SBA Raises Size Standards for 58 Industries
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Small Business Administration issued three final rules that increase size standards for firms in three North American Industry Classification System sectors. These are Real Estate and Rental and Leasing, Educational Services, and Health Care and Social Assistance.
The standards define the maximum size a firm can be and still be considered a small business. The revised standards reflect changes in the marketplace and public comments that SBA received to the proposed rules. New size standards will enable more businesses in these sectors to obtain or retain small-business status, give federal agencies a larger pool of small businesses from which to choose for their procurement programs and make more small businesses eligible for SBA loan programs.
The SBA increased size standards for businesses in 21 industries in the Real Estate and Rental and Leasing Sector, making more than 13,000 additional firms qualify as small. In the Education Services sector, more than 1,500 additional businesses will qwualify, and more than 4,100 additional firms will qualify under the Health Care and Social Assistance sector.
Many of the increases are substantial. In Real Estate and Rental and Leasing, for instance, lessors of residential buildings and dwellings increased to $25.5 million from $7 million and videotape and disc rental jumped to $35.5 million from $7 million. In Educational Services, colleges, universities and professional schools went to $25.5 million from $7 million and junior colleges to $19 million from $7 million.
In the Health Care and Social Assistance sector, continuing care retirement communities and skilled nursing care facilities jumped to $25.5 million from $13.5 million.
Under the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, the SBA will continue its comprehensive review of all size standards for the next several years. The SBA has issued a white paper, "Size Standards Methodology," that explains how the agency establishes, reviews and modifies its receipts-based and employee-based small-business size standards. It can be viewed at http://www.sba.gov/size.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.