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Please e-mail the American Small Business League (ASBL) at brianreeder@asbl.com. Thank you.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Online course offers free federal contracting information

The Small Business Administration has launched a free online course specifically designed to help women entrepreneurs and small firms understand the small federal contracting market. The United States federal government is the largest purchaser of goods and services in the world. Every year the federal government spends more than $450 billion on goods and services. By law, small businesses are entitled to 23 percent of that amount.

This latest course is one of more than 24 online tutorials offered by the SBA and can be accessed at www.sba.gov/training, according to BizJournals.com.

Despite the SBA's efforts to educate the general populous on the federal contracting market, the ASBL contends that due to the diversion of more than $60 billion a year in federal small business contracts to large corporations, federal contracting opportunities are limited.

Business bankruptcies totaled 19,700 in 2006, down from 39,200 the previous year, while business terminations increased from 543,700 in 2005 to 564,900 in 2006, according to the SBA Office of Advocacy profile of the United States. (http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/profiles/07us.pdf)

With this in mind the ASBL is working towards increasing access to federal contracts, through the removal of large firms from federal small business contracting. We need your help. To join in our cause please visit: http://www.asbl.com/3_1.html. Additionally, the comment period for the SBA's proposed women owned small business contracting program is fast approaching. To learn more about what you can do to stop the implementation of a program that would limit the WOSB contracting program to 4 of 140 industries please visit, http://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=643, by March 28th.

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2008/03/03/daily38.html

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