Size Standards Methodology

For its ongoing comprehensive size standards review and future regulatory actions relating to size standards, SBA has developed a “Size Standards Methodology White Paper,”explaining how it establishes, reviews and modifies its small business size standards pursuant to the Small Business Act and related legislative guidelines.

The white paper provides a brief review of the following:

Legal authority, early legislative history and regulatory history of small business size standards
Detailed description of evaluation of industry structure and program information and data sources
Numerous policy issues regarding the objectives and direction of size standards
Appendix summarizing the detailed analytical steps involved in the evaluation of size standards for an industry

Can the Methodology Change?

SBA welcomes comments from the public on its methodology regarding a number of issues. SBA is aware that different choices among size standards can involve complex tradeoffs among relevant variables; and it invites comments on how to identify and weigh those variables.

Suggestions are welcome on alternative methodologies for determining small businesses on:

How these size standards affect competition in general and within the specific industry
Alternative or additional factors that SBA should consider
If SBA’s approach to small business size standards makes sense in the current economic environment
If SBA’s use of anchor size standards are appropriate in the current economy
If there are gaps in SBA’s methodology because of the lack of comprehensive data
Alternative data sets SBA should consider for a specific sector