OAR 123-200-1610: Oregon Small Business Enterprise (OSBE) - Eligibility Standards

(1) The OSBE program is for Oregon-based businesses only, is race and gender neutral and based on the size of the business. (2) To be eligible for certification as an OSBE, a firm must meet the following criteria: (a) Be in existence, operational, and in business for a profit in Oregon. To meet this requirement a firm must: (A) Be physically located in the State of Oregon as determined by the address used to file federal income taxes. If the principal place of business uses a P.O. Box, COBID will require additional documentation to verify location. (B) Be legally registered as a Domestic corporation, limited liability corporation, partnership, or assumed business name with the Secretary of State in the State of Oregon. (C) Provide up to three years of the most recent business taxes with a minimum of one year. (D) Not be a subsidiary or parent company belonging to a group of firms that are owned or controlled by the same individuals if, taken together, the group of firms do not qualify. Independence will be determined by the following: (i) Control of day-to-day operations of the firm is maintained by the owners of the firm. (ii) Affiliated businesses being evaluated for independence and gross receipts combined with the certified firm. (iii) The applicant firm cannot be owned or controlled by another firm, conglomerate, ESOP, nonprofit, trust, or franchisor. (b) Average annual gross receipts over the last three years do not exceed monetary limitations determined by COBID based on the firm’s primary NAICS codes. (c) Have an annual average of 50 or fewer full-time, part-time, or seasonal employees to qualify. COBID calculates a full-time employee as follows: (A) Hours worked by all employees (part-time, seasonal, or full-time) shall be converted into equivalent hours; dividing the total hours worked by 2080. (B) COBID does not consider owners of the business in the calculation of the equivalent employees. (C) The period of calculation shall be at time of original certification and at annual renewal. (d) If state or local law requires a firm to have a particular license or other credential to own and/or control a certain type of firm (i.e. CCB, LCB, etc.) then the certified applicant(s) who owns and controls an OSBE must possess the required license or credential. (e) If individual professional licensing, as generally required by industry (i.e., engineer, architect, plumber, electrician, landscape architect, CDL, arborist, lawyer, medical, etc.), is required to perform the firm’s primary scope of work, the licensing must be current and held by the owner or a W-2 employee of the firm. (3) An OSBE may only be certified for specific types of work in which the firm has the ability to perform. COBID will make this determination as follows: (a) The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes assigned to the firm must directly relate to the primary services provided by the firm. (b) The applicant bears the burden of providing the necessary, detailed company information to COBID for it to make an appropriate NAICS code designation and is primarily responsible to ensure the codes remain current to reflect services provided.