At the end of last year, the Biden White House released a fact sheet outlining reforms to increase equity and level the playing field for underserved small business owners.
For some background, less than 10% of federal agencies’ total eligible contracting dollars go to Small Disadvantaged Businesses. These businesses are defined as Black-owned, Latino-owned, and other minority-owned businesses. Increasing federal spending on underserved businesses over larger firms has many positive impacts ranging from narrowing wealth disparities among minorities and helping more Americans make their entrepreneurial ambitions a reality. More information on the benefits of increased equity can be found in this White House Issuing Brief.
As outlined in the White House fact sheet, differences in business owners account for 20% of the wealth gap between average white and black households. This striking metric resulted the Biden Administration’s ambitious goal of increasing the number of federal contracts awarded to small-disadvantaged businesses by 50% by 2025. Several steps have already been taken to reach this milestone such as increasing transparency by releasing disaggregated data of federal contract spending by race/ethnicity of business owners, amending the federal government’s use of “category management” to boost contracting opportunities for underserved small businesses, increasing the number of small minority businesses in the federal marketplace, and adopting management practices that will drive accountability and institutionalize achievement.
Because Ensemble is a Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB) qualified by the Small Business Administration, we are excited about these initiatives to increase federal spending on small underserved businesses. These initiatives will hopefully evolve into more opportunities within open innovation, marketing and commercialization, and digital transformation as Ensemble continues its rapid growth in years to come.
To learn more about Ensemble’s contracts and government services offerings check out our Contracts page.
For a more in-depth look at Ensemble’s capabilities, be sure to visit our Services and Case Studies pages.
