What Are SBA Size Standards?
SBA size standards are the thresholds the Small Business Administration uses to determine whether a business qualifies as “small” for federal contracting and SBA-backed lending purposes. They’re not one universal number — SBA sets a different threshold for nearly every industry, based on that industry’s NAICS code.
Depending on the industry, the threshold is measured either by average annual revenue or by number of employees. A construction company and a software company can have wildly different revenue and still both be classified as “small,” because each is measured against the standard set for its own industry.
Why This Matters Right Now
On August 20, 2026, SBA proposed the largest overhaul of its size standards in decades — consolidating roughly 1,000 industry-specific thresholds down to 338 broader groupings, shifting many industries from a revenue-based test to an employee-based one, and removing hard caps on some thresholds entirely. SBA’s own estimate: roughly 114,500 businesses would newly qualify as small, while fewer than 200 would lose that status.
That matters most for businesses that already compete in reserved lanes like small business set-asides. The classification itself is what determines who they’re allowed to compete against — and that definition is what’s moving.
See what this shift means in practice — including the numbers behind it and what businesses can actually do about it — in The $500K Business Is About to Compete With the $50 Million One.
The Classification Changes. The Fundamentals Don’t.
Whatever the final rule looks like, size standards only ever determined who’s allowed to compete — not who wins. SBA Mastery teaches the FUND Method, so your business is prepared to compete on capacity and readiness, regardless of who else is standing in the room.
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