Inclusion Dividends

Just finished reading The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing in Diversity & Inclusion Pays Off by Mark Kaplan and Mason Donovan.  It is a well written commentary about the history and contemporary aspects of diversity and inclusion (DI) from a human resources and organizational perspective.  I highly recommend it to all of us who care about…

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NOT One Size Fits All

There may be just one disadvantaged certification program based on the memorandum of understanding between the United States Department of Transportation and the Small Business Administration, but it would be inaccurate to say the program is standardized … each state can have completely different forms, interpretations and requirements. You can think of it as 52…

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Getting SMWVDBE Certified

It seems that many companies have SMWVDBE (Small, Minority, Women, Veteran, Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) certification on their minds as the new year begins.  So, it makes sense to revisit what certification is all about and why a business might want to get certified. What is a certification? SMWVDBE certifications are offered by the Small Business Adminstration,…

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The Rules They Are (maybe) A-Changing

Federal DBE Rules Changing – WANT TO BE HEARD? Did you know that the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is considering changes to its disadvantaged business enterprise (DBE) program — and that you can tell them what you think about these changes?  You can read a summary of or a detailed document about the changes…

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NACIS 2012

The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) has updated their size standards based on a company’s NAICS codes. NAICS (pronounced NAKES) is an acronym for North American Industry Classifications System, a set of codes used to classify the type of work a business performs or product(s) they provide. The SBA uses the size standards based…

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What is SAM?

We’ve discussed the CCR (Central Contractor Registration) web site back in 2010. Early this year it was announced that the CCR, Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA), Federal Business Opportunities (FBO), Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG), Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System (eSRS), Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS), Excluded Parties List System (EPLS), Catalog of…

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Less Stress Through Proof Reading

Preparing the application for SDMWVBE (Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women or Veteran Business Enterprise) certification can be pretty stressful for a variety of reasons. We live and breathe our businesses first.  Certification is a tool that we use to serve our customers and expand our markets.  But, in a process that seems alien and out of…

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Less Stress, Complex Questions

Complex and compound certification application questions can really amp up the stress level. Make sure you understand the questions before you answer them. When in doubt, don’t try to interpret. Pick up the phone, or email account, and ask!

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Getting Certified

It has been interesting to learn how business owners decide to get certified. Like much else in business, it appears to be recommendation based.

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