Small Business Economic Development Advocacy (SBEDA)

SBEDA Ordinance

The SBEDA Ordinance provides incentives to local Small Business Enterprises (SBEs) and equitable opportunity to promote full and fair participation when bidding on City solicitations. This is supported by addressing current and historically documented disparities found in the San Antonio market area. The SBEDA Ordinance was originally established in 1992 and recently updated in 2024.

Documents

Direction Regarding SBEDA Ordinance Application to Certain Contracts(PDF, 204KB): Effective September 10, 2025
Ordinance 2024-12-05-0977 (PDF): Effective July 1, 2025
Ordinance 2016-05-19-0367 (PDF): Effective July 1, 2016

Amendments

Since its inception, the SBEDA Ordinance has undergone various amendments following the completion of City-initiated disparity studies. The findings from disparity studies allow for amendments to be made to the SBEDA Ordinance, which help in ensuring fair participation of E/SBEs when applying for City contracts.

To provide information and gather feedback regarding the SBEDA Ordinance amendments, the Economic Development Department engaged with the San Antonio business community from October 2023 to May 2024.

The SBEDA Ordinance amendments were adopted by City Council on December 5, 2024. The updated SBEDA Ordinance will be implemented starting July 1, 2025.

SBEDA is a Part of the Procurement Process

The SBEDA Program supports local, Emerging and Small Business Enterprises (E/SBEs) to promote full and fair participation when bidding on City solicitations. While there are many additional factors that determine who is awarded City contracts, the SBEDA program gives E/SBEs a competitive advantage.

Steps to Participation

To be able to take advantage of SBEDA Ordinance benefits, a company must first:

Meet All Eligibility Criteria

Have headquarters in the San Antonio Metropolitan Area.
Certification as an Emerging and/or Small Business Enterprise through Supply SA
Each majority owner must have a personal net worth that does not exceed $2.047 million.

Register Your Business

Become a vendor with the City of San Antonio.

Find Bidding Opportunities

Review the Annual Procurement Forecast to view upcoming solicitations.

Use the open bids page to view a current list of open solicitations.
Attend Pre-submittal meetings.
Complete the bidding process online.

How SBEDA Helps

Once the above steps are in action, the SBEDA Ordinance benefit tools may become available to eligible businesses. The SBEDA Program helps E/SBEs primarily through the application of two tools: Prime Contract Program Points, and Contracting Goals.

Points

The Prime Contract Program is designed to support E/SBE prime contractors by offering up to 20 preference points during the evaluation process.

These points may be awarded when scoring responses to discretionary solicitations, including Request for Proposals (RFP), Request for Competitive Sealed Proposals (RFCSP) and Request for Qualifications (RFQ).

Goals

Contracting goals may be applied both discretionary and non-discretionary (low bid) solicitations. Up to 40% Emerging Small Business Enterprises (ESBE) and Small Business Enterprises (SBE) contracting goals may be placed on solicitations.

The goals create subcontracting opportunities for E/SBEs as Primes must commit to meeting the established goal(s) at the time of bid. If a Prime fails to meet the required contracting goal(s), their bid will be deemed non-responsive.

In This Section

SBEDA Ordinance Forms

The forms on this page are related to compliance with Small Business Economic Development Advocacy (SBEDA) ordinance. Explore these forms.

Disparity Studies

Check out the 2023 Disparity Study to see the progress of local businesses receiving City contracts. Discover recommendations for ongoing improvements.