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What is and how do I become a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) certified by the Veterans Affairs (VA) Center for Verification and Evaluation (CVE)?
For in-depth qualifications and eligibility requirements see 38 CFR Part 74
Per the Veterans Affairs Website, the following are requirements which must be met to receive a Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB) and a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) Center for Verification and Evaluation (CVE) certification:
All of these must be true of you or another Veteran at your company:
A Veteran must own 51% or more of the company you want to register, and
the Veteran owner must have full control over the day-to-day management, decision-making, and strategic policy of the business, and
the Veteran owner must have the managerial experience needed to manage the business, and
the Veteran owner must be the the highest-paid person in the company (or can provide a written statement explaining why your taking lower pay helps the business), and
the Veteran owner must work full time for the business, and
the Veteran owner must hold the highest officer position in the company
To be considered a Veteran, at least one of these must be true:
You served on active duty with the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard for any length of time and didn’t receive a dishonorable discharge, or
You served as a Reservist or member of the National Guard and were called to federal active duty or disabled from a disease or injury that started or got worse in the line of duty or while in training status
To be eligible to register a business as a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), you must meet all the requirements of a VOSB listed above, and either you or another Veteran owner of the company meets at least one of the requirements listed below.
You or another Veteran owner of the company must have at least one of these:
A disability rating letter from us confirming that you have a service-connected disability rating between 0 and 100%, or
A disability determination from the Department of Defense
The following are resources from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for VOSB & SDVOSBs to help you start or grow your own business.
Visit the Small Business Administration website
Learn about SBA’s Office of Veterans Business Development (OVBD)
Find out about these training programs offered by the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University in partnership with SBA and other organizations:
Boots to Business (for service members and their spouses)
Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (for post-9/11 Veterans with service-connected disabilities and their family caregivers)
Veteran Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (for women Veterans and female military spouses and partners)
If you’re already open for business and want to sell to the federal government, the Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) can help with the required documentation and registration to bid on government contracts.
Find a PTAC near you
There are two primary types of contracts which can be used to specifically support the Veteran Community:
- A competitive disabled veterans’ business program set-aside contract can be awarded if the contracting officer has a reasonable expectation that at least two responsible disabled veterans’ small businesses will submit offers and that the resulting contract can be awarded at a fair market price.
- A sole-source disabled veterans’ business program contract can be awarded if the contracting officer doesn’t have a reasonable expectation that two or more qualified disabled veterans’ small businesses will submit offers, determines that the qualified disabled veterans’ small business is responsible, and determines that the contract can be awarded at a fair price. The government estimate cannot exceed $6.5 million for manufacturing requirements or $4 million for all other requirements (this is increased to $5 million for VA awards per part 819).