Name: 8(a) State of Emergency
Uploaded: 2026-03-11T16:16:08.475Z
Duration: 50 min 2 s
Description: 8(a) State of Emergency

Transcript for "8(a) State of Emergency": Alright. So we're gonna get started. It is 10AM my time in San Antonio, Texas, eleven eastern time over there in Virginia and DC. So we're just gonna jump right ahead in today's live webinar by GovDash. So the event today is all about eight a small businesses, state of emergency, live intel, real data, what to do next. I know information is just rolling down the pathway here at unimaginable speeds. It's so hard to keep up with all of the updates. What do you need to know, and how are you gonna navigate the landscape changing? So my name is Brittany Winkler, senior go to market manager at GovDash, and we're gonna jump right ahead into this content. So, again, you know, my name is Brittany Winkler. I work with GovCon teams every day. My passion is using data to provide actionable insights into, you know, the changing market, landscape, competitive intel, analysis, dashboards, everything. You name it like that. I I find a real passion in it. I love everything I get to do at GovDash, creating reports, newsletters, and events like this so I can share everything I'm learning with you guys in real time because I think a lot of these topics are just so important to the industry today. Okay. And a little bit before we start, I just wanna, you know, go into what GovDash is for a lot of the new faces that are here today. I don't wanted this to be I don't want this to be a sale pitch in any kind, but I do wanna detail, you know, who GovDash is, what we're all here, you know, around today. So GovDash is the AI platform to win and run contracts. We support the full life cycle of a government contract from opportunity discovery capture, proposals, contract management, and post award opportunities and operations. So the three things that really set us apart are gonna be your mission grade accuracy, your end to end integration, and secure by design. Our team directly comes from the government contracting space in the industry. So we know everything is very significant as soon as it happens, and we love to share that with our customers and the community. And we really show up and support the industry. Moving beyond boilerplate to argentic execution. So who's winning in the space right now? I think everyone wants to know that question. Teams that are actually executing repetitive, tasks, compliant matrices, technical draft, yeah, drafting with speed and consistency. The winning teams are really ultimately using tools that actually integrate with the tools that they're already using, and the systems that they already have. So a big thing at GovDash, you know, we focus a lot on automation, native return on investment, and relentless improvement based on, you know, our customers' feedback. And, you know, our main goal at GovDash is to unify how people are using systems, unifying how, you know, the whole process, start to finish, of how you run a contract into a single intuitive system that works with you, not just for you. You have complete control when you're using GovDash. And, again, we're GovDash, you know, built by GovDash for you guys in the industry, and our team directly comes from this industry. Meaning that, you know, we know exactly how you work and, yeah, just loving having great conversations with everyone in the industry. And now I just wanna jump right ahead into what today we're gonna be talking about. There's gonna be, you know, a lot of links in the chat by Sam here helping me out. A lot of the things I'm gonna be referencing, so we have a report, more webinars, and then sources from this deck as well that you are able to download and use at your own time. After this event, you're gonna be getting a recap email with the on demand video of this webinar and also the slide deck. So as I'm going through the slide deck, you'll notice if you've been, you know, with me before at a live webinar, this content is a lot more dense. There's a lot more information I've packed into these slides. And the reasoning for that is I really wanted it to translate not only into, you know, a slide deck, but a report that you can download, use. There's clickable links. There's extra resources in this document. I really want this to be actionable intel that you can walk away with today as a really great, you know, small report takeaway to read at a later time or share with your team. And I'm always happy to connect over LinkedIn or at GovDash to have conversations around this content if there's anything you wanna cover after this event as well. So, you know, the whole reason of why we called this webinar. Right? So here's the honest framing. The eight day program has been in a crisis for the last ninety days since January 22 since we've seen all of this policy fall through. Right? Over a thousand firms suspended, hundreds are in the termination proceedings. Program rules are being rewritten at a speed that I've personally never seen before. And talking in the industry, it's it's really hard to wrap your head around, right, how fast things are really moving today. People are finding out through the word-of-mouth, social media, and not really direct channels. And that's really unfortunate because that creates a lot of confusion and, yeah, just confusion about where you should be getting your news and what you can truly rely on, especially if you are in this program. So firms are still making decisions, you know, with or without this data. But my goal here today is to give you a really great insight into everything that is happening in this program start to finish, and here's some things you're gonna walk away with today. So a complete timeline of every major action since last year, December, since they made that initial call for, you know, fraud implementation and looking at documents and that whole three year financial record, then this is gonna be all in one place. So really take this slide deck, use it as a report, look back on it later when you need to, you know, reference different things that are happening in this industry. There's also gonna be real data. Who is impacted? Where? Why? How much is really at risk? Who's impacted, if that includes you or someone that you're working with. All of this data I'm getting, I link all of the sources in this report. It's very accurate. I, you know, never wanna put misinformation out there, so I really do my due diligence to make sure everything is accurate and sourced. That way, you can do your own due diligence and look further into the data. And all of these data sources are public. Right? I don't ever want to have anyone use a paid source to find data that everyone should be getting access to. There's gonna be clarity on what the new eligibility standards actually mean, and concrete steps. So what are you gonna be doing in the next thirty, ninety days to protect and grow your business as more of this policy come down the line and as the landscape continues to change. And then, ultimately, you're gonna be walking away with a path forward because I am here to argue that the eight a program is still worth fighting for, and I'm gonna show you some really great insight into why I'm saying that today. And I really wanna be direct about the opportunity side of eight a's. Eight a small business, you know, opportunities remain one of the most powerful sore sole sourced, authorities in the federal government. And I hope that you walk away today being, you know, left with really positive insight, feeling good about it, feeling more knowledgeable than you, you know, walked in here with today. And you have some great resources to share with, you know, your network and your team. Alright. So who's in the room with us today? We got a lot of new faces. So if you want to put your LinkedIn in the chat, you know, name your business, your firm, who you work with, who you are, you know, as a business owner or whatever firm you're working at right now, I think we need to take more advantage of networking opportunities as events even if they're live webinars. Right? So I would love to see, you know, people connecting with each other in the room today, especially because we have a ton of new faces in here right now. So who's in the room? Right? We have so many different faces with all different roles across GovDash. And the main ones are current eight a participants. We've seen a lot of those register for this event. So whether you're suspended right now, received a data call, or haven't heard anything yet, the main points here for this talk are, you know, you walking away with an understanding of what's changing and really what it means for you, and your active pipeline. We also have a lot of BD business development and capture leaders here today. So big thing to keep in mind here is roughly, you know, 941 firms are still suspended as of March 11 today and almost 800 in termination proceedings. Your competition landscape has really shifted, and we're gonna talk about how exactly that's shifting and what you can expect down the line ultimately. And lastly, the group here, we have primes and subcontractors. So whether you're dependent on an eight a firm or you're a large firm looking at eight a pools for teaming partners, Your supply chain has really changed and disrupted. And knowing which firms are stable and which ones are at risk or what I'm gonna really detail today, how you can do that. So we're covering a lot of different angles here today, answering these key questions based on, you know, the different audiences in this room today. But, you know, again, as I mentioned, feel free to put your LinkedIn, you know, who your firm is, some details in there. I really want you guys to get the most out of this event and network and expand your opportunities. It's always great to meet new people, and I think that's so important, especially in this industry. So what are we covering today? We have, you know, almost an hour of jam packed intel here. So, again, there's a lot. You're gonna receive this slide deck after the event with the on demand video. Really dive deeply into it. There are so many resources in this slide, this whole slide deck here that really translates into a great report. So the four sections here, the sequence, you know, how did we get here? It's gonna I'm gonna be talking about the complete timeline from December. It's from the data calls through what we're seeing today with the termination, deadlines. And all of this data is up to date as of March 11. That is today. We're gonna be talking about by the numbers. I'm gonna show you real data on suspension, state concentrations, contract dollars, and who's actually at risk built from public contracting databases, information that I've linked and sourced throughout this report here, the slide deck, that you can dive deeper into if you wish. And all of this data, again, is updated as of today. That should actually be March 11. Then part three, we're gonna be setting the record straight. There's so much information about what is happening in this program, but I'm gonna really get down to what you need to know and how it's going to be affecting you based on your audience here. So what are the new SBA guidance act what the new SBA guidance actually says versus what's been reported? Again, you know, I feel like every day I open LinkedIn, and there's just so much information out there. It's really hard to determine what is true, what is rumor, what is opinion. So the social disadvantage reframe, sole sole source authority context, and veteran firm impact. So a lot to get into here. And then lastly, we're gonna be walking away today with what are you gonna be doing now? So concentrate, you know, what actions are you gonna be concentrating in the next thirty to ninety days, really, up until that October 1 deadline. I I really argue that we're gonna see more changes. So we're gonna be going down what has already happened and kind of what is forecasted to happen. So looking at BD proposals and post award, how to navigate the new market shifts, and really how are you gonna be putting your best foot forward in this, you know, shifting landscape of competitive intel and everything that is happening, really looking at the next few months here. So let's get to the beginning here. Part one, the sequence. And at any time, guys, that you guys have questions or anything, please put them in the chat. I am gonna save some time at the very end of this webinar presentation to get to all of your questions. I think it's very important. You know, we kinda have a sounding board here. We go back and forth between some ideas. And, yeah, feel free to put them in the chat. I'm gonna save some time to get to as many as I can today. And anything I don't get to, I can meet with you guys after this event as well. So part one, the sequence, how the eight a program went from business as usual to a full scale review in just the around the last ninety days here since January 22 and especially since December 2025. So definitely more than ninety days here. So this is, you know, a really great fully encompassing ninety day look at what has happened in the timeline since, you know, eight days have been impacted here. So the pace truly matters, and I argue that more than the events that have have happened in the last ninety days. The pace has been really interesting to see. So let's walk through this timeline. We started December. This is when the SBA, the Small Business Association, issued that mass data recall, and over 4,008 a firms were ordered to submit three years of financial records. The deadline was extended from the nineteenth, actually, from the fifth to the nineteenth to give people more time. And this was really the first alert that something was changing in this ecosystem of the program. Right? And then after that, January 16, the DOD announced, you know, hey. We're gonna do our own contract review. It's gonna be anything over 20,000,000. It's gonna be a line by line item of all eight a and small business set aside contracts. And, you know, this was another really great signal of, okay, maybe other agencies are gonna be doing this as well. January 19, a little bit further down the timeline here, we had data called deadlines, portal failures reported. The deadline falls. This deadline fell on a federal holiday, so firms report portal access had issues. It was really a confusing time for people. Many submissions were rejected or unconfirmed, and people truly didn't know what was happening. Right? They were trying to submit things that wasn't really working out. And all of this really happened within a few weeks. So it was a very confusing time. A little bit further down the timeline here, we have January 22. This was when, you know, over a thousand firms were suspended. So that was 25% of the eight day program, and that was huge. So the SBA suspended, you know, around that total of firms in one day. And on that same day, there was also new race neutral social disadvantage guidance issued, reshaping eligibility standards entirely. So one day with two huge signals coming out of the SBA. February 8, this is when we saw suspensions drop to 810. So two, almost 300 firms reinstated after submitting documentations of their three years of financial records and appeals. And the market interpret this they really you know, the market really interpreted this as a solution, but was it really? We'll get more into this as we go further down the line here. And, you know, last month, February 11, a 154 firms faced termination. This was roughly over $1,000,000,000 in awards, 1,300,000,000.0. The SBA initiated its first formal termination proceedings all within the DC area. Suspension counts spiked to over a thousand overnight, and these terminations that were mentioned right here, February 11, became final as of today, March 11. And then earlier this month, actually, last week on the fourth, 628 more firms here were impacted over 850,000,000 in contracts at risk. Huge number. The SBA initiated their second wave of terminations. That's where I'm pulling that 628 firm number from from the original December 5 data call group who refused or failed to provide, this requested three years of financial records. So that was approximately another 18% of the entire program. And then what is happening today? As of March 11 today, roughly 941 firms are currently without active status, 463 are still suspended, seven eighty two, informal termination proceedings, and the DC area is being largely more impacted than any other region. And I will show you that in the data slides to follow. These terminations from the February 11 wave are final as of today, March 11. So the main takeaway here is we're looking at more than just the timeline. We're really looking at pace. It's only been a few months, and we've seen so much activity in the eight day program. So two huge termination waves over almost $22,000,000,000 in contract under review just in the line last ninety days alone. So main takeaway here again, if you're in this program, eight a small businesses, you are now operating in a fundamentally different environment than you were last year starting in December. And you need to be ready for more sudden changes as we continue down the line of 2026. So, again, you guys will be getting the slide deck. I know it's a lot of information on these slides, but please feel free free to dive deeper, look at the sources to better give, you know, a really overall view of what exactly I'm talking about here. So now we're gonna be getting into the numbers. Alright? This is argumentally probably my favorite part of this whole presentation. Again, real data on suspensions, terminations, dollars, who's actually at risk, pulling all of this information from public databases, linked credibly sourced, really accurate information that you can use right now to make actionable decisions, whether, you know, you're a small business or not, really. So what is the scale of what's at risk? Right? Let's put a scale on what is exactly happening here. So the eight a generates roughly $14,700,000,000 in annual contract awards. So I'm getting that number from just looking at an average of the last few years. It's not always 14,700,000,000.0. It wasn't that in 2025, but this is just a running average. Right? Sometimes it's lower, sometimes it's higher. And the largest small business set aside by wide margin, this is it. AA eight a programs. For context, the service disabled veteran owned small business sole sole source authority is around $492,000,000 per year, and the women owned small business is only at 122,000,000. Those are the averages looking at HubSpot at around 70,000,000 too. So when you're really looking at the eight a small business program, it is truly leading the charge in annual contracts awarded. And eight a sole source alone equals this $14,700,000,000 number here. This program is truly the backbone of small business federal contracting. And over, you know, that 400 4,300 plus active participants who received the SBA's December 2025 data call, out of that, roughly 782 are currently in formal termination proceedings. So, again, that's about 18% of this entire eight a program, which is a huge, massive chunk out of the firms here. And 941 as of today are still without active status, yeah, again, out of today, March 11. So a lot of really interesting numbers here. Take it with a grain of salt. Use it to forecast what is gonna be happening down the line here. And the two termination waves altogether that I previously mentioned, you know, approximately 200 $2,150,000,000 of eight a contract awards under review. That's a huge number of contract activity that is being reviewed as of today. And it's overwhelmingly in the DC area, and I will get to that shortly. Yeah. And we we're just continuing to see more waves of contracts being under review. Right? If, you know, there's hundreds of people being reviewed, think about how many dollars in contract activity is frozen. People don't know what to do with. Right? Might be up for termination. A lot of things worth flagging here. And one more detail to really keep in mind is almost 500 active eight a participants are also SBA certified veteran owned small businesses. Almost, you know, another 500 or service disabled veteran owned small businesses. Firms that received about $2,000,000,000 in eight a set aside and sole source contracts in 2024 alone. So really big thing to keep mind here is a days are not just a days. Right? They can really be in any other, you know, subdivision of contracting. So different types of small businesses. So I think that's really important here. Know, You even if you're not an AA showing up today for this webinar, there are still some really great takeaways. I mean, this what is happening in the eight program is really impact impacting the entire industry as we speak. And many face terminations despite entering the program based on veteran status, not social disadvantage. That's an unintended consequence of what is happening, but the industry associations are actively working to address it. I'm interested to see what's gonna be coming down the line here, what these people have to say shortly. But we you know, really, there's no way to guess what's gonna be happening with that, right, what people are gonna address or find important to address. So we will just wait and see on that. You know, now I wanna talk about the suspension count ever since that January 2020 financial record peak here. So I have a really nice line data chart that tells a story of the last few months better than anything I can say. This is a really, really great chart for you to just really quickly look at what has happened in the last ninety days here up until March 11. So the peak here was definitely at went over a thousand firms on January 22, the day the SBA issued these mass suspensions and this race neutral guidance simultaneously. That was when I referenced those two huge major signals that happened on the same day. And then shortly after that, February 11 happened. The count jumped from eight ten to over a thousand overnight when the SBA initiated formal termination proceedings of around one fifty DC area firms. And the current count as of March 11 is at nine forty one. So that's still 22% of the active eight a small business pool, which is a a really large concerning, you know, pool of all of eight a small businesses right now. It's well above any historical baseline we've seen, I think, truly. The pattern here when you're looking at this chart is there's tons of dips and rises. So this is not resolved. It's gonna continue to dip and rise as we finish out the year. But I'm arguing that the dips here are creating false confidence. Just because something goes truly down and then truly up just like the stock market doesn't mean you can really take this for what it is. Right? Take it with a grain of salt. The data, when you're really looking at it, tells a completely different story. We will see more dips and rises as we continue out this year. Alright. Now I wanna show you guys some really interesting bar charts about suspended firms by state, and I think this is really important to dive deeper into because you wanna look at your geographical area and figure out who is truly being impacted. Am I one of them? And who's really, you know, being affected when we're looking at these numbers here? So all of this to show that Virginia and Maryland dominate, a direct reflection of the DC area federal contracting ecosystem. We have historically had most of our firms in DC, Maryland, Virginia. So Virginia right now, 77 firms. Maryland, 53. Together, just those two right there, that's nearly 60% of the concentrated tracking here. We have a 130 of roughly the 200 tracked suspension firms just in this area. So really, really crazy insights, honestly. The DC firms, these have already been terminated as of today. The eight DC listed firms that were part of the February 11 wave, their termination proceedings became final today. And there's lots of, you know, evidence and resources out there to back that information up if you wanna see exactly which ones they are. And geographically speaking here, it's truly widespread. Although we're seeing, you know, Maryland and Virginia being heavily outweighed, impacted, really, truly, every state has been impacted in some way. These are just the key findings I I really felt were important to show you guys here today. You know? But what further within this report, there's links in here where you can see up to 25 plus states. So they're tracking from Hawaii, Alaska, and more. The March 4 wave put ups around 630 termination notices that you can see within this data, and it's really crazy to see the breakdown when you're looking at how many people have impacted, been impacted just last year since these terminations came down the pipeline. So if you're anywhere near the DC market, Virginia, Maryland, even if you're not a prime, maybe you're a sub or a teaming partner, this directly speaks to you and is going to be impacting you as we look further down the 2026 pipeline. And this one is, you know, another really great chart that connects geographic to dollars. It shows why the DC area has really created a disruption, with federal wide implications here. So, again, we're looking really at Virginia, Maryland, DC areas here. So Virginia leads with almost $7,000,000,000, Maryland at over 2,000,000,000. Together combined, this is $9,000,000,000 in eight a spending and home to around a 130 of these track suspended firms. So this is really a high concentration distribution disruption, really, zone in the federal market right now. Just imagine, you know, all of these contracts, all of these dollars are up for review, or at risk of being terminated here. The shift let's get back into this. This chart right here is another gray line chart. It explains exactly why the DOD's contract review landed where it did. You know, I really wanna speak on DOD because they I, you know, I as again, as I mentioned on the timeline, they really chose to follow the SBA, one of the first agencies to conduct their own line by line item review. And this line chart today shows the total eight a program spending split by award type, sole source versus competitive from 2010 all the way up until March 11 today of 2026 here. So the headline is sole source has truly surged since 2025, almost up $10,000,000,000, up from around 8,000,000,000 in just the last, yeah, few years, 2010, actually more than few years. So this is around 30% increase in just fifteen years. So just going up 30% is already way more than others out there. Sole source now makes up 63% of all of the eight a awards you are seeing out there today. This is really competitive intel looking at, you know, what has happened in 2025. Around $6,000,000,000 of competitive awards have grown slowly. And what is the DOD's target? Right? What are they trying to accomplish with this line by line contract review? We've seen this administration really take a streamlined report, approach at everything that they're doing, and that really, focuses on the way that they're working with people to get services out, to achieve missions here. So the DOD's line by line review targets all eight a and small business set aside contracts over $20,000,000. This is a really important note to mention here. Sole source awards are the primary focus. That is exactly where eight eight Growth has been concentrated over this last fifteen years looking at this line chart here. So all of this to say, you know, walk away with right now that the firms that can justify their sole source awards with strong past performance, clean eligibility, clear mission alignment, will keep that access, but this is the new standard. And part three, setting the record straight. So what exactly is the SBA guidance? What is it saying? What does that mean for you and your eligibility? And what are some things, you know, people are saying out there right now? But what are some, you know, thoughts and insights we can put together with real data? So looking at the myth versus reality, it's what I'm calling it here, the social disadvantage. So, again, looking at the timeline of what has really come down the pipeline with this eight day program, January 22 guidance changed all of the rules, and most firms still don't know how or why or they don't have a great source to really be finding this intel as soon as it happens. So I really wanna clear some things up here. I have three common misses mis conceptions and the true reality of it. The last two here are that, you know, if I've submitted my data call response in my safe from suspension you know, many people submitted documentation, and we're still suspended or still terminated. So the reality here is submit submission alone isn't always sufficient enough. The SBA has and is still reviewing content, not just receipts. And the firms that submitted incomplete or generic narratives were still flagged. That's exactly exactly what I'm seeing when I'm looking at this data. The documentation standard is materially higher than other prior cycles, specifically collaboration and direct business impact. These are all required elements that the agency is looking at, and that's what I'm finding, you know, what I'm able to digest from all of this data. And that third misconception here at the very bottom is that pro, this eight day program is totally being eliminated, and that's not the case. The eight day program still exists, and it will still exist. I know there's a lot of talk about it being just totally eliminated with all of the other small business set asides, but that's not what I'm seeing here. And I have a lot of confidence to say that. So what has changed? Eligibility standards, truly, oversight and enforcement, and how the SBA evaluates continuing eligibility. So I have more details within this report here for clicking on different resources. But the reality with this misconception is the program is truly being reconstructed, and we could see that happening in real time. And it's happening at a pace that we've never seen it before. Firms that adopt this new eligibility standard capture strategy contracting approach will retain their access, and, this program is not going away. So just really keep that in mind. Have full confidence. Be very positive about it. There's a lot of data to back up what I'm saying here, and I hope you guys can walk away today feeling just as positive as I am. So now we have what, you know, is very important here, looking at regulatory change and what this means for you, what you should be walking away with today. And it's one that most firms haven't fully absorbed yet just because the information is coming down the pipeline at a crazy speed. And, truly, even when I was researching for this, it's really hard to, you know, truly understand what they're trying to say with all of the policy and the data and terminations and so many changes that, you know, I I've really tried my best to do a good job of putting it all in here once resource for you guys to use in the future. But the key section here is, within that CFR document. Really, this document is just an outline of the requirements for individuals to establish social disadvantage, for the SBA eight a program eligibility. And these changes that we saw in this document allowed designated group members to rely on group membership as the basis for social advantage disadvantage. But after January, this changed. And how did it change? Every applicant and current participant was now required to provide an individual and substedated narrative regardless of group membership. So what does the SBA now evaluate? There's really four requirements here that I was able to pick out. Just looking at all this data, looking at the documents. So it's gonna be specific incidences of bias that impeded business access, chronological, documentation tied to business operations and contract outcomes, collaborating evidence, demonstration nexus between bias experience in the firm's social and economic disadvantage. So what are the practical implications of everything I just said, this huge shift that we're looking within this CRF document? It's really that firms that relied on group presumption or submitted template responses are at an elevated risk. The SBA right now is actively reviewing eligibility files against the new individual narrative standard. Update your documents now if you haven't already. That is a huge takeaway. Continue to update your documentation. Continue to follow along with what the SBA is requesting. Make sure you're already prepared as more policy and changes come down the pipeline. Sole source power, why the eight a still dominates. I have some really great insights here that I think will, you know, help people feel a little bit better about what is happening in this contracting space. So here's the reason to stay the course. Even under increased scrutiny, the eight day sole source authority is the most powerful contract vehicle in the federal market today. This bar chart shows exactly what I'm talking about. So the eight day program in 2024, the sole source awards was almost 15,000,000,000, and that is still truly speaking to what we're seeing today. And that's exactly why I'm pulling, you know, some 2024 data here. And the thresholds just got higher. You know, we're seeing a lot of changes October 1. The non DOD sole source threshold was raised from 25,000,000 to 30. No competition required. For the DOD, the threshold is a 100,000,000, and that's almost three a three time difference, a critical distinction from defense focused eight a firms. So, really, agencies use eight a sole source authority precisely because it reduces procurement complexity. It really streamlines the whole process here. And that value proposition has not changed. It will not change. You just need to have a better way of going around it, right, and truly following up with updated information. So the opportunity hidden in the crisis, there's a lot of opportunity here, a lot to keep in mind as more policy comes down the pipeline. And our last section here, part four, I hope you're still with us here. We got a lot of information. What this means for you as your business, you know, whether you are in a BD or capture role, writing proposals, or, you know, looking at the whole operation of a post award eligibility, things like that, compliance, security, really any type of role in GovCon today. What does this mean for you? Whether you are a a eight a small business or a different type of business or just a large business, I really think this is impacting everyone in the industry. So the market is contracting and and opportunity is concentrating. That is a huge takeaway here from this section. Your capture strategy needs to now reflect both. So what are you gonna be doing today if you're BD and capture team? You need to requalify your pipeline. You need to target the transition, recalibrate teaming. And what's the key shift here to remember? It's that the BD opportunity in this environment is counterintuitive. Fewer eligibility competitors plus sustained agency demand for these eight a side set aside equals a stronger position for firms that stay in good standing. Capture velocity and eligibility maintenance are now the same work, and that is the key shift here to remember. Proposal teams, so anyone writing the actual proposal. Compliance requirements have escalated, and proposal teams are the last line of defense before submission here. And that's exactly what we're seeing. I think this reigns true for any agency, any small business, or large out there. So really keep in mind the eight a eligibility section with every proposal that you're doing. Keep in mind the DOD review on $200,000,000 plus contracts. Keep in mind your compliance matrix, and your table stakes. Watch out for that SBA annual review cycle. Watch out for more reviews that are might be coming down the pipeline. Watch out for your JV, your joint venture proposals. If you have anyone that you're working with that is an eight a, really keep in mind, you know, look if they are suspended or not, if there are any termination proceedings accredited to that firm that you might be working with. You always wanna make sure eligibility across the board is ready and sound, ready to go. And, also, look for high risk scenarios here. Just be very aware of what's happening in the market and looking at how that truly impacts you. And for post award and contract management here, keep in mind that active contracts are under review as of today. So the work that you're already performing is part of a risk picture. Something to really keep in mind here, there is, you know, contract termination risk. We're seeing, DC largely impacted compared to others. Keep in mind the annual review compliance. Keep in mind invoicing and financial records. Keep in mind the new standard here. Post award is no longer just about performance and invoicing. It now includes maintaining eligibility documentation, financial records, and SBA correspondence to keep your eight a certificate intact and up to date throughout the contract period of performance. So what are you gonna be doing right now the next thirty, ninety days up until 10/01/2026? Here's what you're gonna do. Right? You're in the next two weeks, you need to check sam.gov, the dynamic small business search portal. Verify your eight a certificate. Make sure it's active, and make sure your SP pro profile is current and up to date. Audit your social disadvantage narrative. So look at your files. Make sure everything is up to date and compliable with the new standards that I'm talking about throughout this whole slide here. Review teaming partners and subs. Engage your SBA business opportunity specialists. Talk with people. Network. Understand what other people are seeing and how you can best set yourself up for success here. Join an association network again, with legal resources. We have an eight a and alliance out there where people are, you know, talking about how they're being affected and what they're doing today to set their self up for success. Lastly, diversify your set aside strategy. If you hold multiple set aside standards, service disabled, veteran owned small business, HUBZone, women owned small business cert certifications, build your pipeline on those other vehicles now to have a backup plan if something doesn't work out with your eight a program. Keep in mind, STARS three. This is becoming one of the main vehicles for eight a small business opportunities. So with this one, you know, your timeline is what you need to remember. Build these checks into your standard operating procedures and prepare for the next data call if it comes down the line. So the path forward, I wanna close with a really specific strategic view of, you know, what you need to be doing and why. So the firms that are positioned well now will ultimately define the eight a competitive landscape for the next three to five years to come. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that. It's what happens when a market restructures as fast as we're seeing the eight a program restructure right now. So look for strategic positioning association, network leverage, awards and business development. The long view here is that the eight day program has survived significant restructuring before. Maybe not in the way we're seeing it today, but they've really been, you know, streamlining the way that they navigate change, to make people still be, you know, able to work within the program and secure opportunities and contracts. So firms that maintain eligibility, adapt their strategy, take in, you know, everything I'm saying here today, building durable agency, relationships, networking, they are ultimately gonna win the next three to five years, and I can confidently say that. The bottom line here is treat this as a business transformation moment, not a compliance emergency. And this link right here, and I'll show you guys after this when I'm done, but this is, you know, a really great start. It's a giant list of expiring tasks, contracts, IDVs, and more that I've put together. I'm telling you exactly who the past incumbent was, when it was awarded solicitation ID and SAM, links to their business, who you can reach out to. But this is ultimately a really great starting point. Look at what is gonna be coming down the pipeline and expiring right now. Maybe you can take a few of these tasks or contract areas, add them to your own pipeline. But it's a really great resource just to keep in mind. And, again, once you get this slide deck, you will be able to download this, and I'll put it in the chat when I'm done speaking as well. And, you know, that was really it for the today's talk. But today, I wanna, you know, also just mention our newest report release. If you loved the the kinda insights and data I shared with you today, there's even more in our most recent report release here, and this one is titled the federal 2026 procurement hotspots. So within this report, I'm showing you even more opportunity, and it's in a very positive way. Right? So it's over a $155,000,000,000 in pivot missions right now. I'm showing you a shadow pipeline. There's the top 25 recompete radar for every agency. Really great opportunities that you can add to your pipeline now. And I detailed budget insights as well. So every policy you've seen come out from last year to this year, everything is in this report. It's totally free to download, and Sam here is gonna put the link in chat for you to get that report today. And lastly, I just wanna do a quick shout out for our future events here. We have a lot coming down the pipeline anywhere from, you know, our Merrill at g, GovDash, and Judy Brant. And then, also, we're doing an NDA shield series with Natasha and Justin. And then I also have another event talking about the recent report, if you liked all of these insights I shared with you today. So I just wanna thank everyone for showing up, you know, and showing out for today's event. You know, the eight day situation is still developing, so stay close to data, stay connected to your community, and act early. And, you know, GovDash is the a AI platform to win and run contracts. It's built by GovCon for GovCon. And if you wanna talk about that further, you know, always happy to set up a demo for you guys. And I quickly wanna just get to some other things I wanna show you guys. So if you're looking at our event website here, there's all the different events that you can sign up for if you liked what you saw in today's event. There's more coming down the pipeline, completely free live webinars. This is the link to the report I mentioned. Fill out this, and you immediately get the PDF you can download and share with your team, read at your own time. And within my report, I mentioned that huge list of expiring contracts. That link is gonna take you directly to this live, sheet I have here. And this is gonna detail, you know, so many different opportunities that are expiring coming up in May all the way through October 1. And I'm really giving you great insights that, you know, you don't really find often. So the award ID, you can search in USA spending or sam.gov, looking at a UEI of who won it in the past, the vehicle ceiling, who awarded it and why, NAICS, PSC, what type of set aside it was, all the way down to, you know, the solicitation ID number in sam.gov, and also direct links to who these winners and were so you can network and learn more about, you know, how they accomplished this contract in the first place. But I wanna see if there's any questions here. Let's see. Alright. Again, be aware of the chat. We have a lot of links in here today, so record events. I'll put this expiring one in the chat here as well. Let's see. Alright. And we do have a tab for documentation where I'm putting the slide deck that you can download and access right now to get all of those links and sources and that sheet that I just showed you. Alright. We got a question here. Sarah Brown. Brittany, is the listing of suspended and impacted firms public? Yes. It is. The way to find this list is going through the small business dynamic search, And that is a free platform where you can search, you know, who's being impacted and when, who has a suspended certificate, and that number and list changes every day. We got what's the time frame, the date? Yeah. So I showed you guys 2024 data, 2025 up until today. All of this data is current up until March 11. That is today. If you wanna talk about more of the data in specific, I'm more than happy to do that and show you exactly how I pulled that information. I was using the small business data website, sam.gov, USA spending, and a ton more free resources out there to pull this data together. We got Scott here. So does that mean that no, HNCs or ANCs are at risk or that their offices are in the BADC. So we're seeing you know, if you are part of that AA program, but you're an HNC or an ANC, you are being impacted. They are not specifically impacted these small set aside groups yet. But just keep in mind, you know, what are we seeing right now with AAs? This, you know, is really easy to see impacting other groups as well. So I would argue it's really important to find a resource out there that you like, some voices on LinkedIn as well, places that you can really rely on for great accurate resources and data as policy and things change here. Cool. Alright. Well, I just wanna say thank you guys so much. If there's any more questions, I'm so happy to talk about it offline. Find me at LinkedIn or GovDash. I'm seeing a lot of positive reactions in the chat here. So I hope today you can walk away with, you know, just feeling really good about what is happening in this space, you know, not really taking it as something that crazy that's happening. This is kind of a regular regulatory market shift, and the market shifts all the time. This is just really specific to small businesses. So if you liked our content here, I would love if you join us on future events. Check out the report. Check out the slide deck, especially. Click on a lot of those links. I see exactly where I'm getting this data, and sources that you can use today to, just keep track of when more stuff comes down the pipeline. So thank you guys so much for coming out, showing out here today. I'm excited to see you on our next webinar here. So thank you, guys.