8(a) Opportunities by State

The first two columns of the table below shows the number of 8(a) firms per state and the amount of procurement dollars the federal government spends in that state. We are then able to calculate the amount of budgeted federal spending per 8(a) firm in a particular state in column three. This is based upon the number of 8(a) firms allocating 5% of procurement dollars as congressionally mandated.

These results then show us which states have the greatest contracting opportunities for new 8(a) firms. We then added an additional three columns to the left hand side showing the number of 8(a) firms in that state in the two major 8(a) industries, construction and IT to get a better understanding of industry competition. One conclusion we can draw from this table is that the misnomer that all federal contracting opportunities are in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area is false. It is true that 25% of all 8(a) firms are located in these areas; however due to the greater concentration of 8(a) firms in the greater DC region the average procurement dollars per-firm is $3,170,420. This is a high dollar figure however still below the national average of $3,324,345. This table also shows us that in the state of Vermont where only 1 8(a) firm exists, this firm has such an abundance of contracting opportunities that this firm performs on both construction and IT contracts, a rare mix of capabilities.