{"id":355397,"date":"2026-06-10T23:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T23:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/355397\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T23:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T23:23:09","slug":"small-businesses-awarded-54-million-in-port-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/355397\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Businesses Awarded $54 Million in Port Contracts –"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Port<\/a>Photo courtesy of POLB <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Port of Long Beach program to broaden access to the hundreds of millions of dollars in competitive contracts it awards each year continues to be successful.<\/p>\n

Last fiscal year, $54.4 million, or almost 45% of port funds spent on eligible contracts through the Port\u2019s award-winning Small Business Enterprise Program<\/a>, went to purchase needed services and materials from companies defined as \u201csmall business enterprises\u201d and \u201cvery small business enterprises.\u201d Port staff participated in more than 40 outreach events throughout the year to boost participation in the program.<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, there are more than 36 million small businesses in the United States, which account for 99.9% of all businesses nationwide. The goal set for small business enterprise participation at the Port, which is the Harbor Department of the City of Long Beach, is 27%, one of the highest when compared to other California ports and local municipal agencies. The Port\u2019s 44.6% utilization in the 2025 fiscal year is the third-highest since the SBE\/VSBE program was founded in 2004.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur vision to double our cargo to 20 million containers annually by 2050 and build the Port of the Future is going to take a big team,\u201d said Port of Long Beach CEO Dr. Noel Hacegaba. \u201cWe want to make sure smaller businesses \u2013 the backbone of the U.S. economy \u2013 are equipped with the knowledge and ability to compete and win port-related construction and professional services contract opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The thresholds of annual receipts and number of employees for classification as a small business vary widely by industry. The very small business eligibility is equivalent to the state of California\u2019s microbusiness designation \u2013 businesses with $5 million or less in annual gross sales, averaged over the last three fiscal years, or manufacturers with 25 or fewer employees.<\/p>\n

Aspiring contractors for the Port apply for posted contracts on the Port\u2019s \u201cPlanet Bids\u201d online system, where the business owners can pre-register their companies and check back for posted bids. Go to polb.com\/businessopportunities<\/a> and click on \u201cAccess the POLB Vendor Portal.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those interested in seeing the complete SBE utilization report for fiscal year 2025, please go to polb.com\/sbe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy of POLB \u00a0 A Port of Long Beach program to broaden access to the hundreds of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[144876,144877,144878,131,133,132],"class_list":["post-355397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-economicgrowth","tag-portcontracts","tag-smallbusinesssuccess","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}