U.S. Air Force Small Business

“I look at small businesses as the building blocks for making our country great and for helping the Air Force meet its mission,” she said. “Small businesses are not only important to the Air Force, they are important to our nation. We’ve all read the statistics on how small businesses are the job creators and in these times that is what the nation needs.”

Ms. Croxton added that some customers have the misconception that buying from small business is always more expensive.

“We have to give them what I call a ‘creative whack’ and share what we know with them,” she said.

“Small businesses may be small but that usually doesn’t mean they cost more. It means they don’t have the overhead that large companies do and they have the agility to respond quickly to a customer’s needs.”

Ms. Croxton said her teammates at the 20th CONS have a simple formula for success: They do it right every day.

“20th CONS contracting professionals follow the Federal Acquisition Regulation order of precedence for every single buy,” she said. “They look for small businesses first. If they don’t, they know they’ll never get their acquisition strategy past me!”

The numbers tell the story. In fiscal 2001, the 20th CONS obligated $32.1 million to small business contracts. In fiscal 2008, that amount was $167.4 million.

Some examples of recent contract awards include:

• Construction of 76 aircraft shelters: $6.1 million to a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business
• Multiple construction projects: $8.6 million to an 8(a) firm
• Electrical contract to an 8(a) firm: $1.9 million contract to installelectrical/lighting to aircraft

One company provided unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) to ensure attendees at a training event got invaluable hands-on experience for shooting enemy targets. The customer was so impressed with the caliber of work from 20th CONS and the contractor, he interrupted a staff meeting to thank them.

“We were meeting in the conference room when there was a knock at the door and a colonel in a flight suit came in. He asked if he could interrupt us, because he had to tell us what a tremendous asset the UASs were to his unit’s training mission,” Ms. Croxton said.

Maj. James A. Hageman, commander of the 20th CONS, said he knew about the impressive statistics of small businesses in the United States, but being commander opened his eyes to the impact they have on Air Force mission.

“I’ve seen professional small business owners demonstrating the required sense of urgency that I need in order to support our Warfighters,” Major Hageman said. “I’ve been impressed with the flexibility, agility and eagerness to provide best-value products and services to support the mission of not only the 20th Fighter Wing, but our deployed troops throughout the world.”

The squadron met or achieved all their program goals for fiscal 2008, but they realize it’s more than just the percentages. They adopted a “Beyond Goals” philosophy in their actions years before it became the standard.

“We realized early on that our mission was to support our base and our Warfighters in theater,” she said. “It wasn’t just about meeting a goal.”

The team’s achievements were recently recognized when they were named the 2008 Air Combat Command (ACC) Small Business Program Unit award winner and Ms. Croxton earned the ACC Small Business Specialist (part-time category) award.

“I can’t offer anything new in the way of advice,” she said. “I can only offer that it takes perseverance and constant education of your acquisition professionals and on-base customers. It really helps when the mid-level managers in the acquisition community are totally supportive of the Small Business Program, too.”