As the President of Cloveer, Inc. I speak to many clients who are interested in becoming 8(a) Certified. I would say that 7 out of every 10 people I talk to do not and cannot qualify for the 8(a) Program due to the strict 8(a) Program requirements. Many of these individuals have tried to prepare their own application without some sort of outside assistance and learn the hard way via denial by the SBA.
A few of these problems range from:
1. The applicant firm earning more than 70% of its total revenues from one single commercial client.
2. The applicant having an adjusted net worth that exceeds the SBA regulatory limit that cannot be lowered without violating the SBA transfer requirements.
3. Not being able to come up the required level of information and evidence required to prove social disadvantage to having an affiliation that may cause the SBA to find an unconditional control issue.
At Cloveer, we conduct a detailed free pre-qualification interview with all of our clients before we charge any fees or start preparing their 8(a) Application. We ask our clients the “Killer” questions that will let us and more importantly them know if they have an eligibility issue, unknown to them. The fact is that there are ways around a lot of the eligibility issues but making changes may impact them beyond their comfort zone. We advise our clients on the pros and cons to any potential eligibility issue and tell them when there is one that has no workarounds. Our feeling is that is it better for them to know now rather than later.
As you can see from our blog and website, www.cloveer.com, we provide more information about the 8(a) Program that all of our competitors. We want you to know as much information about the SBA 8(a) Program as possible since you will be the one participating and using it as one of the tools to becoming a success. The more you know the better decisions you can make before you apply and while you are in the 8(a) Program.
For more information on the 8(a) Program, please visit us at www.cloveer.com or call us at 813-333-5800.
