Glossary
What is a set-aside?
What is a set-aside?
A set-aside is a federal contract that only certain businesses may compete for, such as small businesses, 8(a), HUBZone, service-disabled veteran-owned or women-owned small businesses. Contracting officers generally must set a contract aside for small business when they expect offers from two or more capable small businesses at fair prices.
Updated
Key facts
- The "rule of two" is in FAR 19.502-2.
- Whether a firm counts as small depends on the SBA size standard for the contract's NAICS code.
- Set-aside status is shown on each SAM.gov notice.
Why it matters for facility-services bids
Most janitorial and landscaping firms qualify as small under their NAICS size standards, so set-asides narrow the field to companies of their own size.
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