September – October – SBA National Nomination Guidelines and National/Local Press Releases distributed to field. (SBA district offices provide local award nomination information to HQ prior to National announcements, so all can be released at the same time.

Early December – All National and Local nominations are due at the same time. (Due date will usually be pushed into early January if the Guidelines are released in late October or November.)

Early to mid-January – SBA district offices judge and select National award category winners. (San Diego District local award categories are judged after National award category winners have been submitted for State/Regional judging.)

Mid-January – District Offices forward National award category winners to Regional Offices for Judging (California State winners are selected by the Regional Office, as it is a multi-district state.)

Late January – State Sm. Bus. Person of the Year winner nomination packages are submitted for National judging. Regional winners for other categories are also submitted for National judging.

March and April – National winners are announced. Local winners are announced after National press releases are distributed.

Late April, early May – National Small Business Week events occur, including National award winner recognition event(s).

Note: Non-competitive award category winners are selected from deserving nominees submitted for the competing categories.