Teaching Women Entrepreneurs How to Win Federal Contracts

Government officials, women-small business owners, and advocacy groups celebrated a new program, called Give Me 5.

Karen-Michelle Mirko, Director of Customer Advocacy Marketing of American Express OPEN, celebrates the establishment of the SBA's Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program. American Express OPEN

WASHINGTON—Government officials, women-small business owners, and advocacy groups celebrated the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) newly created Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contract Program in the Washington Metropolitan area that expands federal contracting opportunities for women-owned businesses. They gathered at the J.W. Marriott Hotel on 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue on March 2.

The WOSB Federal Contract Program helps ensure a level playing field in which women-owned small businesses can compete for Federal contracting opportunities.

Whether it actually will work remains to be seen but this was the intention of the SBA’s directive issued on Oct. 7, 2010. The program is intended to better position women-owned businesses to meet the government’s 5% federal contracting goal, which is equal to roughly $27 billion of the federal government’s total $536 billion spent on government contracting.

In an effort to help more women business owners get their fair share of federal contracting opportunities, the SBA introduced last year the Give Me 5 program government contracting curriculum to its network of 110 Women’s Business Centers (WBCs) across the country.

“Launched in 2008 by Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) and American Express OPEN, the Give Me 5 program curriculum aims to educate women business owners and increase the number of government contracts awarded to women,” says the GiveMe5.com website.