What is the Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS)?
The SBA’s Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS) is an online database that allows individuals, government agencies, and prime contractors to search for small businesses that are eligible for federal contracting opportunities. It is maintained by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and is accessible to the public at no cost.
The DSBS contains information about small businesses that are registered with the SBA and have completed the required certifications and representations. This information includes the small business’s name, location, size, ownership, capabilities, and past performance. It also includes details about the small business’s certifications, such as its status as a Small Disadvantaged Business, a Women-Owned Small Business, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, or a Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) business.
Federal agencies and prime contractors can use the DSBS to find small businesses that meet their procurement needs. They can search the database by keywords, location, capabilities, and certifications. Small businesses can also use the DSBS to market their products and services to potential customers, so you may have seen or heard it referred to as your “marketing profile”.
DSBS is an important tool for connecting small businesses with federal contracting opportunities, and for helping government agencies and prime contractors to meet their small business contracting goals. This is why you are getting all the spammy 3rd-party emails. If it wasn’t important, they wouldn’t target you for not completing the manual entries of your profile.
Latest DSBS Update: Point of Access Changed
The DSBS was accessible through SAM at one time from 2012 until around early 2022. For the last year or so, that isn’t the case for most contractors. Alternatively, you were able to access DSBS through the General Login System (GLS) – which has now also changed.
Your new access point to update your DSBS profile and maintain it is connect.sba.gov.
Follow these instructions:
- Navigate to connect.sba.gov
- Log in using your (admin) login.gov (sam.gov) credentials
- Locate the “Access” tab in the top-right menu
- Select “DSBS” from the list
- Paste your Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and banking information where prompted
- Click “Request Access”
The Small Business Administration (SBA) grants access immediately. You will be able to click on the Dashboard tab and see DSBS as a 5th option, on the bottom left. Click on your company name and proceed with your update as normal. Watch this video (starting at 5:42) for more details regarding the various sections of DSBS that you will need to address.
NOTE: This is best to be done from the SAM administrator’s account, as it is unclear yet whether or not access can be granted to more than one party within an organization. It’s better to be safe, than sorry in this case.
Last Updated: 9/5/23
