Set-aside

Small Business set-aside

A small-business set-aside reserves a federal contract for any small business meeting the relevant NAICS size standard. This is the most common form of set-aside.

Certification & eligibility

Small-business size standards are NAICS-specific (revenue or employee count). Confirm yours at the SBA size-standards lookup before representing as small on a solicitation.

Capture-relevant notes

Rule of two: contracting officer must set aside if at least two small businesses are likely to bid at fair-market prices.
Past performance on similar-sized contracts is heavily weighted.
Self-certification is allowed; the SBA may protest size status post-award.

Common ground

All federal agencies
The vast majority of small-dollar federal opportunities
Foundation for SBA scorecard achievement

How SourceDeck helps

SourceDeck’s qualification stage scores set-aside eligibility against the solicitation’s set-aside requirement. If you are not eligible, the bid score caps low and the rationale is written into the deck. See the set-aside eligibility guide and the sample SourceDeck.

Run a SourceDeck on a set-aside opportunity.

Send us a SAM.gov URL or solicitation PDF in this category. We’ll produce a SourceDeck on it: source-backed summary, bid/no-bid score with rationale, compliance matrix, capture actions, draft sections.

Analyze one opportunity → See the sample SourceDeck →