Dec. 27 AGENCY TO REQUIRE MERGED COMPANIES PROVE THEY'RE SMALL: The Small Business Administration has adopted a new policy requiring small firms with federal contracts to recertify themselves as small businesses if they are acquired or merge with another company.

The SBA faced criticism for continuing to count contracts as small-business awards even after a small firm was acquired by a large one.

"This rule is a step in the right direction in effect reversing egregious government polices that have allowed federal contracts meant for small businesses to go to large, often multinational, companies," Lloyd Chapman, president of the American Small Business League, said in a news release. Chapman's group focuses on small-business contracting issues.

Once a firm is acquired, the business owner now must reaffirm the company's small-business status by submitting a "self-certification statement" to the government. If the merged company doesn't qualify as a small firm, the contract award would no longer be counted toward the government's small-business contracting goal.

CITY LAGS OTHERS' BUSINESS GROWTH: Chicago ranks near the bottom of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in small-business growth, according to a recent report.

In placing the Chicago area 94th, the report looked at the growth in the number of small businesses between 1998 and 2003. Chicago started that period with 313,210 firms and ended with 340,795 firms, posting a 8.8 percent growth rate. The average growth rate was 18.6 percent, according to the State of Small Business Report by Sales Genie, a unit of InfoUSA, which maintains databases on companies.

Cities in Florida, California, Texas and the Carolinas made up 30 of the top 50 cities.

Las Vegas had the largest growth rate over the six-year period, growing 58.5 percent. It was followed by Riverside, Calif., and then seven Florida cities, including Ft. Lauderdale, Daytona Beach and Melbourne.

Buffalo had the slowest growth rate, at 0.5 percent, followed by Nassau, N.Y., Providence, R.I., and Honolulu.

The number of small firms nationwide declined from 2002 to 2003 by nearly 46,000 companies after increasing in each of the prior four years.

SURVEY SUGGESTS LIMITED PRICE HIKES: Inflation should not accelerate soon, according to a recent survey by the National Federation of Independent Business.

Twenty-seven percent of businesses raised prices in November, while 11 percent cut them, which is similar to October's numbers, the federation found.