Unlocking Federal Contracts: Your Small Business Guide to FAR Part 19 and MySetAside Helps You Win

Aug 25, 2025

The realm of government contracting seems complicated for small businesses. This intricacy presents a wealth of potential for FAR Part 19. Small businesses have a fair and equal chance to compete and win federal contracts, which is more than just a set of rules. Understanding FAR 19 is like finding the secret trails in a large forest.

FAR Part 19: An Interface to Government Contracts

FAR Part 19 outlines the policies and procedures to promote small businesses’ participation in federal acquisition. The government recognizes the vital role played by small businesses in the economy and sets annual contracting goals in different categories. FAR Part 19 demonstrates the procedures to accomplish these goals, mostly through set-asides.

Key Components of FAR Part 19 for Small Business

Small Business Set-Asides (Subpart 19.5): This is an important aspect for many small businesses, like

• Total Small Business Set-Asides: Contracting officers are required to set aside the entire small business participation for acquisitions over the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT) for most procurements with $250,000 for reasonable expectations that small businesses will make offers at a fair market price. Set-asides are automatic for purchases between the SAT and the micro-purchase threshold ($10,000).
• Partial Set-Asides: For large requirements, small businesses set aside a portion that they can compete for, and the remaining part can be divided.

Socio-economic Programs: In defining the opportunities, there is no order of precedence among these socio-economic programs. Contracting officers conduct market research and agency goals to determine which set-aside fits appropriately. FAR Part 19 outlines unique initiatives intended to support various types of small businesses:

• 8(a) Business Development Program (Subpart 19.8): This section offers both competitive and sole-source opportunities for small businesses.
• Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) Program (Subpart 19.13): For small businesses located in economically distressed urban and rural communities.
• Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) Program (Subpart 19.14): This section offers businesses owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans.
• Women Owned Small Business (WOSB) Program (Subpart 19.15): This part provides for businesses owned and controlled by women, including Economically Disadvantaged WOSBs (EDWOSBs).

Small Business Subcontracting Program (Subpart 19.7): Large prime contractors are frequently obliged to create subcontracting plans for contracts exceeding a specific cost threshold ($750,000 for most, $1.5 million for construction) and agree to subcontract a percentage of the work to small firms, including those in the socioeconomic categories. This gives small businesses a lot of chances to collaborate with bigger companies.

Size Standards (Subpart 19.1): Based on NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) codes, which usually determine the annual revenue or staff count, the Small Business Administration (SBA) sets size standards. To be eligible as a small business for a certain purchase, you must fulfill the applicable size requirement.

The Reasons FAR Part 19 Is Your Best Ally

• Set-aside creates exclusive bidding pools, comparatively reducing the full and open competitors significantly.
• Small business certifications (8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, WOSB) allow you to access contract vehicles exclusively for your target market.
• Agencies actively search for similar companies like yours because they must achieve small business contracting goals.
• Gaining valuable prior performance through set-aside contract wins is essential for landing bigger and unrestricted contracts later.

The Way MySetAside Strengthens Your FAR Part 19 Experience

1. Astute Opportunity Pairing: MySetAside enables you to sort federal, state, and local government contract opportunities that are specifically identified as set-asides, meet your requirements, and set your profile based on your small business certifications (SDVOSB, WOSB, HUBZone, and 8(a)). Eliminate the need to sort through pointless requests.
2. Discover Hidden Opportunities: More importantly, MySetAside extends beyond official databases. MySetAside locates threshold chances below SAT that are often perfect for new tiny primes but not publicly announced, as opposed to examining hundreds of government websites. Many smaller contracts for small enterprises were automatically set aside by FAR Part 19.
3. Intended Alerts for Set-Asides: Depending on your profile on small business set-aside categories, the customized email is sent to you as an alert by highlighting new bidding opportunities. You will not miss an opportunity through this proactive approach.
4. Recognizing the Potential of Subcontracts: For a variety of agencies, MySetAside offers extensive lists of big and prime contractors. You can find larger companies that need to satisfy their small business subcontracting targets and approach them for partnerships, which is essential to utilize FAR Part 19’s subcontracting program.
5. Market Data to Inform Strategic Bidding: Obtain information from varied government agencies about budget reviews and purchasing trends that enable them to find where agencies are investing their funds and future set-aside opportunities before they become available.
6. Well-Organized Project Management: MySetAside provides special toolkits, checklists, and templates to guide you in managing the proposal process along with identifying opportunities. This entails working with your team, maintaining track of set-aside proposal deadlines, and compiling necessary paperwork to make sure you continue to adhere to the frequently strict criteria of FAR Part 19.
7. Platform for Direct Communication: Direct contact between small enterprises, big prime contractors, and government organizations is made easier through MySetAside. Large firms looking for competent small company subcontractors can more readily locate you, and agencies looking to accomplish their small business goals can engage with you directly. This is revolutionary for reaching out to new markets and creating strategic partnerships that support the goals of FAR Part 19.

Real-Time Statistics about FAR Part 19

The government’s wide goal is to award 23% of all prime contract dollars to small businesses. According to the recent data of the fiscal year 2023 and early FY2024, the government exceeded the goal by awarding 28.35%, which is over $176.4 billion in prime contract dollars, to small businesses. An increase of $4 billion over FY2023 demonstrates the significant volume of opportunities available. (Citation: U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Government-wide FY2023 Small Business Procurement Scorecard; GovSpend: Celebrating Small Business Contracting in FY24.

In the federal marketplace, FAR Part 19 is a strong ally for your small company. You can confidently find, seek, and win contracts made especially for companies like yours by being aware of their terms and using smart tools like MySetAside. This will increase your influence and growth. Use FAR Part 19 and MySetAside to compete exceptionally.