The 8(a) Program Is the Easy Button for Your First Federal Contract in 2026

The number of new small businesses winning federal contracts each year has fallen from 58,000 to roughly 12,000, even as total small business awards doubled to 183 billion dollars, which means larger awards are going to far fewer firms. Eric Coffie breaks down why the 8(a) program is the fastest on-ramp into that thinning field in 2026, how one contractor turned a quiet six-year build into a 57…