SBA Awards Grants to Support Small Business Teaming

Five-year pilot program will help small businesses work together to grow and create jobs

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) today announced grant awardees in a pilot program designed to help small businesses work together to compete for federal contracts, grow, and create jobs.  

The Small Business Teaming Pilot Program, made possible by the Small Business Jobs Act, awards grants to organizations for training, counseling, and mentoring to help small businesses enter into teaming relationships and compete for larger federal contracts.  Teaming may take the form of joint venture and mentor-protege relationships.

Eleven grantees were selected from hundreds of applications submitted.  Grantees were awarded between $200,000 and $500,000 in funding, for a total of approximately $5 million in Fiscal Year 2011.

The organizations in the pilot program will help small businesses find other firms interested in teaming, form teaming arrangements, and find and bid on larger contracts.  Grantees will leverage their existing resources and collaborate with SBA District Offices, resource partners, and other federal, state, local and tribal government small business development programs.

"Government contracts are a crucial source of revenue for small businesses," said SBA Administrator Karen Mills. "The teaming pilot program will help small businesses grow and create jobs by giving them the tools they need to work together on larger contracts."

Small businesses interested in becoming part of a small business team should contact the grantee nearest to them.

For more information about the Small Business Teaming Pilot Program, please visit www.sba.gov/teaming.

A full list of the teaming grantees is attached.

Contact:  Tiffani Clements (202) 401 0035
Internet Address: http://www.sba.gov/teaming

SOURCE U.S. Small Business Administration