Vision

We are a network of small business professionals with common values, shared knowledge and regular communication who partner with acquisition professionals seeking small businesses to fulfill DoD procurement requirements and give our Service Members the competitive advantage.

Small Business Professionals' Values

Leadership: We provide the direction and resources needed to achieve DoD small business procurement objectives while managing differing perspectives, change, challenges and opportunities.

  • Integrity: We are trustworthy and accountable.

  • Professionalism: We are competent at small business procurement activities and strive for excellence through lifelong learning.

  • Customer Focus: We identify the customer, respond to customer needs and prioritize efforts to serve the customer.

  • Advocacy: We seek ways to leverage small business as a primary procurement option by emphasizing affordability, innovation, agility and responsiveness.

  • Innovation: We implement new ways of developing the small business industrial base to introduce new products, services and solutions to meet DoD mission requirements and maintain the competitive advantage over our adversaries.

Responsibilities

  • Manage the DoD Mentor Protégé Program (MPP) to develop high priority sectors of the DoD industrial base, such as cybersecurity, by pairing experienced mentor firms with small business protégés

  • Manage small business program funding to ensure timely, efficient and effective usage of appropriated resources

  • Evaluate, refine and propose policy to ensure maximum practicable opportunity for small businesses of the DoD industrial base to participate in DoD procurement, while prioritizing the accomplishment of the DoD mission; engage in the legislative and regulatory processes to ensure DoD complies with regulations and statutes and, when appropriate, recommend adjustments to improve the contribution of small businesses to national security

  • Contribute to the DoD acquisition strategy, market research and contracting processes and activities to ensure small businesses receive the maximum practical opportunity to provide innovative, cost-competitive and timely products and services to satisfy DoD procurement requirements

  • Establish challenging and achievable small business procurement goals for the DoD buying commands, monitor performance across all small business socio-economic categories and implement initiatives to achieve statutory goals

Products

  • Industrial base expansion and improvement through MPP and IIP programs

  • Opportunities for small business procurement that annually exceed $50 billion of prime contract awards and over $40B of subcontracting

  • Outreach and guidance to the Defense Industrial Base consisting of almost 35,000 small businesses out of a contractor pool of over 47,000 firms that procure about $300 billion annually from DoD

  • Subcontracting reporting, reviews and oversight of the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan (CSP) Test Program involving most of the largest businesses of the DoD industrial base

  • Implementation of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Defense FAR Supplement (DFARS) small business regulations through issuance of DD 2579 reviews for each contract over $10,000, and, recommendations to adjust regulations when appropriate

  • Acquisition Strategy and Peer Review recommendations on large-scale Defense acquisitions

Current Authorities

The Small Business Act (15 USC Sections 631-657)
Establishes mandatory small business contracting goals and small business programs applicable to all Federal agencies, including the DoD.

DoD Instruction 5134.04 (Director of Small Business Programs)
Establishes the Director of SBP as the principal advisor to the USD(AT&L) and the Secretary of Defense on small business matters and providing small businesses the maximum practicable opportunity for contracts in accordance with the Small Business Act.

DoD Instruction 4205.01 (DoD Small Business Programs)
Establishes the DoD small business programs under the authority of the Director of SBP. DoD small business programs include: small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, historically underutilized business zone small business, small disadvantaged business, Women-owned small business, DoD Mentor-Protégé Program, Indian Incentive Program, and all other small business programs in the DoD.

Indian Financing Act (25 USC Section 1544)
Established the Indian Incentive Program (IIP) to motivate prime contractors to subcontract to Indian organizations and Indian-owned economic enterprises by providing a 5% rebate back to the prime contractor for doing so.

Mentor-Protégé Program (10 USC 4902)
MPP: The DoD Mentor-Protégé Program (MPP) provides incentives for DoD contractors to assist protégé firms in enhancing their capabilities and increases participation of such firms in Government and commercial contracts.

Test Program for Negotiation of Comprehensive Small Business Subcontract Plan (Public Law 101-189)
Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan (CSP) Program: The CSP Program allows negotiation and administration of an overall (comprehensive) subcontracting plan for large contractors who choose to participate. The CSP applies to every contract, precluding the need to spend time and resources to individually negotiate subcontracting plans for each contract. This reduces administrative burden on contractors and therefore costs.

Other Defense Agencies