WOSB certification

One or more women must own at least 51% of the business and run it, both the daily operations and the long term direction. The business must be small under the SBA size standard for the NAICS code it bids in.

EDWOSB adds a personal financial test on top: personal net worth under $850,000, adjusted gross income averaging under $400,000 over three years, and assets under $6.5 million, all excluding your primary home and your stake in the business itself.

This is the part most guides leave out. The WOSB programme only applies to NAICS codes the SBA has designated as underrepresented by women-owned firms, and EDWOSB applies to a narrower list again. If your code is not on the list, the certification unlocks nothing at all, however well you qualify.

Check your codes before you apply. That single check saves more wasted effort than any other piece of advice on this page.

Since October 2020 the certification must go through the SBA and is free. You can also certify through one of four approved third-party certifiers, who do charge, and their certification is accepted but is not required.

WBE and WBENC certification are a different thing again. They are private sector certifications used by corporate supplier diversity programmes, not by federal contracting officers. If your goal is federal work, the SBA route is the one that counts.

A lot of people arrive here searching for grants for women-owned businesses. Federal grants for starting or running an ordinary business essentially do not exist; federal money for small firms comes through contracts, which is what the 116 figure above is. The grant programmes that do exist are mostly private, small, and competitive on a different basis entirely.