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The U.S. Small Business Administration is seeking nominations from Georgia and beyond for a variety of National Small Business Week awards, including one that will crown the best small exporters in the state, region and nation.
Applications, which can be viewed here, should go through the Georgia district SBA office.
The district office will pick one Small Business Exporter of the Year to move on to a regional competition, and the winner at that that level will compete for a national honor. The Small Business Person of the year will similarly move on to a national competition, while other awards will only be doled out solely at the district level.
How companies qualify as a small business differs according to an SBA schedule, but in most sectors, companies just should have fewer than 500 employees or not exceed certain revenue thresholds. View the chart organized by NAICS code here
To be eligible for the export honor, companies must not be prior winners. Teams are eligible to apply together, though each individual should submit a separate background document.
Eligible companies will have to have made use of SBA services, one of which is the State Trade Expansion Program, or STEP, grants doled out by the Georgia Department of Economic Development. [Apply for Go Global Georgia funding now] See the SBA’s full application procedures and qualifications for Georgia firms here
Other categories for the national awards include young entrepreneur of the year, small business of the year and best minority-, women- , veteran- and LGBTQ+-owned small businesses. Awards are also reserved for rural, family-owned companies and small-business manufacturers.
This year’s categories also include the Phoenix Awards geared toward recognizing those who have used the SBA’s disaster-recovery funding, including the PPP loans that helped many companies survive the acute downturn associated with the pandemic.
Required documents: