What Does It Mean to Be a Certified Diverse Owned Business

What follows is an excerpt from Chapter 2 (Why Certify) of our book Certify & Sell: Your Guide to Certification & Supplier Diversity. We get frequent calls from semi-panicked business owners whose client has just asked if they’re a certified diverse business. A surprising number of them ask us what that means; many think they…

Read More

Revisiting What’s Behind a Site Visit

2020 saw certifiers take the site visit virtual, but the purpose of a site visit remains the same. The certifier uses the site visit to verify the information you provided in the certification application and clarify any outstanding issues they might have found when the application was reviewed. Or in other words, they’re ensuring that…

Read More

Why Get Diversity Certified?

The short answer for most SDMWVLGBTQBE (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered or Queer Business Enterprise) owners is that a client, or potential client, suggested it to them. We get calls from many of these owners wondering what a diversity certification is and how it can help them. Basically, the certificate…

Read More

Is It Just Us?

We keep wondering how the work from home (WFH) model has impacted other  SDMWVLGBTQBEs (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-gendered or Queer Business Enterprises). It seems overwhelming some days, just how much more work we seem to be doing remotely. And meeting fatigue, OMG! Someone suggested the other day not to…

Read More

Down the Rabbit Hole of Certification

Our newest team member, Tara, gives her take on learning the certification process. Being the newest team member (a mere six months), I have submerged myself head first into the world of diverse business certification. As with any journey, obstacles loomed, alongside the fulfillment of assisting others enhance their personal business goals. Now, I could detail…

Read More

Certification: Truth or Myth?

We seem to be deluged with information about diversity certifications lately, and we’ve been unpleasantly surprised by how much of it is false or misleading. SDMWVLGBTQBE (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered or Queer Business Enterprise) owners already have a lot to juggle without being led down a costly path of…

Read More

Vocabulary Changes

If we live long enough in interesting times, we will likely experience changes in our language’s vocabulary.  Maybe different definitions for the same or similar words, new words replacing currently accepted ones or, my personal favorite, dialogues so obfuscated with acronyms and protocol that we’re not exactly sure what we might be talking about. We’re…

Read More

What You Say Matters!

We’ve been interviewing supplier diversity (SD) specialists over the last few months and the most recent answer to “what’s one of your pet peeves” struck us as we get ready for the diverse business conference season to kickoff into high gear. His peeve, a diverse supplier coming up to speak with him and asking what…

Read More

Reading (& Writing) Excerpts

In the last month, we’ve come across a variety of articles that seem to touch on topics of importance for SDMWVLGBTBEs (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered Business Enterprise) owners.  The first that sparked a gut reaction was about generational wealth. The Founders of Color believe, “If wealth inequity is…

Read More

Help! I don’t have that document.

The certification process is co-dependent. The business itself is being certified as being capable to provide its products and/or services. The business is being certified as being at least 51% owned, operated and controlled by a diverse individual(s) who possesses the knowledge and skill to run the business applying for certification. This is why certifiers require supporting documentation…

Read More